President's Club incentive A six-day President's Club in Malta for 600 top performers

A US software company brought its top performers to Malta for six days. The awards night took over the whole of the Knights of St John’s 16th-century hospital. Colours of Malta was the DMC.

The gilded baroque ballroom of Palazzo Parisio set with cocktail tables before the welcome dinner — Palazzo Parisio’s ballroom, set with cocktail tables in sage green

Top performers: 600
Programme length: 6 days
Evening venues: 4
Activity options: 15
Awards venue under contract before arrival: 20 mo

Six days, four evening events and fifteen afternoon activities.

The client’s President’s Club had been to the Caribbean and Central America. Malta has 7,000 years of history, and its capital is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its entirety.

An awards night inside the Knights' Sacra Infermeria

The centrepiece was a full buy-out of the Mediterranean Conference Centre, the Knights of St John's 16th-century Sacra Infermeria, once the finest hospital in Europe.

The winners' reception opened in the Infermeria itself, under vaulted stone, with canapés and step-and-repeats. The ceremony ran in Republic Hall on a custom stage built out over the house stage, backed by full LED walls, with tiered seating for all 600. Dinner followed for 450 across four courses in La Valette Hall. The after-party moved up to the rooftop, over the lights of the Grand Harbour.

A candle-lined limestone staircase with a red carpet inside the Sacra Infermeria — The Infermeria staircase, set for the winners' reception

A costumed Grand Master of the Order flanked by halberdiers and a drummer at the Infermeria door

The vaulted hall of the Sacra Infermeria laid with round tables, red roses and candle chandeliers under the Order's banners — La Valette Hall, set for a four-course dinner for 450

The awards stage in Republic Hall under red lighting, LED wall and catwalk — Republic Hall, lit for the ceremony

Republic Hall seen from the custom stage, with tiered seating and production rigging — The room from the stage, with tiered seating for all 600

The other evenings

Welcome dinner at Palazzo Parisio

The welcome dinner took over Palazzo Parisio and its formal gardens. Guests sat at round tables of ten with gold cutlery, gold underplates, custom-printed menus in sage green and a personal tent card at every seat, and a string quartet played.

Guests walking through the formal garden of Palazzo Parisio towards the palace at golden hour — The welcome dinner at Palazzo Parisio

A harpist playing in a marble-floored salon of Palazzo Parisio, shutters open to the afternoon light

Long tables laid with glassware and pink roses in the walled garden of Palazzo Parisio — The garden tables, laid for ten

Dinner at the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Saluting Battery

Dinner at the Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Saluting Battery, on the bastions the Knights built to defend Valletta, with the harbour floodlit below.

Round tables in pale blue linen set beneath the arches of the Upper Barrakka Gardens, with the public terrace above — Dinner under the arches of the Upper Barrakka Gardens

A place setting in pale blue: a floral-patterned plate, a gold napkin ring and gold cutlery beside cut glassware — A place setting in blue, Upper Barrakka Gardens

A vintage blue Vespa dressed with lemons beside a timber aperitivo bar on the bastions

A timber market stall of hand-blown Maltese glass set up under the Barrakka arches

A Maltese artisan weaving at a traditional wooden loom beneath the arches of the Upper Barrakka Gardens

A gunner in period uniform beside a cannon firing over the Grand Harbour at the Saluting Battery — The Saluting Battery, laid for dinner on the bastions

Closing night at the resort

A poolside dinner and ballroom after-party at the base resort, designed by our production team from the layout up.

Fifteen activity options

We built a sign-up programme so that each guest chose their own activities.

The most popular choice was a schooner to Comino and the Blue Lagoon, with more than 150 guests aboard. Others took jet skis out from two different bays, kayaked the coastline, or rode e-bikes through the countryside. There were guided walks through Valletta and the Three Cities, electric mini-cars through the fortified streets of Birgu, boutique winery lunches, and a via ferrata cable traverse strung fifty metres above a valley floor.

The schooner to Comino and the Blue Lagoon
A guided walk through Valletta
A winery lunch at Ta' Betta Wine Estates

Two of the most popular were a Maltese cooking class in a private home in Vittoriosa and a sunset dinner cruise for ninety-five.

Senior leadership

Senior leadership arrived through the airport's private VIP terminal. They dined at a private Valletta townhouse hosted by a scholar of the Order of Malta, took a hands-on cooking class with exclusive use of a family kitchen in the old maritime city, and had a Michelin-starred dinner in Mdina for twenty.

Every guest went home with Maltese ceramic tiles and hand-illustrated Doors of Malta pieces.

Planning

The awards venue was under contract twenty months before arrival. Every outdoor evening carried a contracted, floor-planned and pre-priced indoor alternative. Dietary requirements were re-issued to every venue as they changed, right through the final week. The main arrival wave was routed to a dedicated drop-off so 600 people never met one hotel lobby at once.

Results

600 guests: seated together for the awards ceremony, in a whole-venue historic buy-out
4 evening venues: a baroque palace, a harbour gun battery, a 16th-century infirmary, a resort poolside
15 activity options: across four days, chosen by each guest
20 months: awards venue under contract before arrival
An invitation to join the client's agency partner programme: the following year