“In Deauville, we found perfect spatial unity and warmth for our medical congresses”

On the occa­sion of the Nation­al Days of the GERS‑P (French Soci­ety of Car­di­ology), organ­ized by the Over­come agency, its dir­ect­or Patri­cia Lhote looks back on the suc­cess of this itin­er­ant event at the Deau­ville Inter­na­tion­al Centre (CID). Reg­u­lat­ory con­cerns cleared, strong attendee engage­ment, and genu­ine con­vi­vi­al­ity: dis­cov­er her feedback.

Could you introduce this event and its background?

Patri­cia Lhote: “We are delighted to be in Deau­ville to organ­ize the GERS‑P con­gress, which brings togeth­er pro­fes­sion­als from the Exer­cise, Rehab­il­it­a­tion, Sport and Pre­ven­tion Group of the French Soci­ety of Car­di­ology (SFC). We had the priv­ilege of wel­com­ing the pres­id­ent of the SFC on the very first morning.

It is an annu­al itin­er­ant con­gress, and this Deau­ville edi­tion has been a real suc­cess: we recor­ded high­er attend­ance than over the past two years!”

Did you have any preconceptions or concerns before choosing Deauville as a destination?

Patri­cia Lhote: “Quite frankly, the des­tin­a­tion raised a few hes­it­a­tions ini­tially, par­tic­u­larly regard­ing access­ib­il­ity or its lux­ury image. In med­ic­al event man­age­ment, we are bound by very strict reg­u­lat­ory con­straints (not­ably MedTech eth­ic­al com­pli­ance): we are pro­hib­ited from hous­ing our attendees in 5‑star hotels and must strictly opt for 3- or 4‑star accommodations.

We quickly real­ized that Deau­ville offers a par­tic­u­larly well-suited 3- and 4‑star hotel sup­ply. The pres­ence of estab­lish­ments such as the Novotel facing the sea, Mer­cure, or Ibis fully sat­is­fies health industry reg­u­lat­ory require­ments while provid­ing a very pleas­ant setting.”

How did the event go inside the convention centre?

Patri­cia Lhote: “I had some con­cerns regard­ing the size of the CID: I feared the ven­ue might be too vast for a 500-per­son event and that we would lose warmth. It was quite the oppos­ite! The single-loc­a­tion setup is ideal, and we were able to cre­ate genu­ine con­vi­vi­al­ity, highly appre­ci­ated by the delegates.

My oth­er ques­tion mark was the exhib­i­tion area loc­ated down­stairs. I wor­ried attendees might wander off for a walk on the beach dur­ing breaks. Not at all! Every­one stayed on-site for the buf­fet lunch and headed straight back into the con­fer­ence rooms. That is a major advant­age: once attendees arrive, they stay engaged until the very end of the congress.”

What is your overall takeaway from this experience at CID Deauville?

Patri­cia Lhote: “The assess­ment is extremely pos­it­ive: a warm, friendly, and uni­fy­ing event where del­eg­ates stayed engaged throughout.

Deau­ville is a fant­ast­ic des­tin­a­tion, and we are unan­im­ous regard­ing the qual­ity of the wel­come. Very object­ively, we man­age sev­er­al itin­er­ant med­ic­al con­gresses, and we will closely study Deau­ville as a des­tin­a­tion for our upcom­ing events. Thank you again to the CID teams!”