Thule Group Top Management Conference in Granada

The Thule Group has an organization that spans 140 countries. Once a year, the company wants to bring together all its management personnel. Contrast was tasked with organizing the meeting at the appropriate geographical location.

The best conference so far!"

The Thule Group is a world leader in products that make it easy, safe and stylish to carry what you need and care about when you lead an active life. With an organization spanning over 140 countries, it is important for the company to bring all management personnel together in one geographic location once a year.

CHALLENGE. The purpose of Thule Group’s annual meetings is primarily to look ahead, but also to give all participants a unified view of where the company came from the year before and the focus for the coming years. Furthermore, Thule values all ”in-between-moments”, i.e. spontaneous opportunities to socialize and strengthen personal relationships.

Under the motto ”Active Life, Simplified”, the company is a world leader in roof racks, roof boxes, and holders for cycling, water sports, and winter sports. For the past few years, the concept of Active Life has expanded and acquired a more urban edge. Riding with your child on a trip, walking with a stroller, and having a cup of coffee in a big city – all these are expressions of Thule’s way of defining an active life.

SOLUTION. To stimulate the sense of a broader active lifestyle, and to relate to Thule’s product portfolio, we hatched this year the idea of holding the annual conference in Granada, Spain.

The city of Granada and its surroundings offer both urban and natural life, with skiing in the Sierra Nevada and mountain biking in the mountains. The impressive Moorish palace and World Heritage Site of Alhambra are just a short walk from the city center and became a great cultural experience for those participants who preferred an active cultural life. Granada was also able to meet the management’s high quality standards for the conference itself.

Thule is, for example, extremely meticulous in ensuring that the meeting room allows them to fully conduct professional and effective presentations and discussions. The hotel itself should always maintain an exemplary high standard without being ostentatiously luxurious. Instead, it should be comfortable, pleasant, authentic to the location and country, and contribute to a great overall experience.

RESULTS. Contrast has been working with the Thule Group since 2012. Long-standing customer relationships provide a unique understanding of the customer’s brand, style, and feel. At the retail level, we understand what the management expects even before they have expressed their wishes. Quality in every single detail is central to the entire Thule Group’s operations.

Success occurs when all participants are more than satisfied with every crucial aspect of the event; the framework, the content of the conference, the destination, the food and drink, and the experiences. Thule Group is an engaged client that shows interest in every detail during the planning phase. Our experience is that this is when the results are at their best! Therefore, together we have managed to exceed the participants” expectations on every occasion, year after year. So, even this year, when they considered ”this was the best conference so far!”