REVUE

THE CONCIERGETRAVELLER

https://www.americanexpress.com

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UICH LES CLEFS D’OR REVUEWinter - Spring 2015

No 210

Union Internationale des Concierges d’Hotels LES CLEFS D’OR

OBJET : Regrouper les Membres ou les Sections Nationales ayant pour appellation

LES CLEFS D’OR

Siege Social : 12, rue Cambon - 75001 PARIS

Tél.: 33-1-42-60-77-57 Fax: 33-1-42-60-17-44

Association Loi 1901 declaree a la Prefecture. Paris

Website: www.uichlesclefsdor.org  

Blog: www.lesclefsdor.wordpress.com

Message from the International President 4

Message from the International General Secretary 5

France 6

Great Britain 8

Germany 10

Ireland 12

Italy 13

Switzerland 14

Denmark 16

Belgium 18

Spain 19

Argentina 20

Australia 22

Brazil 24

Canada 25

Chinese Taipei 26

Czech Republic 27

Finland 28

Hungary 33

Holland 34

Hong Kong 36

Hellas 38

India 39

Japan 40

Korea 41

Luxembourg 42

Macau 44

Malaysia 45

New Zealand 46

Qatar 47

Singapore 48

Sweden 49

Thailand 50

USA 52

UAE 54

LES CLEFS D'ORRevue de l'Union Internationale des Concierges d'Hotels

Post-Humous International PresidentANDY PONGCO (PHILIPPINES)CONSEILLES DES SAGESR. BASTONI (FRANCE)J.M. BAUTISTA (SPAIN)A. DAMONTE (deceased) (GREAT BRITAIN)W. FREYTAG (GERMANY)A. GIACOMELLO (SWITZERLAND)A. GUNST (deceased) (HUNGARY)D. OBRIEN (IRELAND)A. SCHNEIDER (AUSTRIA)M. SILVERMAN (UNITED STATES)R. WATSON (UNITED STATES)

MEMBRES D'HONNEURJ. DESJEUNES (FRANCE)A. OSTERTAG (SWITZERLAND)

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEInternational President EMMANUEL VRETTOS

Hotel Mistral, Athens, Greece1st Vice President COLIN TOOMEY

Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney, Australia2nd Vice President SIMON THOMAS

Lanesborough Hotel, London, England3rd Vice President RODERICK LEVÉJAC

Four Seasons George V, Paris, FranceTreasurer JEAN-ROLAND BOUTILLÉ

La Reserve, Geneve, SwitzerlandGeneral Secretary MICHAEL ROMEI

The Waldorf Towers, New York, NY USAAssistant General JAMES RIDENOURSecretary InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto

AustraliaRepresentativefor International DOMINIQUE GUIDETTIPresident in Paris Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France

Director of Publication MICHAEL ROMEICoordinator of Information MICHAEL ROMEI

ZONE DIRECTORSAMERICAS J. MILLSASIA E. SALDANHAOCEANIA S RYANCENTRAL EUROPE T. UNGARMEDITERRANEAN D. LIAPISSCANDINAVIA A. RUGGIEROWESTERN EUROPE S. DELCOMMINETTE

BOARD OF DIRECTORS(45 MEMBER SECTION COUNTRIES)ARGENTINA M. MORELLIAUSTRALIA P. MCBREARTYAUSTRIA C. PARALBELGIUM M. VAN CLEVEBRAZIL G. BORGESCANADA C. AVARIACHINA J. SUN DONGCHINESE TAIPEI A. LAICZECH REPUBLIC P. ZEZULADENMARK A. RUGGIEROFINLAND P. GAUDIOFRANCE D. GUIDETTIGERMANY T. MUNKOGREAT BRITAIN A. LYNCHHELLAS (GREECE) D. LIAPISHOLLAND B. MACKENZIEHONG KONG F. LUIHUNGARY T. UNGARINDIA E. SALDANHAIRELAND P. FITZSIMMONSISRAEL R. ALKELAIITALY M. PAONESSAJAPAN M. TAJIMAKOREA J. LEELUXEMBOURG S. DELCOMMINETTEMACAU S. IONGMALAYSIA R. KUMARASAMYMEXICO J.A. MONZONMOROCCO M. TAOUFIKNEW ZEALAND S. RYANNORWAY O.A. FOSSBAKKENPHILIPPINES M. HAYAKAWAPOLAND P. PRASULAPORTUGAL J. ALVESQATAR R. SANTOSROMANIA C. MALUREANURUSSIA P. NIKOLAEVSINGAPORE S. MUSADDIQSPAIN M. PIZARROSWITZERLAND M. PIERRAINTHAILAND S. THONG-ONTURKEY A. ONERU.A.E A. SAMUNITED STATES S. KHAN

Cover design by JACOB DETERINGActing 2nd Assistant Gen Secretary

Cover photo by PAUL RUMPFFGraphic design and printing

Montreal, QC., CANADAcascomkt@aol.comL’opinion exprimée dans la revue n’engage que ses auteurs et ne sauraiten aucun cas engager l’UICH “Les Clefs d’Or”

Dear colleagues, dear friends,

The second edition of our Review isnow online, which I am sure you willenjoy and distribute to your mem-bers, sponsors and partners.

I would like to thank all sections forcontributing, one way or another, tocreate this Review, and I invite youto continue involving yourselveswith this and other projects thatshowcase how our profession andour association serve hotel guestsin the best possible way.

In two months we will all meet inMendoza, Argentina, for our 62ndInternational Congress. President

Mario Morelli, his Board and the Organizing Committee have done their very best to provide all del-egates the warmest welcome and the most pleasant stay. They have worked hard to organize thiscongress to be interesting, educational, fruitful and productive. Their commitment, dedication, andtimeless efforts deserve our support, our appreciation, and our warm applause.

The Executive Committee has organized a remarkable educational day and a challenging AndyPongco Award. We promised at the beginning of this mandate to do things differently, and I believewe have had an interesting, efficient and productive term. In encourage you to evaluate and commenton our different projects, ideas, and practices during our meeting discussions.

I would like to wish each and every one of you a year full of energy, innovation, challenges andachievements.

I look forward to seeing you all in Mendoza,

In friendship,

Emmanuel VrettosPresident, UICH “Les Clefs d’Or”

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MESSAGE FROM OURINTERNATIONAL UICH PRESIDENT

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UICH WINTER 2015 REVUE - WELCOME MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL ROMEI

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am delighted to present to you another edition of our mosthistoric UICH REVUE Winter-2015 Magazine. As you can seefrom the cover Page; this particular edition is devoted to the“Concierge Traveller Within Us.” Beneath every pair of GoldenKeys lies the soul of an explorer. Concierges, by nature, areglobally curious individuals who seek out experiences in thenooks and crannies of the world. And perhaps what makes usunique, is that it is in fact our passion, our calling, to share thatexpertise with our guests.

Travel is essential in molding a great concierge. It is throughtravel and the first-hand experience that travel provides, thatwe become the experts. As I continue to teach and professour concierge profession throughout the world; I often mentionthat one of the best ways to learn our craft is to actually putourselves in the “shoes of our guests and customers.” Thisallows us to truly guide and serve in a deeply personal way.We are therefore the premier resource at our hotels, and thebetter we know the world, the better we can be of service.

Attending our meetings and congresses throughout the world also adds to this important experience.We are now getting ready to attend another Congress in a most unique travel destination: Mendoza,Argentina; the capital of the latest and fastest growing “EnoTourism” or wine destination. Mendozawill prove to not only enhance our strong camaraderie but also to experience and share together thefascinating local culture and wonderful world of wine.

Vive Les Clefs d’Or and see you all in Mendoza!

MESSAGE FROM OUR INTERNATIONAL UICH GENERAL SECRETARYUICH REVUE EDITOR

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ORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRY

Let us introduce you to our new member: Monsieur Antoine.

Monsieur Antoine is always smiling, he is the representative of the charity section LesClefs d’Or. He owes his name to the character played by Pierre Fresnay in the frenchmovie « L’homme aux clés d’Or » . This mascot is our way to communicate about theassociation in a joyful and modern style. Every month he tells us about the news ofour association in his chronicles which are edited in a newsletter.

More than 50 events took place in 2014. We were very busy. Let’s talk about the mostsignificant ones.

The Annual Gala March 21st. To accomplish his work, a concierge has to have talent. So the ideawas to reward the best concierge for his artistic talent. It’s how “Les Clefs d’Or’s Got Talent” was cre-ated. So we asked VIP members to be our jury, such as a champion boxer, an actor and a famous tel-evision presenter. It was a memorable evening.

Our customary return from the summer holiday party was this year a very special event!! Wecelebrated the 85th anniversary of the « Clefs d’Or » France. What better place to celebrate it than atthe famous « Brasserie » La Coupole, located in the historical art area of Montparnasse, which openedin 1927! We experienced again a 1930s fancy-dress party. This event was full of surprises: Brassband during the dinner, burlesque show directed by « La baronne de Paname », contest of the best1930s suit and a jazz band to dance to. Take a look at the following link:http://www.clefsdor-france.org/asso5/Videos/Lacoupole2014.mp4.Hope you will enjoy!!

FPE 2014_2015 We are glad to announce that M. Alain Ducasse, famous chef, is the godfather of the new class FPE.

FRANCE

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National Congress of Les Clefs d’Or 2015 in Monaco

During the weekend of November 14th, more than 200 concierges, partners and friends gathered inthe famous Principality of Monaco. What a wonderful setting for Clefs d’Or to shine! These three dayswere full of delights. We were welcomed by a cocktail in the Monaco Casino, where we had the honourto be welcomed by Prince Albert II de Monaco. Saturday was a busy day, with the traditional workmeeting, M. Alain Ducasse as a special guest, and many awards given out with an amazing lunch atJoél Robuchon's restaurant at the Metropole Hotel.

Following our involvement in Les Coeurs d’Or, the congress members participated in the « No FinishLine », a charity race in which you can run or walk without any minimum. Runners of the team werewearing yellow t-shirts and did a great job!!

Our gala event was an exceptional evening, withdinner cooked by six Michelin-starred cooks. Inshort: Tentez Monte Carlo.

End of the year dinner in the Picasso Museum and Ceremony of new Clefs d’Or.This year we welcomed no less than 25 new Clefs d’Or members and organised the ceremony in thehôtel Le Meurice. We decorated also four members after 25 years of membership. We had the honorto be invited to celebrate the end of the year with an exclusive and private dinner at the famous Pi-casso Museum . What a privilege! It was the first private dinner since the grand reopening. We hadthe chance to visit the museum privately during cocktails, and we dined within the masterpieces.

We are proud to count more than 700 likes to our face-book page. Thank you to everyone for the support!

Please welcome Mickaël as the new secretary of LesClefs d’Or France and of UICH, replacing Esther, who isgone for a sabbatical year.

ORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRYFRANCE

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ORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRYGREAT BRITAIN

Article for the International RevueBy Jose Pauco on behalf of the Society of the Golden Keys Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

The following summarises the Society’s activities in 2014:

January 2014 Congratulations to James Elliott, Assistant Head Concierge at the Renais-sance St. Pancras Hotel in London for winning the Andy Pongco Award atthe 61st UICH congress in Malaysia.

April 2014 The Society of the Golden Keys held its 62nd Anniversary Cocktail Party

at the Corinthia Hotel, London, on 15April 2014. General managers, Golden Keys members, associ-ate members and key hospitality industry professionals were inattendance.

Last February 2014 at the annual Ladies Night event, the Societyof the Golden Keys Great Britain and the Commonwealth raised£2860 in a raffle held at the Royal Gardens Hotel. The Societygenerously matched this amount and a cheque for the grandtotal of £5720 was presented by Antony Lynch on behalf of theSociety of the Golden Keys Great Britain and the Common-wealth to Giuliana Vittiglio, Senior Fundraising and Marketing Ex-ecutive, Hospitality Action. Over the last 11 years, the Societyhas raised and donated over £74,000 to Hospitality Action.

May 2014 Concierge Roadshow held at the Royal NationalHotel, Russell Square, London on 15th May 2014.An educational day where concierges are given theopportunity to learn about the products and servicesof Golden Keys Associate Members. A first for theconcierge roadshow, James Elliott, winner of theAndy Pongco Award, was present to discuss theaward and the UICH International Congress.

July 2014 The annual Honorary Life members cocktail partyheld at the Milestone Hotel on 15th July 2014.

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ORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRYGREAT BRITAIN

The Awards’ nominees and winners were:

CONCIERGE OF THE YEAR - LONDON MEMBER AWARD Sponsored by London & PartnersWinner: Paul Walsh, Thistle Marble Arch, London

CONCIERGE OF THE YEAR - REGIONAL MEMBER AWARD Sponsored by MasterCard UKWinner: Alan McDougall, Cameron House on Loch Lomond

THE SOCIETY OF THE GOLDEN KEYS “SERVICE THROUGH FRIENDSHIP” AWARD Winner: Paul Whittle, Le Meridien Piccadilly Sponsored by Big Bus Company

THE SOCIETY OF THE GOLDEN KEYS “LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT”’ AWARD Winner: Ron Crowdy, Royal National Hotel

November 2014 Hotel Cateys Awards Held on Friday 28th November 2014 at

Park Plaza Hotel, Westminster Bridge.The caterers, Hotel Cateys, are now in

their eighth year, and each year's awards havebeen bigger and better than the last.

Congratulations to Burak Ipekci,Concierge & Lifestyle Manager, South Place Hotel,London who won the Concierge Award sponsoredby the AA.

August 2014 The annual Society of the Golden Keys GreatBritain and the Commonwealth Retired GoldenKeys Members lunch was held at the Criterionrestaurant on Saturday 9th August 2014.

October 2014On Monday 13th October 2014, Morris VisitorPublications held the Annual Concierge Awards atThe Royal Horseguards Hotel.

Congratulations to Richard Jenkins, HeadConcierge at the Cavendish Hotel, who recentlywon Concierge of the Year 2014 at the BoutiqueHotel Awards. The glittering awards ceremonywas held on Tuesday 21st October 2014 at the In-dependent Hotel Show.

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GERMANYORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRY

“BUILD BRIDGES – LIVE VALUES”

Report from the 32nd National Meeting of the German Section in DresdenEnd of August 2014

Our national meeting takes place every two years in different cities throughout Germany. This year, 25years after the fall of the wall, we held our meeting in the beautiful and amazing city of Dresden, abeautiful place.

Approximately 120 participants from all over Germany and the world, such as Šárka Hakenová, Chris-tian Paral, Tamas Ungar, Arshad Khokhar, David Levy and, last but not least, Albert Ostertag joinedour congress in Dresden.

After our arrival on Thursday, we met at the very famous “Frauenkirche,” historically a very meaningfulchurch, for a guided tour. After that we had a get–together at the Hotel Innside by Melia. We metmany “old” and new friends and exchanged plenty of business cards, as there were numerous newmembers, who had joined our meeting for the first time.

On Friday, the second day, we had the opportunity to take part in a guided tour through the well-known Semper Opera House. Afterwards, we enjoyed the second highlight of the day: the visit andguided tour of the Residenz-Castle with its world famous Green Vault.

After this remarkable experience of culture, we took the bus to our next sight: We visited a beautifulnatural hot spot called Saechsiche Schweiz. It is an impressing part of nature directly above the Elberiver. We had the opportunity to take a short walk before we were on the bus again to Pillnitz, fromwhere we got on a historical paddlewheel steamer back to Dresden.

After our return to Dresden, we travelled by bus to the Glaeserne Manufaktur by Volkswagen, whereone gains insight into the production of the Volkswagen Phaeton. They welcomed us with a cham-pagne reception.

After our return to the hotels to rest shortly and refresh, we had our dinner at the restaurant Pulverturm– a typical German casual restaurant in the center of Dresden.

On Saturday, the most important day of our congress, our national assembly started in the morning.After several presentations from the different German sections, PR, Marketing and Social Media, theelection of the new German board took place. Our Treasurer Hans J. Benkwitz and Revisor JoachimLenk were confirmed for the next four years. Then, we elected Thomas Munko for the next Presidentof the German Section and Florian Weidenbach from Munich for Vice President.

Thomas and Florian: All the best wishes for the next two years for you – we are absolutely sure youwill do a great job.

Our meeting was quite emotional. We are experiencing innovative changes in our section and are trulyinspired by what lies ahead.

After lunch, the educational part of our meeting was held by Gerhard Fuchs. It is always impressingto follow his guidance.

Last but not least, the Gala Evening was on our agenda. It took place at the Hilton Hotel Dresden.They have a beautiful ballroom, where we were served an outstanding dinner, accompanied by a pleas-ant entertainment program. We truly had a good time together, dining and dancing.

After a short night, we met in the morning at 11:00 o’clock for the parting brunch at the Swissotel.

We would like to thank Steffen Wolf and the entire section of Sachsen-Thueringen for their great hos-pitality and perfect organisation of this congress. Fond memories of it will stay with us!

The next German Congress will take place in Hamburg in 2016.

In service through friendship,

Ralf Schuetz PR – Clefs d’Or Germany Photography by Sabine Dennert

www.hotelconcierge.de

Tailor made memories

ONCE UPON A TIME

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IRELANDORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRY

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ITALYORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRY

For my first Annual General Meeting as President, I was pleased that everyone enjoyed the congressin Verona from November 13 to 16, 2014. Verona is the beautiful city in which William Shakespeareset his romantic tale of Romeo and Juliet. In addition to the Annual General Meeting, we includeda day excursion to the beautiful town of Mantova.

For our workshop we invited two General Managers to speak: Mr. Roberto Cappelleto, General Man-ager of the Hotel Villa Cortine in Sirmione (Garda Lake) and Mr. Luca Finardi, General Manager of theMandarin Oriental Hotel in Milan, which opens next spring. Their presentations were inspiring andhelped to make our congress a very special occasion.

At our congress we also hosted 40 students and two teachers of the Verona Hotel School "IPSSAR Angelo Berti."

I am also very pleased to announce that from the beginning of 2015 Sicily will be part of Les Clefsd’Or Italy as a new Regional Section.

Warmest regards,

Michele PaonessaPresident –UIPA Les Clefs d’Or Italy

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SWITZERLANDORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRY

The main event in Switzerland over the lastmonths was our traditional biennial “Journée desClefs d’Or Suisse,” which took place in the HotelCrans-Ambassador in Crans-Montana. All theSwiss Sections were well represented and we hada total of 104 participants. It was a great opportu-nity to meet friends and colleagues from all overSwitzerland.

It was also a unique moment for the four Swisspresidents (from 1976 until today ) and two pastinternational presidents to be together.

From left to right: Marc Pierrain (current presi-dent), Enzo Bacciochi, past Swiss Treasurer,Claudio Caser, past Swiss president (2002 until2013), Albert Ostertag, Swiss president (1976until 1990) and past international president (1986-1988), Aldo Giacomello, past international pres-ident (2001–2003), Peter Wirth, past Swisspresident (1990 until 2002).

The Swiss Committee and the local section pres-idents were invited to visit the prestigious HotelSchool l’ Ecole Les Roches.

During the Zermatt-Oberwallis general as-sembly, a new sectionpresident was elected:Mr. Roland Margelish.While we congratulatehim for his election, wealso would like to thankPast President Mr.Franz-Joseph Imbodefor his years of dedica-

tion and hard work.

In Graubünden, the General Assembly conductedby Mr. Oliver Assandri took place at the SuvrettaHouse in St. Moritz with the presence of Mr. PeterWirth (Swiss Past President) and Mr. CorneliusHaug (Swiss treasurer).

Les Clefs d’Or Ticino welcomed UICH GeneralSecretary Michael Romei, with the presence ofSwiss Past President Mr. Claudio Caser.

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And later, in October, a traditional dinner at theOsteria della Posta à Porza organized by sectionpresident Mr Giovanni Lia.

In Zurich, the General Assembly conducted bysection president Jérémie Varry.

Past presidents Mr. Albert Ostertag and Mr Peter Wirth were present.

In Geneva, the Mayer family, together with Gen-eral Manager Mr. Ivan Rivier, organized a surprisecelebration honoring the 50th anniversary of serv-ices in the Beau Rivage for Mr. Aldo Giacomello.

In Zurich, Swiss President Marc Pierrain, togetherwith Zurich section President Mr. Jérémie Varry,were welcomed by American Express and madea presentation of the profession and Les Clefsd’Or in the offices of American Express LifestyleServices.

SWITZERLANDORIGINAL SIX-MEMBER SECTION COUNTRY

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The 77th birthday of Les Clefs d’Or Denmark

On 3 May 2014, we celebrated the 77thbirthday of Les Clefs d’Or Denmark at SørenK in the Black Diamond. The eveningbegan with a welcome drink followed by adelicious three-course menu, and endedwith a few drinks and a few dances on thedance floor. Our President, Anders Rug-giero, gave a great speech, and this year'sConcierge of the Year 2014 was also found.This time the title was awarded to Nete Vil-laume. Congratulations, it is well deserved!

Les Clefs d’Or Denmark thanks members, partners and Søren K for a great birthday.

Bornholm, Bornholm, Bornholm…….

On 23 April 2014, Les Clefs d’Or Denmark was invited to experience Strömma’s day trip to Bornholm.

We started Wednesday morning at DGI town and went by bus to Ystadwhere we took the ferry. After some waves and breakfast on the Bornholmferry, we arrived at Rønne and here we were joined by our tour guide.

The next hours we got the pleasure of some of the island's best attractions,including Hammershuus lunch at the Old Post Office in Allinge and thesweets of Gudhjem and Svaneke where we visited a smokehouse. Thetour ended with a visit to Østerlars round church and a quick trip to Ryt-terknægten, the highest point of Bornholm.

Les Clefs d’Or Denmark thanks Strömma for a nice day on the island.

Visit at Ole Lynggaard , Royal Copenhagen & MAD

On 22 May 2014, Les Clefs d’Or Denmark had a small shop crawl fol-lowed by dinner, this time at Ole Lynggaard, Royal Copenhagen and MAD.

The event started at Ole Lynggaard, where we were invited in to theirnew book launch, looked around the store and enjoyed light snacksand refreshments. Then we all went together to Amagertorv, where wewere invited in at Royal Copenhagen, where we got a tour of the prem-ises and tested our creative skills by painting our own cup. The eveningended with a dinner atMAD House of Industrywith tastings of their deli-cious American menu.

Les Clefs d’Or Denmarkthanks you all for a lovelyevening at Ole Lyng-gaard, Royal Copen-hagen and MAD.

DENMARKATTENDED 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS CANNES 1952

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Tour at Copenhagen Mall and visit to Søren K

On 25 June 2014, we were invited to a backstagelook at the Copenhagen Mall. We were welcomedwith refreshments at the current piano. Then wewere allowed to get behind the scenes in the center.The event concluded with a tour of the center.Then we went all together to the Black Diamond,where we were invited inside by Søren K to a smallsummer snack to end the evening.

Les Clefs d’Or Denmark thanks Copenhagen Mallfor showcasing the great center, and thanks toSøren K for the small event afterwards.

Grønnegårdsteatret

TLes Clefs d’Or Denmark held its Golden Keys annual Grønnegårds event on 16 August 2014. Asusual, the event began with the year's cosiest picnic in the King's garden with food from RestaurantKofoed, Chico's Cantin, Cofoco, Reinwalds, Era Ora/Che-fe and dragon, with dessert and wine pro-vided by Hertz.

After a few pleasant hours we went to Odd Fellow Palace, where this year’s play is performed. We hadthe pleasure to see Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Winsor.

Les Clefs d’Or Denmark thanks members and partners for another good and cosy Grønnegård event.

Christmas Party 2014

Les Clefs d’Or Denmark held its annual Christmas party on 8 November 2014. Again this year, the Christ-mas party was held at Brødrene Price in Tivoli. The evening featured a delicious three-course menu andmore surprises.

Again this year, we held a big Christmas lottery between the members, which was sponsored by our part-ners, and this year there were a fewextra surprises: a gift certificate fromLiberty Cruise to a lucky member, aswell as an extra one to Nete Villaume(Best Western Hotel City) for the greatwork she has done for Les Clefs d’OrDenmark over the years.

The evening also featured a surprise toJonas Lagoni from Copenhagen PlazaHotel – he was handed his keys after asuccessful exam.

Les Clefs d’Or Denmark thanks itsmembers and partners for a pleasantevening, and we look forward to nextyear’s Christmas party.

DENMARKATTENDED 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS CANNES 1952

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Dears friends,

This year, our chapter has been quite busy and dynamic. We produced a new edition of our magazinefocused on the luxury industry, and we invited our friend, the President of the Indian section, Mr. EdwinSaldanha. We were hosted at the "WY" restaurant at the Mercedes House. We took Edwin on a lovelyprivate tour to the magnificent city of Bruges. You may see some pictures of this event following this link:

CLEFS D'OR BELGIUM/THE MERCEDES HOUSE on youtube

We have enforced our relationships with our partners and set different projects of visits to major houseslike les Maisons, Dandoy, Marcolini, le Theatrede La Monnaie, le Palais des "Bozars." Wealso have very close contacts with the privatejets airport "Abelag," with a visit scheduled forJanuary. Marc Neuville, from the Amigo, andPresident Mariano had the honor to present ourassociation and our profession on a TV Pro-gram called Teletourisme on RTBF, the nationalTV. It was also broadcast on TV5 Monde. Fol-low this link:

www.rtbf/video/tekletourisme les metiers du tourisme

We had the pleasure to be invited to Diamondland in Antwerp, thanks to our friends from the Dutchsection, Brian Mackenzie and Ben Wahlte. We ended 2014 with our trimestrial gathering with our part-ners at the Hard Rock Cafe of Brussels. You may follow this link to see some pictures of it:

www.Youtube les clefs dor belgium@hard rock cafe

2015 looks full of new discoveries and gatherings, but most of all, it will be full of moments of friendshipamong our members!

Mariano Van ClevePresident of Belgium Clefs d’Ormariano.vancleve@clefsdor.be

BELGIUMATTENDED 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS CANNES 1952

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SPAINATTENDED 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS CANNES 1952

“The Concierge Role in the World”

Les Clefs d’Or Spain is one the founding members of the well-known UICH.We were there from the very beginning together with our French friends in1952 in Cannes. That long history brings us together to share with you inthis outstanding Revue, today, for the very first time, our success and theimportant role we play every day as an association in our lovely country,Spain.

If you had the chance to explore our important cities – Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Marbella and theBalearic islands, among others – you know what means “lovely” for us. Our feeling, our people, ourculture and attractions such as Casa Batllo in Barcelona or San Miguel Market in Madrid, is what makesour country one of the most important places to visit, to live and enjoy.

Apart from all that, today you’re reading this because a few weeks ago we experienced a great time atour 53rd Assembly of Les Clefs d’Or Spain in Barcelona, organized by the executive committee of theCatalonia section. As friends around the world, we manage to fight for our association and that givesus the idea to prepare a symposium explaining the present, the past and the future of a concierge. Wenamed it “The Concierge Role in the World.”

It was such an achievement! We had students, teachers and our spon-sors and friends speaking and explaining about their relationship withus, the concierge. Our dear president, Mr. Manuel Pizarro, opened themeeting and introduced what we were going to do that morning andthe value that a concierge has for any luxury hotel in the world becauseonly the concierge can find what the guest needs.

Our exposition had this feeling that, no matter what, our duty is to makethe stay of our guest the best they had in their entire life and becomefriends, their best friend. The most important point of all is to show the students the possibilities thatsuch an important profession can offer and increase the interest in it, because in Spain not everybodyknows what a concierge does. Furthermore, we exposed the idea that the building where the hotel iscan be amazing, we can have a magnificent lobby, even the shower can be made with gold but, at theend of the day, what makes the difference is the service, a smile and a good recommendation.

After all, our duty as members of Les Clefs d’Or Spain is to enjoy our profession and encourage everycity and every single person to participate in what we do. That’s our goal for this New Year 2015. Weare proud of where we are and where the path is taking us. We just need to let us guide by the old andmake the path easier for the new. Because “service through friendship” is not just a phrase; it’s part ofwhat we are.

!Vive Les Clefs d’Or

and have an amazing year 2015!

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20A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

ARGENTINA

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21A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

ARGENTINA

UICH 62nd International Congress Mendoza 2015

Site Inspection January,2015

Tuesday 6th January•Welcome dinner at “El Club de la milanesa” restaurant, located on Ave. Aristides, where most of the bars are located.This restaurant is an option for the “Dine around” or “Free night - Country dinner”

Wednesday 7th January• Argentina Rafting site inspection, getting to know the premises and activities for accompanying guests and possiblydelegates. No tours or activities were taken due to lack of time, it was a brief visit and this activity is optional.• Lunch at “Fuente y Fonda”, a local, home made food restaurant, serviced by the owners with a local andfriendly atmosphere. Possible “Dine around” or “Free night - Country dinner” option.• Sheraton Hotel Site inspection including meeting rooms to be used during the congress (registrations, openingceremony and Board or directors meeting on the first day).Catering, meeting rooms set ups and IT / Media requirements were discussed with the hotels representativesfrom Banqueting & Sales department.• Diplomatic Hotel Site inspection. Given that only guest rooms will be taken at this hotel, different categoriesand common areas were inspected.•Los Toneles Winery site inspection site. We were kindly welcomed with a tour from the main entrance to the main Ball-room where the Gala will take place. Wine and dishes tasting, and an invitation to stay for dinner was gladly accepted.

Thursday 8th January•Atamisque Winery visit. Located one hour away from Mendoza city. Site inspection where the lunch for thelast day will be held. Media/ IT, catering and transfers were discussed. The traditional show will be shortenedin order not to extend the time of the visit since the Gala will take place that evening and delegates shouldhave enough time to get ready for it.Lunch was a courtesy of the wineyard.•Bustello Convention centre. The most important group acivities will be held at this location: the EducationalDay and General Assembly. IT and Media requirements were specified for each meeting. Inspection of the con-vention centre, common areas, food and beverages set up and VIP lounge.It is a spacious and functional convention centre and ideas came up.Budget will be revised.•Dinner at Azafran restaurant. Possible option for “Dine around” or “Freenight - Country dinner”. This was one of the favourite restaurants.•The local commitee left on Thursday night.

Friday 9th January•The Interncontinental hotel was visited along with Michael Romei, mettheir concierge. This hotel might be used if Le Parc doesn’t apply).• Park Hyatt Mendoza visit. Met their concierge. End of activities.

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22A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

AUSTRALIA

A change of Executive Committeetook place in June of 2014 at LesClefs d’Or Australia’s Annual GeneralMeeting. Peter McBrearty, ChefConcierge at The Langham Mel-bourne was voted National President.Jacob Detering, Concierge Clefs d’Orfrom InterContinental Melbourne TheRialto was elected as National Secre-tary and Ben Davies, Concierge atThe Langham Melbourne was votedNational Treasurer. Steve Ciric, ChefConcierge at Westin Melbourne willassume the role of Past President.

The new Executive has already undertaken an increased focus on Les Clefs d’Or Australia’s relation-ship with State and National Tourism Associations, whilst also reaching out to hotel companies thathave not embraced the notion of having Concierge on staff. This continues to involve meeting withGeneral Managers and Front Office management in properties that don’t have a titled Concierge – tosee that they are made aware of the benefits a Concierge and especially a Clefs d’Or Concierge canprovide to their business; in terms of high quality guest service, increased guest loyalty attributableto having a Concierge on staff and an overall statistical reduction in staff turnover that is commen-surate with employing a high level hotel Concierge. Whilst also pointing out the current high level ofpublic recognition enjoyed by the hotel Concierge profession which translates to greater recognitionof each individual hotel. The newly formed Australian Executive will also continually work to ensurethat Les Clefs d’Or Australia fosters educational and successful meetings and membership programsthat promote the ideals of Les Clefs d’Or and foster the personal development of individual membersand the growth and strength of the association as a whole.

As part of the Annual General Meeting the members of Les Clefs d’Or Australia unanimously nomi-nated Mr Colin Toomey, Chef Concierge at Shangri-La Sydney as a candidate for the internationalExecutive Committee in line with our Les Clefs d’Or international statutes (see Article VII, Section5b). As a national section we look forward to the Board of Directors elections scheduled to takeplace at the 2015 Mendoza Congress with a great deal of satisfaction in the hope that Mr Toomeywill successfully be voted by the Board to take a position on the international Executive. Mr Toomeyhas time and again proven himself to be a wonderful international statesman for Les Clefs d’Or andMr Toomey’s endorsement as candidate and plenipotentiary from Australia comes with the full sup-port of the Australian Executive and the entire Australian membership.

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23A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

AUSTRALIA

After an unfortunate absence for thelast few years, Australia has onceagain welcomed female members intoour national association. In the latterpart of 2014 three fantastic new mem-bers joined Les Clefs d’Or Australia.Yuki Kimura, Chef Concierge at theBrisbane Marriott along with AshleighMacdonald, Concierge at the CrownTowers Melbourne were both suc-cessful in the application and inter-view process and both acquittedthemselves with distinction through-out the entire undertaking. PhoebeWhite who has recently returned toher native Australia was able to trans-fer her newly acquired membershipfrom Les Clefs d’Or Canada to takeon the Chef Concierge position at thefreshly reopened Langham Sydney.

Our Australian colleague and Interna-tional Assistant General SecretaryJames Ridenour was recently namedwinner of the HM Awards 2014,‘Concierge of the Year’. James wasable to share this award with FionaLawson of the Crowne Plaza Queen-stown, our friend and colleague fromLes Clefs d’Or New Zealand.

Within the last few weeks the members in Melbourne were able to host a successful Gala Ball eventwith a horse racing theme which was also able to raise $8000 for local charity, Bayley House (a centrethat provides support programs and services for adults with an intellectual disability). The membersin Sydney were also able to stage a successful ‘Awards Night’ that jointly raised funds for St. An-thony’s Family Care (a family support centre for children with developmental disabilities).

Text by J. DeteringSecretary Les Clefs d’Or AustraliaWebmaster Les Clefs d’Or InternationalConcierge Clefs d’Or | InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto

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24A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

BRAZIL

6º AGM – Annual General Meeting – São Paulo

President Guilherme S. Borges and the Les Clefs d’Or BrazilBoard of Directors organized the 6th annual AGM for the firsttime in the business capital of the country, São Paulo. The eventwas two days long and took place on November 28th and 29th,2014. In the AGM, we had lectures and nice encounters for ourgroup of Les Clef d’Or concierges.

The opening event featured great chefs discussing the “Gastro-nomic Tendencies of Brazil.” The meeting table was composedby Caco Zanchi, owner of the catering company with the same name, Emmanuel Bassoleil, from Skyrestaurant, and Jorge Gonzalez and Marcio Silva, owners of Buzina Food Truck. Also part of thisamazing debate were Wellington Fonseca, F&M manager of Unique Hotel, Manoel Beato, sommelier of Fasano Hotel, and Almir Paiva, Fasano restaurant manager.

In the afternoon, we went to different restaurants: Rubaiyat Figueira, Fogo de Chão and Nonno Rug-gero, where we had lunch and received information about the services and food. After lunch we hada fantastic lecture with Célia Leão, “Luxury with Kindness,” and then we went for a shopping tour,snce São Paulo is very famous for its luxuryboutiques and brands. This tour was at oneof the most famous shopping malls, Shop-ping Cidade Jardim, which includes thenewest cinema theater in the city. We fin-ished the night with an amazing cocktailparty at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The second day begin with a mesmerizingbreakfast in the restaurant of the Renais-sance Hotel, followed by a city tour aroundSão Paulo to get know a little bit about thecity, its architecture and street art. We hadlunch at Tarsila Restaurant (InterContinentalHotel) and began the General Assembly,where we discussed results of the past year,events we had done, and projects for 2015. There were also some tributes to those who made ouryear special. At the end of the assembly, we decorated the new international members with thegolden keys. This year we had 12 new members:

Rio de Janeiro:Luceane Daly - Hotel Sofitel Rio de Janeiro Igor Alvim – Hotel Copacabana Palace Henrique Silva - Hotel Radisson Barra Raquel Pessoa Brandão - Hotel Radisson Barra Rhiane de Assis – Hotel Othon Palace

Rio Grande do Sul: Izabel Dourado – Hotel Laghetto Sytlo Adriana Paludo – Hotel & Spa Condominio Vitivinicola Autograph Collection

São Paulo:Daniel Lopes Correa – Blue Tree Verbo Divino Fausto Lameiras – Hotel Tivoli MofarrejMoacyr Lutti – Hotel Unique São PauloSergio Seiji Sampe – Hotel Renaissance São Paulo Diego Turcato – Casa Grande Hotel

To finish the 06º AGM (Annual General Meeting) 2014 we had the Concierge Foundation Brazil partyat Noh Bar, where we celebrated our success as an association and also collected some food anddonations for the homes of children and old people that we assist in São Paulo since April 2014.

In Service through Friendship,Luís César Rodrigues General Secretary, Brazil

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25A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

Dear Friends,

The members of Les Clefs d’Or Canada wish you all amost prosperous and happy New Year!

As you may have heard by now, our respected PresidentHugo Legrand has taken a position outside of hotels andhas stepped down, promoting our Vice President Mrs.Carolina Avaria to the position of National Interim Presi-dent. Hugo was a fundamental President; Canada’s sta-bility and strength has certainly developed thanks to hisleadership. We will miss him but he will always be one ofus. We are also thankful of Carolina’s vision, which hasreignited our focus on School Partnerships and ourBrand. She has worked closely with Hugo and all the Di-rectors to ensure we are united even with the wide dis-tances between our seven regions.

Canada’s notable activities since our last Review:In July, we conducted a National General Manager’s

Survey as the platform for Project Brand. Developed by our Vice President and Steda Research fromthe Netherlands, this project will aim at focusing our Brand toward the specific market segment ofhotel managers.

In August - several regions fundraised with some of Canada’s most revered industry GolfTournaments. If you are a golfer... talk to one of the Canadians, we host AMAZING annual tourna-ments to network with vendors, members and our hotel managers.

• In September - we raised $17,000for Cancer Research across thecountry in support of one of our Na-tional Charities, The Terry Fox Run.Our goal was $10,000; we weresuper proud!

• In October - we continue to cre-ate new avenues for sharing infor-mation through social mediaplatforms. As part of Project Brand,together with my team, we created aNational Blog. Please check us outand follow us at www.lesclefsdor-canada.com.

In November - Vancouver hosted Les Clefs d’Or Canada’s Annual Board Meeting. We arenow a proud 157 members in Canada! We also focused on our 10th National Congress to be held inbeautiful Whistler, British Columbia, in May. Please join us! www.lesclefsdorcanada.org.

In December – most regions held successful General Manager Holiday events to network withvendors, and to recognize and thank our hotels managers for their continued support.

In January - Canada will hold Regional Board Elections. The Executive Board of Canada wouldlike to send a heartfelt Thank You to the seven Regional Directors and their Boards for their work andcommitment to running successful regions these past two years. We are strong thanks to all of you!

And finally, an early plug... Canada is excited to host the 2016 Pan-American Congress in Montreal.The organizing committee is well under way – we will keep you posted but can promise an outstand-ing congress!!

Vive Les Clefs d’Or Canada!

On behalf of the members of Canada and in Service through Friendship,Korey Rorison, Public Relations Director

CANADA

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26A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

CHINESE TAIPEI

First of all, in the beginning of 2014,we had a great start: the section logoof Les Clefs d'Or Chinese Taipei andthe international logo of UICH LesClefs d’Or have both been officiallyauthorized by the local government.Meanwhile, it was nice to meet someold friends and make a lot of newfriends at the gathering of our LesClefs d'Or family at the 61st Interna-tional Congress in Kuala Lumpur.

Secondly, in April, we produced a new edition of our TaipeiTourism Map, thanks to a great partnership between a local pub-lisher and our organization. This quarterly map was distributed inthe major hotels of Taipei city in April, July, October, and Decem-ber. With lively information and a functional layout, the map hasgradually become one of the best tools for concierges to intro-duce Taipei to all their visitors. Because of the current successof the Taipei Tourism Map, we are highly looking forward to pro-ducing similar maps in other cities in the coming year.

Next, our number of members is seeing a boom. 20 newconcierges have been selected as adherent members; and five experienced concierges who wereeligible became full members after the interview and examination: Ms. Jasmine Pai of W Taipei, Mr.Nick Tung of Le Meridian Taipei, Mr. Alan Chou of Howard Plaza Taipei, Mr. Colin Lai of the Lin HotelTaichung and Mr. Eric Lin of Millennium Taichung.

Ms. Jasmine Pai will represent Chinese Taipei as the 8th AndyPongco Award Candidate on behalf of our section at the 2015UICH International Congress in Mendoza, Argentina.

Further, we have not only focused on the internal increaseof members, but also on exterior friendships as well. Wehosted many Les Clefs d’Or friends from Japan, Thailand,Singapore, Hong Kong and China, who came to visit ourbeautiful island, Formosa Taiwan. In December, the presi-dent of our society, Mr Alex Lai, was invited to attend theAsian Presidents meeting and China congress in Ningbo,China. It’s honorable for us to join this grand meeting and

exchange various experiences with attendants from different locations.

Finally, the fantastic year of 2014 is coming to the end. It is the time for all members of Les Clefsd'Or Chinese Taipei to be together sharing and enjoying the precious moment. In Beitou Hot Spring,one of the must-see spots in Taipei, we will hold our year-end party to celebrate another yearly

achievement of thesociety. As themotto “Servicethrough friendship”expresses, we in-vite all our oldfriends and newmembers to joinand make our endof the year remark-able and enjoyable.

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27A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

CHINA

CZECH REPUBLICDear Colleagues, Dear Friends,

The members of the Czech Les Clefs d’Or Association send their warmest greetings to all of our col-leagues around the world. We are delighted to enter yet another year in a situation when the travelindustry in our country has been booming and we are confident that 2015 will be even more suc-cessful than previous years.

The past year has been a truly successful one; new members joined and we have had an amazingarray of activities and achievements. To highlight just a few:

• Our membership now counts 34 concierges from two cities.• National elections took place in summer 2014. Petr Zezula was reelected as the President,

Stanislav Malek is the Vice-President and Brigita Brejchova is the Treasurer. The next elections will take place in summer 2016.

• With great interest, we participated in the European congress in Vienna in July 2014.• Our German colleagues kindly extended their invitation for us to attend their national

meeting in Dresden in September 2014.• We are very much looking forward to taking part in the International Congress in Mendoza 2015.• Our national organization gratefully received new sponsors.• We have created our new website both in Czech and English.

With the best regards from the heart of Europe,

Stanislav C. MalekVice-President, Les Clefs d’Or Czech Republic

The 19th Annual Congress of Les Clefs d’Or China has came to asuccessful end. We have had the pleasure to host the 2nd Les Clefsd’Or Asian Zone Presidents meeting. Both meetings were hostedby The Hangzhou Bay hotel and The Hangzhou Bay Universal hotel.

The People's Municipal Government of Cixi City and the Tourist Admin-istration of Ningbo city show support and importance to this meeting.The officers ceremoniously organized a "government reception" andwarmly welcomed all presidents from our Les Clefs d'Or Asian Zone.

All delegates have learned greatly from our meetings and therefore feelmore confidence to spread our “In Service Through Friendship” motto.

Government Reception

Greeting upon arrival Asian Zone President meeting Executive committee meeting

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28A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

FINLAND

Les Clefs d'Or Finland joined forces with Helsinki City Tourist Information to organize the “Helsinki Sum-mer Info.” This year, the invitation was also open to hotel front-office personnel, Helsinki city touristhelpers, guides and tourism industry partners. There was very successful attendance, with over 110participants. It was a great collaboration project with www.VisitHelsinki.fi (Helsinki tourism board).The aim was to bring together the tourism workers in a relaxed and inspiring setting to share informationand updates aboutHelsinki tourism, and topoint out how wonderful,diverse and eventfulHelsinki is. Ultimately, asa result, we hope visitorsto Helsinki will be well in-formed, very satisfied,and go home full of greatmemories to share. Serv-ice through friendship!

12.6.2014 Les Clefs d’Or Finland and Edupoli are invited to be mystery guests on the Jyrki Sukulashow, Hotellit Kuntoon – the equivalent of Gordon Ramsey’s Hotel Hell. On the spotlight: Les Clefs d'Or

Finland’s Vice-Presi-dent Kalle Valjentoand Michael Dredge,Team Manager atEdupoli educationcentre.

17.6.2014 Friman Travel get to know: Tytyrin kaivosmuseo, Alitalon omenaviinitila, Mustion Linna, Rav-intola KW, Fiskars, Tam-misaari, Tammisaarenluontokeskus, Raase-porin Linnanrauniot, Lin-nanvoudin tupa, DegerbyIgor museo, Gardskulla,and Sjundby lin-nankahvila. Beautifulplaces in Finland.

12.6.2014 Kullo Golf Tournament. http://www.kullogolf.fi/fi/etusivu/

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29A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

10-13.7.2014 Les Clefs d'Or Finland’s Vice-President Kalle Valjento attended the Second EuropeanCongress of UICH.

14.7.2014 Les Clefs d'OrFinland had a great 4th ofJuly traditional outdooractivity. We organised anAmazing Race Conciergeedition and the teams allhad to take selfies whilevisiting many of the fa-mous locations inHelsinki. Great fun on asunny summer day!

24.7.2014 Les Clefs d'Or Finland board members had ameeting under the sunny summer sky of Helsinki. Thank youto Ravintola Saari for inviting us for this lovely evening!www.ravintolasaari.fi/en/

21.8.2014 Les Clefs d'Or Finland concierges wereinvited to Helsinki Festival to the concert of SoundTracker. Many of us attended. We started the eventwith a dinner at www.kitzens.fi, and we had a pleas-ant evening and party afterward! We thank all ourpartners and colleagues that joined us on this warmand fun evening.http://www.helsinginjuhlaviikot.fi/en/

FINLAND

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In August 2014, Robert Watson, Past President of UICH, invited worldwide participation to raise aware-ness and donations for ALS via the Icebucket Challenge. http://www.alsmndalliance.org/

28-3.08.2014 Les Clefs d'Or Finland President Pascal Gaudio was invited to the 32nd German Na-tional Congressin the beautifulcity of Dresden.It was excep-tionally organ-ised, with apersonal touch.Truly friendlyand luxury at itsfinest, from be-ginning to theend.

7.10.2014 On top of thepodium for the pool tourna-ment: Mr Kalle Valjento!Thanks to everyone for thefun evening.

In October 2014, the Sheraton Stockholm webpage was dedicated to Steve Watson, Head Conciergeand Member of Les Clefs d'Or! http://www.sheratonstockholm.com/en/concierge2

FINLAND

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20.10.2014 Virpi Vidal taught classesat Edupoli about front office andconcierge practices. He visited HotelRadisson Blu plaza with Petri Uronenfor an inspection tour with students.www.edupoli.fi

22.10.2014 Madis Aleva, Concierge LesClefs d’or at Swissotel Tallinn Estonia,was featured on the UICH Please Meetseries and shared in all social media.http://lesclefsdor.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/please-meet-les-clefs-dor-member-madis-alvela-from-estonia/

24-26.10.2014 Sweden, you did it! Whata great Scandinavian zone meeting, whata beautiful location, sublime hotels andmany happy faces. A pinning ceremonyalso took place new Les Clefs d’Or mem-bers from Sweden, Finland and Norway.Thank you to www.grandhotel.se/en,www.sheratonstockholm.com, www.amer-icanexpress.com, http://international.ny-times.com and www.stromma.se, and allthe others that made this happen! See younext year in Helsinki.

FINLAND

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FINLAND

29.10.2014 Helsinki's Concierge Erkki Kerttula at Hotel Havenwas featured in a series of popular photography projects por-traying the Finnish capital daily life for 365 days. We are soproud that Les Clefs d'Or is being featured. Please take a lookand enjoy also all the other photos from our capital.http://www.helsinki365.com/HELSINKI365/i-Wh4MfWT/A

24.11.2014 Our Traditional Friendly PokerTournament was all about skills and little aboutluck at www.casino-helsinki.fi. After an in-tense card battle,Janne Ant-Wuorinenwon the trophy againstmany times winner Mr.Kari Toivanen, PastPresident of Les Clefsd’or Finland.

2.12.2014 Wow! What a happening wehad with our colleagues by invitation ofSea Life Helsinki for their Christmas spe-cial event! We were over 100, includingkids and families visiting and enjoying theocean life. Children had a chance tomake some Gingerbread and meet thisbeautiful snake.www.visitsealife.com/helsinki/en/

10.12.2014 Joulu Sauna. TraditionalChristmas Sauna event and dinner atMadame Krog. Thanks towww.helsinkilimo.fi and www.luxuryac-tion.com for fully sponsoring SofiaSaarinen from www.hotelhaven.fi to at-tend the upcoming Mendoza Congress.Congratulations, Sofia!

President Pascal Gaudio, Hotel Haven, HelsinkiVice President Kalle Valjento, Klaus K Hotel, HelsinkiMembers of the Board Sami Joutsenvuo, Scandic Park,HelsinkiJanne Ant-Wuorinen, Hotel Haven, Helsinki Markus Peura, M/S Baltic Princess Virpi Vidal, Hotel HaagaAlternates Petra Rissanen Sokos, Hotel PasilaJad Lian, Hotel Haven, HelsinkiScandinavian Zone Director Anders Ruggiero, Hotel d’An-gleterre CopenhagenTreasurer Petri Uronen, Radisson Blu Plaza, HelsinkiSecretary Kiira Jokela, Hotel Haven, HelsinkiPicture taken in Haaga Best Western Plus. www.hotelhaaga.fi/ The UICH Finnish section has 25 members including Finland,Sweden and Estonia.

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HUNGARY

The second part of 2014 was a busy period for the Hungarian section of Les Clefs d’Or.

The 2nd European UICH Congress was held in the Austriancapital Vienna from July 10th to 13th. Under the leadershipof the president of Les Clefs d'Or Hungary, Mr. TamasUngar, also Central European Zone Director, eight membersof the Hungarian association attended the conference. Be-sides the various leisure programs, there was time for edu-cation also. The private jet company called GlobeAir, TheNew York Times, SIXT, and the local Hard Rock Cafe ownermade short presentations to participants. It was a busy dayfor the Zone Directors also. They had a long and successfulmeeting in the Sofitel Vienna Hotel. Great thanks for the per-fect organization of the Austrian colleagues.

The Hungarian Les Clefs d'Or Section meets every month. Most of the active and senior members par-ticipate at events. The meetings are really a very good way for concierges to share experiences andlearn about the new tourist attractions of the city and the country.

We visited two cellars of the famous Eger wine region on July 29th. It was not just about nice wines,but also about the beautiful environment – it was truly a refreshing experience.

Budapest's recently opened Miniversum hosted Les Clefs d'Or Hun-gary's September gathering. Miniversum is a sand table exhibition situ-ated in one of the palaces of the famous Andrássy Road.

The 3rd Concierge Competition named by Mr. Andras Gunst, our founderand former president, was organized in October by The Hungarian As-sociation of Hotels and Restaurants, in co-operation with Les Clefs d’OrHungary. 53 young concierges from 38 hotels signed up for the compe-tition. The winner was Ms. Timea Karlik from Danubius Hotel Arena. Shewon the right to be a regular member of Les Clefs d’Or Hungary.

Les Clefs d’Or Hungary visited the Bartok Memorial House in Budapest in November, where the famouscomposer has been living and working. Besides the personal relics of Bartók, regular concerts awaitthe visitors. After the piano recital, Lufthansa introduced their VIP service called Private Jet and FirstClass. It was an apropos presentation, sinceLufthansa is a new partner to Les Clefs d’OrHungary and we look forward to their sup-port in the future. They were also responsiblefor the wonderful catering during the event.

The most important event of the year washeld in December. The general assembly ofLes Clefs d’Or Hungary was organized byour 2nd Vice President, Mr. Andras Judak, inthe Art’otel Budapest, by Park Plaza. Afterthe president’s report of Mr. Ungar, Ms. AnikoPanczel presented the financial statements.At the end of the event, the members electeda new board. The members of the board forthe next two years are as follows:

President: Mr. Tamas Ungar, Chief Concierge, Corinthia Hotel Budapest 1st Vice President: Mr. Tamas Takacs, Chief Concierge, Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest 2nd Vice President: Mr. Andras Judak, Night Concierge, Art’otel Budapest Treasurer: Ms. Aniko Panczel, Chief Concierge, Mercure Budapest Duna 1st Secretary: Mr . Gabor Sinka, Chief Concierge, Radisson Blu Beke Hotel 2nd Secretary: Mr. Balazs Andronyi, Chief Concierge, Hilton Budapest Public Relations: Mr. Barnabas Kovesdi, Chief Concierge, Sofitel Budapest Chain Bridge

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Dear friends from around the world,

We would love to tell you about what has kept us busy over 2014.

After the Kuala Lumpur congress, everyone went back to business with good memories and lots ofpictures from all exiting tours, visits and events we encountered whilst visiting KL. These are momentsyou will never forget. By showcasing these pictures to our members, we hope to get more membersenthusiastic to join us on international congresses.

Visiting the street food market.

The Petronas Towers from the ground.

Pinning ceremony during country dinner evening.

Not only pleasure, some work had to be done!

Again this year we organized a charity golfevent in August. Together with 45 mem-bers and sponsors we had a beautiful dayof golf. During lunch we presented thecheque we raised for the “Make-A-Wish”foundation. Total amount we raised was€2500. We will continue with this eventevery year and hope to increase the num-ber of players and, of course, the amountfor a charitable organization.

Our AGM was hosted by Hotel Pulitzer inNovember. With the help of Mr. vanGasteren, GM of the hotel, the entireconcierge staff and F&B outlets, it was anamazing AGM. This was an election yearbut the entire Board was re-elected in thepositions they held. There were nochanges. Also during the AGM we re-ceived our new merino pullovers from ournewest sponsor “Joe Merino.”

HOLLAND

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HOLLAND

Who’s in charge here?

The next morning we went to Roermond, a30-minute drive from Maastricht, to visit an-other sponsor of our society at shoppingoutlet McArthurGlen. After an introductioneverybody had spare time to shop. Here wesaid goodbye to Simon and Adrian and wentback to Amsterdam.

We hope to see a lot of friends in Mendoza!!!For sure this will again be a Congress to re-member.

On behalf of the entire Dutch section, Tot ziens!

Our new pullovers during our AGM.

On the 29th of November we went on our annualweekend. The bus took us to Maastricht where westarted our day strolling along the Christmas market.The temperature outside was exactly spot on for theGlühwein which a lot of the members enjoyed. Afterexploring the city centre, which dates back to theRoman Empire, we headed for our hotel, where wemet Simon Delcomminette (Western European ZoneDirector) and Adrian. Both were kind enough to joinus on this weekend and get to know some of ourmembers. Dinner was served on a boat which took

us along the banks of the river Maas in the direction of Liege. During this trip, we had an extra passenger,Saint Nicolas. With presents and rhymes he will see if you’ve been good or bad this year. Fortunately, hedid not know Simon that well, because he had a present for Simon and Adrian! Normally, if you don’t be-have you’ll get nothing.

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HONG KONGIn November, newly elected President & Committees for 2015-2017

President: Fred Lui, The Royal GardenVice President-Membership: Tony Lo, The Marco Polo Hong Kong HotelVice President-Finance, Gary Yu, The Royal Pacific Hotel & TowersSociety Senior Advisor: Ringo Chau, Kowloon Shangri-LaInternational Delegate: Edward Ma, The Langham Hong KongTreasurer: Hamson Tsui, Four Seasons HotelGeneral Secretary: Lewis Li, Royal Park HotelCommittee Advisor, Ringo Chau, Kowloon Shangri-LaCommittee Members: Steven Wong, The Langham Hong Kong, Jason Yeung, The Park Lane HongKong, Woody Leung, The Excelsior, Hong Kong and Thomas Tong, Conrad Hong Kong

Current Member status: 94 Full Members: 14 Adherent Members

Education Program 2014Two-day educational workshop in partnership with Vocational Training Council of Hong Kong andMr. Michael Romei, UICH International General Secretary. There were around 160 participants rangingfrom chef concierges to potential candidates interested in the concierge field. Our Society will con-tinue the momentum in 2015 to broaden the exposure of young and future concierge generations.

General Meeting 2014Six General meetings took place with a Spring dinner and a Christmas dinner. Numerous industrialpartners and associate members presented and exchanged information, and caught up with fellowSociety members.

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HONG KONG

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HELLAS

President Dimitrios Liapis, now serving his second term on the Hellas board, has a passion for the developmentof the concierge position in Greece.

Despite all the economic problems plaguing the country, the closure of many hotels and the opening of fewnew ones, Hellas continues to develop its section and seek support of official entities of tourism and potentialnew partners, showing them the added value that concierges offer, which can help increased economic devel-opment in the country.

Mr. Emmanuel Vrettos and Mr. Dimitrios Liapis were invited to participate in debates on tourism with the Ministerof Tourism, Ms. Olga Kefalogianni, and the President of the Greek Organization of Tourism, Dr. Christos Pallisat,at the Second Conference Luxury Hospitality Summit at the hotel Grand Bretagne.

In July, we participated at the Second European Congress in Vienna, where we also had the MediterraneanZone Meeting.

Major Events:*Pita Cutting - 26 February 2014*Annual General Meeting - 15 October 2014*Executive Committee Meeting - 30 October to 2 November 2014

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Country Report Les Clefs d’Or India for UICH Review 2014 1. Membership in India

a) Membership in India currently includes two international UICH honorary members.

b) There are 153 members in total, including 74 adherent membersand 79 full members. This number includes 10 members from Kenya (3 adherent and 7 full).

2. Meetingsa) 11 Concierges from Chennai had their first monthly meet in March

2014, which was hosted by California Pizza Kitchen.b) National Executive Committee meetings held:

i. Taj Vivanta, Bengaluru, in March ii. Ritz Carlton, Bengaluru, in August iii. Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai, in December.

c) 8th AGM held in Bengaluru in August 2014 welcoming all 141concierge delegates from all over the

country at the Ritz-Carlton, ITC Hotels, JW Marriott and Chancery Pavilion.d) Concierge day celebrations with family and friends in April 2014 at Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon, for

Northern Region (NR) members and at Sofitel Mumbai for Western Region (WR) members.e) Holi Celebrations with Gerald Parent by NR members in March 2014 at PCO Bar Vasant Vihar.f) Networking Evening by NR members in April 2014 hosted by The LaLit, Jaipur.

3. Trainings & Presentationsa) WR members at:

i. Don Bosco College for Hospitality Studies in April & Julyii. Sophia Polytechnic Hotel, Administration & Food Technology Department in Julyiii. Anjuman Islam Catering College in September

b) NR members ati. IHMCTAN, Gurdaspur, in Februaryii. Institute of Advanced Management, Kolkata, in Juneiii. Full day training workshop hosted in August at The Grand, New Delhi where 38 NR members

participated.c) Southern Region (SR) members at Army Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Science, Bengaluru, in July.

4. Visit to Nairobi a) Edwin Saldanha, President Les Clefs d’Or India & Zone Director Asia, along with Albert Amanna,

International Co-ordinator Les Clefs d’Or India, visit Nairobi to have a networking evening and pinning ceremony for Kenya society.

5. Visit to Chinaa) Edwin Saldanha, President Les Clefs d’Or India & Zone Director Asia, visited Ningbo for the 18th AGM

for Les Clefs d’Or China and Asian Presidents meeting in December.6. Visit to Brussels

a) Edwin Saldanha, President Les Clefs d’Or India & Zone Director Asia, visited Brussels to inaugurate thethird edition of “Concierge Magazine–Excellence in Belgian Hospitality.” An invitation was sent to be a Guest of Honor at their 7th Meeting of Les Clefs d’Or Belgium and Partners in June.

7. International Congressa) There will be eight concierge members representing the country to attend the 62nd UICH Argentina

Congress in April. We are also working on our maximum attendance in the coming Asian Congress in August as well.

8. E-newslettera) We published the 11th edition of our e-newsletter and shared it with all members of our Society in order

to spread awareness of various events happening around the country.9. FAM tours

a) WR members explore i. Slum Tour, Dharavi, in March, hosted by Be The Local Toursii. Global Vipassana Pagoda, Gorai, in Juneiii. Adlabs Imagica, Khopoli, an amusement park, in August.

10. Awards & Recognitiona) Taj Awards for Business Excellence (TABE) 2013-2014 in July:

i. Concierge of the Year Award received by Mr. Ram Chimbaikar, Assistant Manager Concierge ofTaj Lands End, Mumbai.

ii. MD Club of the Year received by Mr. Sanjib Ghosh and Mr. David Aaron of Taj Bengal, Kolkata.b) Concierge of the Year Award 2014 at 8th AGM held at Bengaluru in August: Mr. Maxim Mascarenhas,

ITC Maratha, Mumbai11. Social Service Activities

a) NR members at i. Bharatiya AdimJati Sevak Sangh, a destitute home for girls, in Januaryii. Old Age Home of Guru Vishram Vridh Ashram, New Delhi to serve senior citizens, in July.

b) Eastern Region members celebrate Concierge Day by visiting Shishur Sevay, Kolkata, a childlife preserve c) SR members joined Walkathon against tobacco at Bengaluru, in May.d) WR members visited Children of Irshalgad village, in August.

12. Partnersa) Les Clefs d’Or India and Locus Media, India’s leading in-destination marketing company, have entered

into a strategic tie-up to enhance the city experience of tourists visiting India.

13. Concierge Mapa) Cities like Delhi, Mumbai &

Bengaluru have published concierge maps with the co-ordination of our marketingpartner, Locus Media.

Thanks & Regards,Shaunak Vengurlekar

INDIA

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JAPAN

The 17th Anniversary

In November, we celebrated the 17th Anniversary of Les Clefs d’Or Japan inSapporo (Hokkaido). At this event, we strengthened our teamwork and committed ourselves to asuccessful Asian congress in 2015.

An Asian Congress Organizing Committee meeting was held every month throughout 2014 with con-stant revisions and improvementsbeing made to the program, includ-ing enhancement of the Japanesecultural experience.

The Asian Congress has foundsome new sponsors. The registra-tion system for the congress is inthe final stage of development.We have also updated informationregarding Pre/Post tour options onthe Asian Congress website.

Membership

We welcomed new concierge members and associative companies to our family.Les Clefs d'Or Japan consists of 2 honorary members, 15 full members, 10 adherent members and12 associative companies.

By Misa Yamamoto, Public Relations

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KOREA

The main event from Les Clefs d’Or Korea last year was the 12th Annual General Meeting of Les Clefsd’Or Korea, which was held at the JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square, Seoul, on November 19th 2014.The theme was “My Les Clefs d’Or Service,” and we had the chance to share our own know-hows ofservice techniques with each other. Also, we had a guest speaker, Mr. Matthew Copper, General Man-ager of JW Marriott Seoul. He has a great passion for concierges and shared his story of career de-velopment. At our AGM, we reviewed our annual events, and the highlights were the workshop inMay and the volunteer work in August.

Workshop: It was the 2nd official workshop of Les Clefs d’Or Korea and we had a chance to meetother members from different sections and share information about current issues. Also, Ms. Jung, aguest speaker, talked about the “Magic of Time” and how we can use our time effectively.

Volunteer Work: We delivered meals to more than500 elderly people who don’t have proper mealseach day. 50 of our members have attended on dif-ferent dates, also, to provide meals to them.

Overall, year 2014 was a successful one for LesClefs d’Or Korea. We have tried to focus on increas-ing the quality of concierge service instead of thequantity. We feel that we have grown up comparedto last year.

Viva Les Clefs d’Or!

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LUXEMBOURG

The second part of the year was very active for the small Luxemburgish section.

First, dinner took place at the wonderful restaurant La Mirabelle, part of the gourmet group Espaces Saveurson September 21st.

In November, Simon went to Maastricht in Holland as President Brian McKenzie’s guest and attended the annualDutch section weekend. Santa Klaus came to visit the members with nice gifts as all concierges had been goodboys and girls.

After Athens, President Delcom-minette went to visit PresidentAdnan Oner in Istanbul, whohosted a very nice dinner pre-pared by Chef Rudolph at the 10Karakoy Hotel for an occasionwith the whole Turkish section.

A short week later, Simon took his Clefs d’Or friends to the Crystal Saumur, where a lovely meal was served.After dinner the art of pole was shown to the concierges.

October took President and Western Zone Director Simon Delcom-minette to the Executive Committee meeting in Athens.

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LUXEMBOURG

On December 4th, Simon Delcomminette was Antony Lynch’s guest at a monthly meeting of the British LesClefs d’Or. Simon gave a brief presentation of the role of zone director and introduced himself to the UK mem-bers. The meeting was followed by the annual Christmas party at The Metropole Hotel. A splendid wonderfulsection, very well organized.A splendid wonderful section, very well organized.

Sunday morning the golden keys friends were the VIP host at the McArthur Glen luxury outlet store center inRoermond.

At the end of November, Dolce & Gabbana, under the management of Mr. Francis Benamore, hosted our Christ-mas drinks party followed by a dinner at Basta Cosi Italian restaurant. This diner was hosted by the publisherof the concierge book of Luxembourg, Emile Cukier.

Special Dolce & Gabbana pieces were brought for the event.

HAPPY

NEW YEAR 2015

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Year of Admission: 2014 Malaysia

Founding Members:Ms. Siana Iong, Mr. Sammy Chan, Ms. Maria Yang, Mr. Jovi Ng, Mr. James Chan, Mr. JulianIeong, Ms. Thitsar Ma, Mr. Gilbert Kam, Mr. Ricky Yeung, Ms. Julia Leong, Mr. Francis Sien.

Supporting Section: Hong Kong

Current Number of Members: 17

On May 29, 2014, Les Clefs d’OrMacau celebrated her official FoundingCeremony along with the local tourismdepartment, management from mem-bers’ hotels and our long-time friendsfrom Hong Kong. With its announce-ment to the local community, we haveimmediately begun moving forward to-ward our educational journey, fosteringthe young generation.

Working together with the HongKong section, Mr. Michael Romei,General Secretary of UICH, wasinvited to host an education pro-gram in both Hong Kong andMacau. This will be a continuousprogram with the Institute forTourism Studies (IFT), the localhotel and tourism university. Aspecial thanks to Michael on hiscontribution and inspiration!

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2014! What a year it has been for us all in the Society of the Golden Keys Malaysia! This year alone we achievedmany new milestones thanks to the passion and dedication of our members and the strong support from ourrespective hotel management teams, industry partners and friends.

The biggest event that will go down and remain in the history of our Society is the success of organizing andhosting the prestigious 61st UICH International Congress, which was held 10-15 January 2014 in our vibrantcapital city Kuala Lumpur! We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parties involved who made ourfirst hosting of an international congress such a huge success. It was indeed a great experience for all of us.

A big THANK YOU to all of you, our Clefs d’Or friends (you know who you are!) from all over the world whomade your presence felt in Malaysia! You are always welcome to visit us again, any time! As hosting country,we are also indeed proud to see history in the making where we all celebrated and welcomed Les Clefs d’OrMacau and Les Clefs d’Or Qatar into our big family!

With Wes Andersen’s much awaited movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel” being the hot topic during our recentInternational Congress, in April, we were honored to be invited to a premiere pre-screening of the epic movie,two days before it was due to be released nationwide! Thank you to 20th Century Fox Malaysia and GoldenScreen Cinemas for making this possible!

In 2014, too, for the first time, in two occasions, we held our bi-monthly meeting outside of our usual venueswithin the capital of Kuala Lumpur. In June, we visited the historical state of Malacca for our first bi-monthlyfor term 2014/2016, and recently, in November, we had our third bi-monthly on the beautiful island of Penang– with the hope of spreading awareness of Les Clefs d’Or among the hoteliers in both states.

In September, as a tribute to KDU University College, the school that assistedus throughout the 61st UICH International Congress, members of our Societyhad the honor of being invited to give a successful career talk sharing theirknowledge and experience to Hospitality Degree students on the topic of“Les Clefs d’Or Concierge: Our Lil’ Known Profession.”

Les Clefs d’Or membership across the nation has grown to nearly 50 mem-bers now, with 20 being Full Keys Clefs d’Or Concierges.

Future projects for the Society of the Golden Keys Malaysia include bid-ding for the proposed Asian Clefs d’Or Solidarity Games in 2015, expand-ing our road trips to enhance awareness and networking to the easternstates of Malaysia, namely Sabah and Sarawak, and also hosting anotherJunior Concierge Training. On the international front, we are aiming for ahealthy participation from Malaysia to the upcoming 62nd UICH Congressin Mendoza and also the 9th Asian UICH Congress in Tokyo.

We are looking forward to more exciting activities and events in the year2015! Vive Les Clefs d’Or! And best wishes from Kuala Lumpur!

MALAYSIA

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NEW ZEALANDGreetings from New Zealand. What a great year 2014 has been for Les Clefs d’Or in Aotearoa.

The whole industry has been kept busy throughout, with many great festivals, concerts and sporting events.

A well attended 20th AGM was held at The Stamford Plaza Hotel on the 1st of June with five members attendingfrom Australia. This was followed by an amazing Concierge Ball to celebrate our anniversary. All in attendanceenjoyed great food, music, company and libations. All our past Presidents were in attendance: founding Pres-ident Derek Fenn, Gustavo Concha, Franz Staufer andcurrent President Shaun Ryan.

We have seen our Active Members ranks grow bythree new concierges this year. We now have 24 Ac-tive Members in New Zealand. We look forward to thecontributions and insights of these new members.

The Executive Committee has travelled extensively todevelop and promote Les Clefs d’Or.

President Shaun Ryan and Treasurer Nick Steele metwith members in Wellington and Queenstown tostrengthen ties and develop strategies to grow LesClefs d’Or throughout New Zealand.

Longstanding Active Member Fiona Lawson, from the Crowne Plaza Queenstown, along with Australian mem-ber James Ridenour from the InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto were the joint recipients of the Hotel Man-agement Magazine’s Concierge of the Year Award for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. What anamazing achievement! We are all so proud of them.

President Shaun Ryan, Treasurer Nick Steele and Secretary Daniel Marsh travelled to the Australian AGM backin July and were shown a fantastic time, learning and contributing a lot to Trans Tasman relations.

Social media, in the form of our Facebook page and new website, has been far-reaching in promoting our So-ciety. We have had local and international interest in our events and in Les Clefs d’Or New Zealand in general.I would encourage you all to find us and like our facebook page.

Our 21st AGM has been scheduled for the 15th-18th May 2015. The 21st AGM will be held in Wellington andwill be an election year.

We all look forward to another busy and constructive year in 2015.

Lastly it is with great sadness that we farewell a dear friend and retired Les Clefs d'Or New Zealand Member,Mr. Rex Anson. Rex, who spent many years working at the Hyatt Auckland, passed away on the first Sundayin December. Rest in peace "T-Rex."

Viva Les Clefs d’Or.

Mr Arie Jackman

Active Member & Director of Public Relations, Les Clefs d'Or New Zealand

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QATAR

December 14, 2014. Duringour year-end meeting and2015 calendar plan for LesClefs d’Or Qatar. The meetingwas held in Movenpick Tower& Suite Doha along with LesClefs d’Or Qatar membersand observers/guests.

November 16, 2014. Our trip to Kuwaitto acknowledge our new AdherentMember section under Les Clefs d’OrQatar. Mr. Angelito & Mr. Franky of Sher-aton Kuwait Luxury Collection Hotel,presented by Randy Santos, Les Clefsd’Or Qatar Founder & President alongwith his executive committee.

Kuwait: Les Clefs d’Or Qatar1st Vice President Mr. An-drew Ferrer & Mr. MohamedRabie - Les Clefs d’OrQatar Executive Member /Public Relations conductedas short presentation aboutthe Les Clefs d’Or Interna-tional and functions in themiddle east.

Les Clefs d’Or Qatar year end reportwith special greetings via skype withUICH President Mr. Emmanuel Vrettos.

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SINGAPORELes Clefs d'Or Singapore celebrated her 28th Anniversary on May 29th, 2014, and the main highlight of theevent was the election of the new Executive Committee for the term 2014- 2016. The new Executive Com-mittee Members are as follows:

President: Mr. Syed Musaddiq, Chef Concierge at The Fullerton Bay HotelVice President: Mr. Ali Alsagoff, Chef Concierge at Four Seasons Hotel SingaporeHonorary Secretary: Mr. Roszel Ma'Rop, Guest Service Manager/Concierge at The Fullerton HotelAssistant Honorary Secretary: Mr. M Karikalan, Chef Concierge at PARKROYAL On Kitchener RoadHonorary Treasurer: Mr. Mohd Hafiz, Assistant Chef Concierge at The Regent HotelAssistant Honorary Treasurer: Mr. Herman Shah, Assistant Chef Concierge at Equarius HotelPublic Relations & International Delegate: Ms. Mari Sawade, Assistant Chef Concierge at Grand Copthorne WaterfrontAssistant Public Relations: Mr. Xavier Kok, Chef Concierge at Sofitel SO SingaporeExecutive Committee:

Mr. Mazelan Mohd Ali, Operations/Concierge Manager at PARKROYAL On Pickering Street

Mr. Bernard Theseira, Chef Concierge at St. Regis Singapore Kitchener RoadMr Mohd Fasle, Chef Concierge at Conrad Centennial Singapore

Simultaneously, President Syed Musaddiq along withother Asian Presidents were in Hangzhou, China, at-tending the Asian Presidents Meeting. Saddiq enjoyedtremendously his first Asian President Meeting as thePresident of Les Clefs d’Or Singapore, citing the eventas fabulously organised with good discussionamongst the Presidents.

On Dec 2-4, the Concierge Society of Indonesia (affil-iated to Les Clefs d’Or Singapore) conducted the firstSurabaya Concierge Workshop at Hotel Ciputra WorldSurabaya. Vice President Ali Alsagoff was one of thespeakers for the two-day workshop, talking about theconcierge profession and the history of Les Clefs d’Or.The workshop was attended by members from bothSingapore and Indonesia as well students of the Uni-versitas Ciputra. The workshop was well received bythe students and members alike. Day Two of the work-shop was followed by a full day tour of Surabaya – theCity of Heroes.

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SWEDEN2014 was certainly a busy year for Svenska HotellPortierForeningen – SHPF.

We have increased the number of international Les Clefs d’Or members from four to eight since the congress inKuala Lumpur. It is a small, but significant step towards our goal to become an independent section once again. Until wereach that goal we are happy with our current situation of being part of the Finnish section. We will send even more mem-bership applications across the Baltic Sea during 2015. If we just keep the energy and focus we are certain that we willmeet all the requirements to become independent sooner rather than later.

We have also started up a very interesting collaboration with Stockholm Visitors Board/Visit Stockholm. Membersof SHPF will assist Visit Stockholm in educating the staff at the tourist information offices, hotel receptionists and other keypersons around the city who might need a greater knowledge about Stockholm in order to provide accurate and meaningfulinformation to the visitors of our city

SHPF and Visit Stockholm will also develop a more advanced course in Stockholm knowledge which will be availableto all the concierges, and it will be an annual event taking place in the spring, just before the busiest tourist season starts.Stockholm Visitors Board/Visit Stockholm is working hard to get more journalists from travel magazines, newspapers, blogs,etc., to come to Stockholm and write about our city. In the future they are planning to include us, the Les Clefs d’Or concierges,in their work more frequently to give the journalists our “inside tips.” Through this collaboration between SHPF and VisitStockholm, all the members of SHPF will have access to a “Key of Honour” card, which will give free entrance to almost allmuseums, free tours and public transportation and much more in Stockholm.

The last weekend in October, SHPF was the host for the first time for the UICH Scandinavian Zone Meeting. A fruitful meeting,nice restaurants and a lot of networking!

SHPF would like to thank all of our sponsors (American Express, The International New York Times, Stromma, SheratonHotel, Grand Hotel, Hotel Rival, Limousine Stockholm, Mr. French, Brasserie Le Rouge, Visit Stockholm, Prioritaire, Moderna Museetand Savor Media), Mr. Svante Isberg from American Express, Mr. Jorg Muller from The International New York Times, and of courseall the delegates who made this weekend not only the largest Scandinavian Zone Meeting ever but also a huge success.

In December the collaboration between SHPF and our internationalpartner American Express took another step forward. Two teammembers from the local American Express office did visit the GrandHotel and worked alongside our President Olow Frank during aday to see how a normal day as a Les Clefs d’Or concierge can belike and learn a little bit more about our view on service.SHPF has organized many different events for our members andpartners over the last year including our annual bowling tourna-ment and a harbor cruise on the unique M/S Molly followed bya dinner at wonderful Rosendals Tradgard where we enjoyed apiece of Shakespeare performed by The Stockholm EnglishSpeaking Theatre.

We recently had a private tour of the Swedish HistoryMuseum, which holds one of the world’s most renowned Vikingexhibitions. They have two touring Viking exhibitions as well, onejust ended at Royal BC Museum in Victoria, Canada, and one isnow showing in Gallo Romeins Museum in Tongeren, Belgium.

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THAILAND

On behalf of Les Clefs d’Or Thailand, please find this country report for your kind preparation andreference.

Membership:53 Full Members 59 Adherent Members 39 Associate Members

President Surachai Thong-onand committee join 43 countriesat the 61st UICH world congress2014 in Kuala Lumpur on 10-15January 2014.

President Surachai Thong-on invited all membersto attend the 2014 AGM in Chiang Mai, the meet-ing held on 20-22 February 2014 at Imperial MaePing Hotel. On 20-21 February 2014, the eventteam organized a trip to update information sight-seeing in Chiang Mai, and the last day the com-mittee reported on our activities from the last year.

President Surachai Thong-on organized Associ-ate meeting on 19 June 2014 at Wan Fah restau-rant. The meeting shared some problems fromAssociate member to discuss with the committeeto find the best solution.

Event team invited Presidentand all members to join 9thThai Concierge on 26 January2014 at Baan Khanitha at 53.

See Town Section invited membersto join our traditional praying 9 tem-ples trip organized by BaanKhanitha. We recently launched theprogram of merit making nine tem-ples on February 1, 2014. We gatherand register our journey at 08:00 amfrom the Sathorn pier. The membersare entitled to attend with family.

Activity

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THAILAND

President Surachai Thong-on and the See Townteam organized See Town activities to inspectFloating Market & Tiger Temple with World TravelService Company on August 9, 2014.

President Surachai Thong-on visited members inMyanmar to mentor them and conduct creativeactivities to help them grow their association onAugust 20-22, 2014.

President Surachai Thong-on attended the AsianPresident meeting in China from 30th November-3rd December 2014.

President Surachai Thong-on and committeejoined Golden Keys ceremony for Mr. Tham-manoon Karnchanawong, Concierge from AscottSathorn, on 17th June 2014.

President Surachai Thong-on and committee at-tend Golden Key presentation and congratulateMr. Sarawut, Concierge at Somerset Lake Point,on 23rd June 2014.

President Surachai Thong-on and committee at-tend Golden Key presentation and congratulateMr. Torsak Yodrak, Team Leader/Concierge atOriental Residence Bangkok, on 24th June 2014.

Golden Key Presentation

LLeess CClleeffss dd’’OOrr UUSSAA

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OOuurr PPuurrppoossee The purpose of Les Clefs d’Or USA is to foster the professional development of concierges in the hotel industry by promoting tourism and adhering to the highest ethical standards of service for hotel guests.

TThhee CClleeffss dd’’OOrr DDii!!eerreennccee You can recognize Les Clefs d’Or concierges by the golden keys displayed on the lapels of their uniforms. These crossed gold keys are more than just the symbol of the organization; they are the symbol of guaranteed, quality service. Les Clefs d’Or members have dedicated many years of hard work and training to the concierge profession. Whether requesting something simple or complex, you’ll find Les Clefs d’Or concierges are trusted resources to business and leisure travelers alike, always keeping the guests’ safety, enjoyment and satisfaction in mind. !

LLooookk ffoorr tthhee KKeeyyss!! You will find Les Clefs d’Or concierges throughout the great hotels of the world. Your Les Clefs d’Or concierge may become your best friend during your hotel stay, and they are sure to become your greatest asset. To receive the finest possible service, seek hotels with Les Clefs d’Or concierges on sta". To learn more, visit www.lcdusa.org.

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53A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

USA

Les Clefs d’Or USA continues itseducational initiative with the Inter-national School of Hospitality in LasVegas, Nevada. Several membersof Les Clefs d’Or USA are assistingin writing the curriculum for aconcierge certification class. Weexpect the class to be available inthe summer of 2015.

Sarah Dandashy (The LondonWest Hollywood Hotel) was se-lected as the first Eugenio ChinigoAward recipient. Sarah receivedher award during the Board of Di-rectors meeting in Las Vegas. Shewill proudly represent the USA dur-ing the international Andy Pongcocompetition in Mendoza in April.

Les Clefs d’Or USA partnered with the Lincoln Motor Company to help develop a training program for theirsales and service staff. The goal of the program is to provide a luxury hospitality experience for Lincoln clients.Phase II of Lincoln Academy is currently under development.

Les Clefs d’Or USA’s 2015annual meeting will be heldin July in New Orleans.Themed “Unmasking yourPotential,” this congresspromises to provide an ex-traordinary attendee experi-ence. The Board ofDirectors displays the spe-cially made Mardi Grasbeads, made with our logo.

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54A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

U.A.E.

Attendees representing Les Clefs d'Or UAE are:

Dubai, UAE

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Doha, Qatar Manama, Bahrain

4th Annual Anniversary

Concierge of the Year Awards 2014

Our very first participation to European Congress. Attendees representing Les Clefs d'Or UAE are:

• Oussama Itani• Ashok Kuckian• Cheriza Arangorin • Antonio Afonso• Hisny Mohammed• Avnish Masih• Sandra Newman

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55A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

4th Annual General Meeting September 2014

Tuesday, 2 September 20144th Annual General Meeting of Les Clefs d'Or UAE 2014 in Al Ain Rotana attended by more then250 Active & Adherent Les Clefs d'Or, Abu Dhabi Concierge Group (ADCG), Dubai ConciergeGroup (DCG) Members, Fellows Concierges and Friends.

Monthly Meeting November 2014

Tuesday, 16 November 2014Les Clefs d'Or UAE Monthly Meeting No-vember 2014 in Emirates Golf Club Dubaiattended by almost 85 Active & AdherentLes Clefs d'Or, ADCG, DCG Members, fel-low concierges and friends, including AldoGiacomello, UICH Past President & Sage.

U.A.E.

TRAINING SOLUTIONS

About the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing’s (DTCM) Training Solutions.The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing established Training Solutions in January 2001 asa centre of excellence. It provides specific training solutions for the tourism sector to ensure that Dubai’stourism industry continues its world-class development with world-class people involved at all levels.

The courses are open to all individuals interested in enhancing their skills and tourism industry knowledge.They are of particular relevance to employees of tour operators and destination management companies,part-time exhibition and conference staff, concierges and other personnel dealing with visitors.

Unless otherwise specified, all courses are held in the Training Department of the Department of Tourismand Commerce Marketing at the Cruise Terminal, PortRashid.

English will be the medium of instruction and applicantsmust have an acceptable knowledge of the language –both spoken and written. Where applicable, candidateswill be provided full documentation and course materi-als by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Mar-keting.

All refreshments will be provided by the Department ofTourism and Commerce Marketing. Attendees shoulddress for comfort.

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56A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

U.A.E.

H.E. Helal Saeed Al MarriDirector General of Dubai DTCMReceiving UICH International Diploma

H.E. Sheikh Khalid Bin Humood Al KhalifaAssistant Undersecretary

of Ministry of Culture & TourismReceiving Diploma of Associate Membership from

Les Clefs d’Or UAE

Monday, 15 September 2014The official pinning ceremony for 16 members of theBahrain Hotels Concierges Group (BHCG), graced byMr. Hisham Alsaken, Director of Marking and PromotionMinistry of Culture and Tourism Bahrain.

Khalil Al YamanChief ConciergeSofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa, Sea & Spa

Benjamin PanlilioAssistant Chief ConciergeJebel Ali Golf Resort

Marie Ela LanzanasConcierge SupervisorThe Fairmont Dubai

Arnulfo GuintoChief ConciergeDusit Thani Dubai

Mandar NaikChief ConciergeThe Westin Dubai Mina SeyahiBeach Resort & Marina

Congratulations to our NEW Les Clefs d’Or Members:

Khalil Al YamanFounder & President of Bahrain Hotels Concierge GroupChief Concierge of Sofitel Thalassa and Spa Bahrain, Member of Les Clefs d’Or UAE

THANK YOU TO OUR

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