Viking Grace
Digital signage in meetings
Viking Grace is a popular meeting place
The ship’s conference deck offers open views of the sea and the technical equipments are top notch. After the meeting, the ship has a wonderful setting for relaxation with different types of restaurants and bars, Spa & Wellness departments and the opportunity to shop in the largest tax-free store in the Baltic Sea.
– “The new Viking Grace on the Turku-Stockholm line offers a whole new type of conference travel experience,” says Henrik Willstedt, the ship’s conference manager.
“Conference passengers usually make daytrips by changing ships in the afternoon in Mariehamn. One direction can be reached on Viking Grace and the other direction on other Viking ships. There are roughly the same number of conference passengers from Sweden and Finland, Willstedt says.
Viking Grace, which was launched in January 2013, interested the conference organizers even before the ship was commissioned, so that by the first spring departures, the meeting rooms were sold out, and there were enough bookings well into the autumn. The price of a conference trip is about 40 euros per person, which includes a boat trip, a conference room with coffees and fruits, and a buffet meal with drinks. The minimum size of a meeting group is seven people.
Something retro and something new
The variety of styles in Grace’s interior design – from cosy retro to understated elegance – has received a lot of praise. The variety of styles can also be seen on the ship’s meeting deck. There are a total of twelve separate meeting rooms, and thanks to the movable walls, they can be changed as needed. Decorated with designer furniture, the conference stand offers meeting places for 500 guests, and in fair use the premises can accommodate up to a couple of thousand people.
– The conference department’s technical equipment includes WLAN, a ceiling-mounted speaker system, LCD screens, microphones, and a document camera. The auditorium with more than 200 seats also has a projector with screen, a wireless microphone, a video camera, and a PC projector. The same content and sound can be presented simultaneously in several meeting rooms, Willstedt lists.
– We also have a communications technician who makes sure that all the ship’s information systems work flawlessly.
FirstView screens for meeting rooms and guidance
At the door of each meeting room, there is a FirstView room screen with the name of the meeting room, the name of the company or group using the room, and the meeting timetable. The users of the meeting rooms also get their company’s logo or other desired information on the screens.
– The FirstView system has proven to be very reliable, and our conference assistants are able to quickly update the information on each screen via browser. The conference deck also has one larger screen, which can be used as a digital notice board in addition to meeting information.
Henrik Willstedt has worked for 25 years in the meeting departments of Viking Line’s ships. – This is a very interesting job, perhaps the most interesting and rewarding job on the ship’s service side! This is usually daytime work and it is rhythmic in weekly periods: seven days on the ship and seven days off ashore. It is well suited for an employee with a family .
The FirstView system has proven to be very reliable, and our conference assistants are able to quickly update the information on each screen via browser.
Henrik Willstedt
CONFERENCE MANAGER, VIKING GRACE
