As much of their working experience was acquired in Italy, they perfectly espouse the philosophy of both North Americans and Europeans alike.
Chantal Bally
In 2002, Chantal Bally founded Venice à la Carte with her sister Marie-France, as she felt that her extensive convention experience acquired in Canada over a ten-year period would benefit the Venice congress scene.
Prior to founding Venice à la Carte with her sister, Chantal worked from 1996 to 2001 as Regional Sales Manager for the Alliance Alberghi hotel chain where she managed a portfolio of companies, travel agencies and meeting planners.
Together with a partner, she founded and managed a convention planning company in Canada from 1992 to 1995. Her major clients included the Canadian Dental Association and the Aesthetic Manufacturers’ Association where, in addition to organizing a convention for 3000 aestheticians, she also edited two magazines on aesthetics.
From 1986 to 1991, she was director of the annual convention of the Order of Dentists of Quebec, which attracted 8000 participants. During this period, she personally organized 6 editions of the convention. Working closely with an Organizing Committee of dentists and 2 permanent staff members, her duties consisted in:
developing and administering the budget
managing the exhibits (320 booths for a total of 180 companies)
including:drawing up all exhibitor packages, selling booths,
assigning booths, invoicing exhibitors, etc.
organizing a computerized advance and on-site registration
system
overseeing hotel reservations
preparing all promotional material including the preliminary
program and final pocket program book
liaising with invited lecturers
preparing audio-visual requirements
and, last but not least, coordinating the event on site along with
30 staff members and volunteers
At the beginning of her working career in Italy, she worked as Front Desk Manager for several small hotels (50 rooms). This was followed by a three-year stint in the Marketing Division of CIGAHOTELS, an Italian deluxe hotel chain (now part of the Starwood Group).
Her intimate knowledge and love of Venice, coupled with her complete and thorough standards of excellence and professionalism acted as a catalyst to found Venice à la Carte, along with her sister, Marie-France.
Marie-France Bally
Marie-France Bally has been working in the tourist industry for many years – she began her career as a Passenger/Reservations Agent and Vip Hostess for Air Canada at Montreal’s International Airport. The training at Canada’s national carrier was extremely rigorous and customer service was the top priority.
For several years Marie-France was the in-house Pr Manager at the refined four-star superior Monaco & Grand Canal Hotel in Venice.
She then worked as Pr and Marketing Manager at the elegant four-star superior Londra Palace Hotel in Venice, member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
Marie-France later accepted a marketing contract with the recently renovated Grand Hotel Majestic, a singular Belle Epoque property on the west shores of Lake Maggiore. She travelled extensively around Europe and America promoting the property to a MICE market, which brought her in close contact with Meeting Planners, PCO’s, Incentive and Event Organizers, etc. She became finely attuned to their needs and learned to listen to what they wanted – a precious experience she now brings to Venice à la Carte.