The events centre near Rome, with its unusual look combining the rural and industrial, offers flexible spaces that give free rein to organisers’ imagination.
 
First it was a farm. Then, after the war, it became a factory. Four years ago, it opened as an events venue. Corte di Arenaro is located in Fiumicino, 30 km from Rome and 15 km from its international airport, and is a complex with an unusual rural-industrial look set in a large pinewood.
Corte di Arenaro comprises several buildings with five conference rooms, an 800-seater plenary hall, 2,300 sqm of internal exhibition space and vast open-air areas. The list of events already hosted or scheduled for the future gets longer by the day. This is undoubtedly due to the technological and multimedia services it offers, as well as its extremely flexible spaces, which give organisers a blank canvas with which to work.
An example is the farewell party for the ECM User Conference 2007 of FileNet, an IBM company, held in May for 1,000 people from Europe, Japan, India and the US. “We didn’t provide the normal gala dinner, but rather a ‘piazza party’, organised as usual in partnership with a DMC”, explains Anna Scorsolini, proprietor of Corte di Arenaro. “The idea was to host an occasion incorporating many small events, where guests were actively involved and could wander around both in- and outdoors. It had the look of a country festival, with tables and benches outside, and cookery stands where participants could help prepare the dishes, including pizzas, sushi and kosher cuisine. We also had a wine-tasting area and pasta ladies who taught the guests how to make tagliatelle.”
The more “traditional” events are mainly held in the large plenary hall Nervi: 600 sqm that can be used for launches of new car models (Peugeot and Renault have already used the space), gala dinners (pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca had 800 diners), conventions and political meetings.
The venue has also recently made available five mini-apartments, each of which can accommodate up to three people. An ideal place, perhaps, to put up the event organiser and their staff.
July 2007 |
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