RISING TO THE CHALLENGE FOR HYDERABAD’S HISTORIC E-PRIX
Earlier this month, the ABB FIA Formula E Championship made history by hosting the first international racing event on the streets of India in almost a decade. The Travel Places Events team travelled to Hyderabad to support our clients for this historic race.
The race was part of an E-Mobility Week, aimed at bringing the global EV ecosystem to the city to enable collaboration and learning while celebrating the progress India has made in this area. During this week, the city hosted a number of events, finishing with the sold-out Hyderabad E-Prix.
The numbers.
People
Transfer Movements
Room nights
The Challenge
Travel Places was tasked with managing the movements of 175 people to the Hyderabad E-Prix, managing 800 hotel room nights and 250 transfer movements from accommodation to the track. As it was the first Formula E event to be held in India, our team had extensively prepared for it in the knowledge that this event was likely to be challenging.
With the race being a street circuit event, the amount of work that could be done to the track and surrounding areas in the lead up to it was limited. Even up to the days prior to the first practise, uncertainty remained over whether the event would be ready in time. This late push to complete the track and its infrastructure meant the Travel Places team in Hyderabad were required to think on their feet and react to the ever-changing situation.
The complexities of the location meant our team were required to be on hand more than ever to oversee every detail. From airport meet and greets in the early hours, to late night transfers between the track and hotels, the team worked long hours to ensure they were able to manage all movements.
Our Approach
This event highlighted just how important it is to be able to adapt. Much of the planning that was done before the event had to be adjusted once the team arrived. The 2.8km track, featuring a total of 18 turns, used the existing roads for vehicular traffic. This caused diversions in the core area of the city, leading to huge traffic issues on all surrounding roads, and resulting in arrival times being nearly impossible to predict. It required the team to adapt transfer times to take account of this.
The roads directly next to the track were not closed off, so the team also had to arrange for transfer vehicles to park further away than they had planned. With details constantly changing, our team had to think on their feet, react to events as they happened and adapt the timings.
With over 45 years’ experience in managing group travel, we have the benefit of a global network of suppliers to lean on, even where those events take place in new locations.
Having used a transport company in India for a previous group, we already had a contact we knew we could rely on. Despite the complexities of the service required for this event, both with logistics and equipment, the company was exceptionally professional. Alongside the detailed preparation from our team, they successfully ensured our clients got to where they needed to be and at the right time.
The team based themselves at the same hotel that the majority of our clients were staying. As they were coming and going throughout the day, this meant they could be there to make sure the journeys to and from the track went according to plan. Interacting with our clients each day helped provide our clients with full confidence they would get to where they needed to be, despite any outside disruption.
The Result
We were all prepared for this to be a more challenging event, but despite all the challenges, our team on the ground in Hyderabad, alongside the rest of the team in the office in Worthing, managed to deliver for our clients.
