SPATEC was held last week at the Chateau Elan resort and winery about an hour outside Atlanta. The famed resort features a winery, two golf courses, tennis, spa, recreation pavilion and four restaurants. With a $50 million investment, it could be a marvelous 5-star property.

SPATEC is put on my McLean Events out of London. Why the Europeans have figured out how to do trade events in our industry is beside me but aren’t they the ones who came up with American Idol and Dancing with the Stars? McLean is a well-polished machine and came up with a brilliant format. But there is one thing the Europeans need to know about us Americans- we are different when it comes to food and drink.

One difference is that we eat earlier. Let’s face it, when we go to events, go on vacation or visit friends, it’s all about the food and drink. While we are eating lunch we are thinking about what we are going to be eating at dinner. And while eating at dinner, we are wondering what we are going to be eating the next day. McLean went all out and offered the house wine from Chateau’s own collection. Unfortunately, it was not the reserved collection. They also went all out with the opening buffet dinner which featured barbeque ribs, fried fish of some sort, fried potato cakes and collard greens. But they more than made up for it with slabs of pecan pie that weighed in at 1100 calories.

Now the only reason why I mention all this is that following morning we were treated to a guest speaker who spoke about weight loss, nutrition and even came up with a rap song on it (I will spare you that part). Her main advice: Stay away from buffets and stay away from dessert. And if the food isn’t a 8-10 rating, don’t eat it.

The morning breakfast buffet which was served right before the guest speaker had plenty of healthy options but who eats those? Bacon, sausage, eggs, cheese, croissants, and French toast were in demand. After a few morning meetings, it was off to the lunch buffet at 12:30PM. More pork, more fried whatever and more slabs of pecan pie. Then more meetings in the afternoon and when 4:30PM came, it was time for the team building exercise. What fun we had in mind!

Ooops, where was the afternoon snack? No matter how much we stuff our faces at lunch, we still need an afternoon snack. Right? But no snack but plenty of free alcohol at the pub. People were drinking martinis and Guinness and why not? After 30 minutes of indulgence, we were ushered into the pavilion where more free beer awaited us. The activity? South African line dancing. Let’s just say after 90 minutes of this, and NO FOOD, we were ready for some R&R. Back to the resort and guess what? More house wine and cocktails. At least this time they had hand passed snacks such as fried egg rolls and fried coconut shrimp. YIKES!

This night we were on our own for dinner. I hooked up with Ian from EmerginC fame and he is still having the time of his life. Also hooked up with a spa director who knows how to have fun and fun we had. The food was quite good and a welcome reprieve from the buffets. This was a great time to hear the feedback from the meetings and the activity. Seemed like the activity was a NO GO!

The following morning started with guess what? You win the prize! Yes, a buffet breakfast followed by more meetings. But instead of a 12:30 lunch, McLean went European and didn’t have lunch until 1:30PM. People were starving! They didn’t eat since 8:30AM, what were they thinking! Finally 1:30PM came and everyone ran to, you guessed it, the buffet lunch. At this point, it didn’t matter what was served as long as there was more pecan pie. And there was.

More meetings after lunch and then a 3 hour break until cocktails. 3 hours? Everyone was exhausted and 3 hours was like the 3 days we were there. I ventured over the spa and hung out at the indoor pool relaxing until. . .two girls in their 20’s came in, went into the pool, and started talking like they were in a stadium. They were actually walking back and forth in the pool. Have you ever seen that? And talking at the same time! YIKES! After diving into the pool and splashing them as much as I could, they finally left.

Then the finale of SPATEC, the wear your suit and tie dinner. Can you imagine? Well, for 25% of the people, they couldn’t and wore jeans and whatever else they were comfortable in. After 30 minutes of more cocktails, we finally went into the ballroom. The dinner? Something right out of the 1980’s: The bar converted to cash which no one partook but we had the house wine free pouring (by now, why not?). The entrée was a well-done petite filet, piece of salmon with some secret sauce, a scoop of mashed potatoes with an asparagus sticking out. Soup starter, no salad. And dessert? Forget it, not even pecan pie. Where’s the buffet when you need it?

Overall, great business event sans the food and drink.

Happy Tuesday!