Stay, Stray, Play and Feast: Avenue Plaza Hotel: World Class Convention Venue (Awesome Avenue Plaza Series 1)

Avenue Plaza Hotel
The Tent: World Class Convention Venue
(Awesome Avenue Plaza Venue Series 1)

The Thomasian Endocrine Progress Inc (TEPI), an alumni organization

of UST Department of Medicine Section of Endocrinology, endocrine

fellows, consultants and faculty was supposed to hold its annual meeting in

General Santos City on April 2015, and the secretariat had been preparing

for the big event for a year, until the Mamasapano Massacre happened.

Source: LINK

Just a month before the convention, the TEPI Secretariat called us

if we could provide them a list of hotels and convention centers in

Bicol as they intend to move the annual meeting somewhere else and

they are considering either CamSur or Albay as possible venues.

After few days, we were told that the
TEPI 15^th Congress would be held in Naga City

...and they have already reserved the popular

Avenue Plaza Hotel as the meeting venue,

…and the beautiful Tugawe Cove Resort,

in Caramoan as the Team Building venue.

This was the second time that we would be hosting this

annual meeting and the last time was five years ago,

the 10^th TEPI Congress dubbed a Extreme Endocrinology,

…where the team building was held in CWC,

…and the convention at Villa Caceres Hotel.

It was a pretty successful convention as we had a year

to prepare, despite the fact that there were only two of

us (Thomasian Endocrinologists) based in Naga City.

The number of Thomasian Endocrinologists in Naga remained the
same at present but this time, we had less than a month to prepare.
Luckily, the Avenue Plaza Hotel staff did a superb job of not only
our venue but acted as the event planner as well , at no extra cost.

With our secretariat being based in Manila, we

planned our convention by just maintaining a

close contact by phone and the hotel staff doing

all the footwork and literally all the dirty work for us .

They did superbly well.

A day before the convention, most of the delegates arrived

at the Naga City Airport and some at the Legazpi Airport,

…and they were whisked by chartered vans,

… to Tugawe Cove in Caramoan for

an overnight pre- convention team building.

While I remained in Naga City to check the preparations at the venue.
The hotel staff was working overtime, without ever bothering me at all.

I also checked in early so the kids were able to
relax and enjoy the hotel prior to the meeting.

The group arrived a day later and were

treated to a refreshing halo- halo snacks

at DJC Restaurant at the Westpark.

The Avenue Plaza Hotel was gracious

enough to let us use their Boardroom for

free for a pre- convention board meeting,

Source: LINK

…and the delegates were awed on

how modern the boardroom was.

They have never expected to see a top- notch meeting facility in
one of the poorest regions in the country. The awesome boardroom
was just a prelude of the things to come for our 15^th Congress.