Mobile phones
As we know, all young people have at least one mobile phone and don’t hesitate to make use of the various features offered by these devices. This is why, during the wine service competition, the judges considered it wise to confiscate contestants’ mobiles for the entire duration of the contests!
The AEHT’s Partners
The AEHT has several partners, and two among them are highly visible each year because they are physically present and each occupies a large stand. One of them is the ‘Grand Marnier’ liqueur company, with its inimitable representative Serge Sevaux who does not hesitate to go the extra mile to promote his excellent products and to provide prizes for the winners of the bar contest.
Serge Sevaux busy at work behind his stand
In action at the prize-giving 
The stand of Casa della divisa
In another context Marco Esposto, boss of the Casa della Divisa company which specialises in the sale of uniforms and other accessories for the hotel and restaurants trades, is delighted to meet school heads each year. It is a very efficient way of promoting his wares since it is a unique opportunity to attract the interest of these school heads, who have come from all over Europe. And for good measure Marco Esposto also attends Christmas in Europe every year.
Guides
The BTA (Belgrade Travel Agency) was responsible in particular for the excursions, and for this purpose recruited official guides. The least we can say is that, in everyone’s view, these guides were very informative and well informed. It was a real joy to listen to them.
Signposting
In general the signposting for the competitions was carried out efficiently, whilst for the signs for the two scheduled lectures were not quite up to the mark. Perhaps this partly explains why there were so few people in the audience?
Final adjustments?
Scarcely had they arrived at the hotel than General Secretary Nadine Schintgen and Vice-President Remco Koerts got down to work to finalise the details of a competition file on the corner of the bar. Real stakhanovists!
Nadine and Remco already hard at work 
This hotel boasts more than 400 bedrooms and all the amenities
Crowne Plaza
In Belgrade nobody had to travel to go to the competitions or to any of the other events scheduled as part of the Annual Conference. The Crowne Plaza Hotel brought everything together under one roof, even for the culinary arts competition, although the premises were slightly cramped for the purpose in question!
With more than 400 bedrooms this four-star hotel is one of the jewels of Belgrade's hotels, located in the business area of the new town.
Prize-giving
Every year the presentation of the prizes to the winners is the eagerly-awaited moment of the gala evening. There was obviously no exception to this in Belgrade – except that the surface area of the stage already occupied by the band was not enough to accommodate the prize-winners of each discipline. This gave rise to scenes of chaos that were indescribable and very photogenic …
New partner?
The Docklands Academy London teamThe Docklands Academy London company was present in Belgrade in order to make a presentation of its objectives and its facilities to the General Assembly. On this occasion the boss of this Academy had delegated his Director to take on this task. At the end of the meeting there was however an opportunity to shoot a photo of the team, namely from left to right: Kalender Cuvec in charge of the company’s largest restaurant, Onder Sahan the big boss and Mrs Aysegul Yesildaglar, the very convincing Director General.
Handy bag
Handy bagWhen the participants were welcomed to the conference, they were each presented with their name badge as well as with a beautiful bag in the colours of the 27th Annual Conference containing a note pad and pen, maps and tourist brochures and a handsome cutting board to be hung in all their kitchens, as well as a white scarf with the insignia of the 27th Annual Conference. And as an added extra they were treated to big smiles from the students of the Belgrade hotel school!
Gallup: an innovation
In order to gauge the degree of satisfaction among the participants, the organisers arranged for everyone to receive a document entitled 'Individual participant survey report’; this contained an eleven-point rating for everything from the transfer service to the gala dinner!
