Located next to the zoo and the Haidian Zhenjue temple, one of the oldest in the Chinese capital, the Châteauform' City Chuanshan Academy will reproduce the concept tried and tested in France, with a couple of French hosts on hand to look after their guests, an all-inclusive seminar offer and home cooking by a French chef, assisted for the occasion by a local chef. For seminars and training courses, the hotel offers five meeting rooms, including an auditorium, as well as five sub-commission rooms and an amphitheatre. With its small terraces and tree-lined courtyard, this charming venue is also ideal for cocktail parties.
While hoping to win over a local clientele that appreciates the French touch, we are going to capitalise on our recognition with French companies that have subsidiaries in Asia," explains Philippe Roye, Châteauform''s head of China. Especially as training is a key issue in China. Large companies need to retain their managers in a labour market characterised by high staff turnover. In addition, the slowdown in growth will increase the need to create strong corporate cultures in order to stand out from the crowd.
But this first opening in the heart of Beijing will soon be complemented by a second with a seminar house an hour's drive from the Chinese capital, near the Great Wall. "A year ago, Tessa, Jacques Horowitz's daughter, and I set off to meet our partners Legend of Tourism. This state-owned company is developing a special tourist zone in Badaling, near the Great Wall. It's there, on the mountainside, that a hotel with around fifty rooms will open in September".
A meeting venue in the city centre and a seminar centre outside: this strategy of opening two establishments almost simultaneously should be repeated in Shanghai by early 2016. Châteauform' is looking at several possible locations in the city - in the French Concession, near the Bund, on the Expo 2010 site, etc. - and, as in Beijing, also plans to develop a seminar centre outside Shanghai, probably near Suzhou.
However, the group's future does not lie only in such distant horizons. In France, Châteauform' recently opened a seminar house near Auvers sur Oise, the Château de Méry. In spring 2015, a second Campus - the group's mid-range seminar concept - will open near Fontainebleau, called Château de Cély. Then, in the second half of 2015, Chateauform will set up for the first time in the south-east of France, in Chateauneuf, not far from Avignon and Marseille, whereas until now the group has only been present outside the Paris region near Lyon and Bordeaux. The Paris region will also see a new opening, with a seminar centre at the Royaumont abbey palace, with 69 rooms and 12 meeting rooms.
Finally, next year, other seminar houses are also expected to open abroad, first in March at Schloss Krickenbeck, near Düsseldorf, almost on the German-Dutch border. Châteauform' will then move to Blakemoore House in North London. And then there's Marrakech at the end of the year, with a facility designed for leisure activities during the holidays, but also for corporate events outside these periods.
