The hospitality programme at ICC Cricket World Cup 2007, held in the West Indies, recently won the International Sports Event Management and Security (ISEMS) 2007 Award for Commercial and Sponsor Hospitality. Particularly impressive was its use of local staff and suppliers, together with the huge amount of money generated for the Caribbean islands on which the events was based.

The global event took place in nine different countries across the Caribbean earlier this year. Hospitality in Partnership (HiP) ran the programme, drawing on an experienced management team from the UK reinforced by local staff to help navigate the complexities of the tournament. The company provided hospitality at each of the 51 matches, welcoming over 20,000 guests.

“Everyone involved in every aspect of this tournament agrees that it was the most complex and challenging international sporting event ever staged,” said HiP chief executive Dr Chris Bruton, who headed the team in the Caribbean. “Using our fundamental principles – engaging with and working with the local communities – Cricket Hospitality had its head office in Barbados and 70% of the full-time staff was Caribbean nationals. Local suppliers were used wherever possible and, in the build up period alone, more than $1 million were spent in the local economies.

“Corporate hospitality was a completely new concept in the countries that we were operating in,” Bruton continued. “We know that we have laid the foundations for a new market at sporting events in the Caribbean and we are all proud of this legacy.”