BILBAO- A few weeks ago, the Palacio Euskalduna hosted a congress on cybersecurity that ended at 6.30 pm: Only half an hour later, the 500 attendees of a fair arrived to celebrate a cocktail and an act in room A-1. At the same time, the BOS rehearsal began and, with the music still resounding in the Auditorium, half a thousand people attending the fair walked towards a dinner in the Jauregia restaurant. It is just one example of the frenetic rhythm that is breathed behind the scenes of the Palace, whose logistics to respond to all these needs is immense. "Here the operators are all day assembling and disassembling", admits the director, Andoni Aldekoa.
Last year, the Palacio Euskalduna hosted 455 congress events, ranging from congresses themselves to exhibitions and social events. This number represents an increase of 12% over the figures for 2016. Of these, a fifth had more than a thousand attendees and approximately a third lasted for four days or more. More than 50,000 people attended the congresses alone, some thirty in 2017.
The figures are so high that sometimes the events overlap or have a very small time difference, which implies an extreme level of coordination to dismantle the one held and mount the next in record time. Another real case: a BOS concert was held on Friday afternoon and a conference with 1,500 people in the auditorium on Saturday morning. It finished at 13.45 and at 14.00 the ABAO began to prepare its assembly, which was premiering that same afternoon. Not counting the 20,000 people who passed through the Palace to pick up their numbers for the Bilbao night marathon. All in just 24 hours.
One of the aspects for which the Euskalduna Palace stands out in the field of event organisation is the versatility of its spaces, which make it possible to hold cocktails or have a large exhibition space, or to organise events of different characteristics. All this makes it necessary, precisely, for the Palace to have a large number of items to respond to the needs of customers. It is precisely this type of elements that will be deposited in the new warehouses that will be fitted out. "We have a thousand chairs, 300 tables... When someone comes to an event and sees chairs, when they are not in use you have to store them somewhere," explains Andoni Aldekoa.
"A GREAT UNKNOWN" The director of Euskalduna is emphatic: "The logistics of an enclosure like this is a great unknown to the public; just in the dismantling of the exhibition area of a congress more than one hundred people participate". For example, at the Pathology event, the largest congress ever held in the history of the palace, more than eighty stands were installed, which are becoming more sophisticated every day and are equipped with the latest advances in technology.
The logistics and services alone occupy thousands of square metres in the basements of the Palace, an essential space for a smooth day-to-day running. This is where the warehouses are located, but also cold rooms and refrigerators in which, for example, some of the cocktails offered to congress attendees are prepared. Returning to the Pathology meeting held last September, 9,000 lunches were offered for which 40,000 pintxos and around 5,000 buffet portions were prepared. In addition, an average of 1,500 people were served per coffee service - with two coffees per day - for a total of 12,000 coffee breaks. All this work was made possible by a team of seventy people working simultaneously in the kitchen, living room and cleaning.
Créditos https://www.deia.eus/2018/12/23/bizkaia/bilbao/una-logistica-imparable-para-dar-respuesta-a-455-eventos