City tour at the end of a business meeting – a customer’s perspective
Following a one-day meeting and to bridge the gap until dinner with our business partners, we booked a city tour with Hamburg city guide Sarah Janning-Picker. Ms. Janning-Picker asked me to describe my experiences and for permission to publish them. I am happy to comply.
City tour as a supporting program for business meetings
After a one-day meeting with our company’s local sales partners, we booked a guided tour of Hamburg for Hamburgers with tour guide Sarah Janning-Picker. We also asked her to find a restaurant with a relaxed, down-to-earth atmosphere for dinner. As our company itself is based in the Ruhr area and the invited sales partners all come from Hamburg or the surrounding area, the topic of the Hamburgcity tour for Hamburgerssuggested by Ms. Janning-Picker was particularly appealing.
Good organization and smooth implementation of the Hamburg tour for Hamburg residents
Ms. Janning-Picker picked us and our guests up on time and in a good mood from the agreed meeting point and greeted everyone present with a cheerful Nordic Moin. After she briefly explained what we could expect today, we walked through Hamburg’s HafenCity. A vibrant part of the city that everyone talks about, but which has much more to offer than many a local sales partner suspected.
Historical pictures of the area show changes from then to now
Ms. Janning-Picker supported her Hamburg city tour for Hamburgers again and again, but not too often, by using pictures (on her digital tablet). This made it possible to follow the development of the metropolis in the mind’s eye. For us as an IT company, the use of modern media was of course very appropriate, but in my opinion, this is also better for a normal city tour than a folder with tattered notes.
Casual conversations about business did not interfere, but were not disturbed either.
As we had not been able to finalize some topics in the last part of the meeting, we had to interrupt our city guide Sarah Janning-Picker from time to time with one-on-one conversations. However, she didn’t let this get in the way of her concept and didn’t hold it against us for processing our impressions from the business part of the meeting. We certainly noticed this professional behavior.
Tour through Hafencity and Speicherstadt as a business event
As we had spent the day in conference rooms near the Hafen City, the tour with the city guide took us through the Hafencity and the Speicherstadt. This perfectly combined the location of the event and the restaurant. Despite the cold, the exercise kept us warm.
Burger bar as a good recommendation for a down-to-earth end to the evening
When booking the city tour as a supporting program for our business event, we asked Ms. Janning-Picker for a down-to-earth but high-quality restaurant, which would give us the opportunity to talk to our sales partners in a relaxed atmosphere, but also to warm up a little in private. She suggested a premium burger bar for this purpose. The skepticism was definitely there, but the location was perfect, which is exactly how we had imagined it. The booking was also made by the tour guide, so we didn’t have to worry about anything.
Pleasant conversation partner
When we arrived at the restaurant, our city guide Sarah Janning-Picker’s job was actually done, but we spontaneously invited her to spend the evening with us. Again, I have to say that this turned out to be a good idea. As we couldn’t always look after our 6 sales partners at the same time with two people, Ms. Janning-Picker’s qualities were once again demonstrated. Small talk, specialist topics, broad knowledge. Ms. Janning-Picker was always able to talk to all the guests about any topic, our guests had a very pleasant evening, great company and had a great time. I know from some sales partners that they would also like to return to the services of tour guide Sarah Janning-Picker in the future.
Absolute recommendation for the tour guide Sarah Janning-Picker
In conclusion, we as the organizers can say that the experiment of the Hamburg city tour for Hamburgers with Sarah Janning-Picker was a total success. All the guests had a great day, which was rounded off by her cheerful, informative but not intrusive manner. We will definitely continue to pursue the concept of city tours as a supporting program for business events.
Linus Haferkemper – Business Alliance Manager of windream GmbH in March 2015.
