Her timing may prove significant with major international incentive and corporate groups locking in events for 250, 600 and 1,000 with Vivre this year, while also buying out hotels and off-site venues.
Formerly based in Melbourne where she operated SHE – Suzanne Hart Events – Hart initially moved to Bali about eight years ago to work with local DMC Destination Asia.
She is now sales and marketing operations manager for Vivre, which has two event venues that can banquet 1,500 and 1,200 – the largest dedicated venues in Bali. Family-owned facilities, Taman Bagawan sits on the white sands of Nusa Dua beach while Puri Bagawan is on the Jimbaran clifftop.
“So, big or small doesn’t make any difference to us,” Hart says.
“We have these two very large venues and there are only three venues on this island that can handle groups over about 300, outside a ballroom or a convention centre.”
While weddings at the venues are popular her focus is strictly corporate events.
“We have a commercial catering kitchen set up to rival any that I ever visited or worked with in Australia, hands down,” she says, adding that off-site catering for events is also possible.
Then there’s Vivre Gourmet, an online catering service for people in villas or small groups in other private accommodation.
Hart describes the business environment in Bali at present as extremely busy with short lead times even for larger groups of over 250 people.
“It really amazes me to see the decisions being made in such a short amount of time and in a short lead time,” she says.
“A recent Indonesian government conference that was held in Bali confirmed their offsite dinner with us on the Thursday and the dinner was held on the Monday.
“We work very closely, of course, up here with our local destination management companies, who, of course, I know very well. We work closely with them, but we also do have our clients, many clients [that] come to us direct when they know that they can chat to me.”
Typical of the interest is a large American global software company bringing 600 people to Bali in October, who will take over one of Vivre Group’s venues for a week.
Hart said next year is looking really good for the catering company.
“A very busy year and it’s starting in February, so that’s a big surprise for us, because a thousand people at a corporate event in February [is unusual given] it is the rainy season.”
