One year after opening in Brussels, Comet Louise has hosted close to 1,000 events and 20,000 participants, confirming companies' appetite for real meetings.
Comet Meetings, the French start-up reinventing the experience of meetings in the city, is celebrating its first year in Belgium. A major player in the Future of Work, Comet Meetings looks back on the first year of its co-meeting building in Brussels, a venue dedicated to corporate meetings and seminars in the Louise district. After a start marked by the coronavirus, an event that shook up the rules of work and highlighted the importance of social ties between colleagues, the start-up welcomes the positive impact that period has had on corporate meetings.
The Comet experience: designed to combine productivity and wellbeing in meetings
Created to meet the needs of companies that have to come together (seminars, executive committees, training), Comet Meetings offers an experience designed to foster the collective intelligence of teams. In little over a year, Comet Meetings Louise has hosted close to 1,000 events and meetings, as well as almost 20,000 participants, with the aim of offering them gatherings full of meaning and creativity. The landmark venue, designed in collaboration with Belgian architect Lionel Jadot, has also turned heads: hundreds of curious companies and entrepreneurs have come to visit it.
"As firm believers in collective intelligence and human experiences, we are convinced that a meeting should be a memorable event that creates value for companies. The global health crisis has strengthened that conviction, and many companies share it: more than ever, they are looking to bring their teams together for memorable, decisive moments. The growth of Comet Louise illustrates that strong trend, and we are certain it will not stop here," explains Victor Carreau, co-founder of Comet Meetings.
A wide variety of visitors
Comet Meetings is also pleased to count prestigious Belgian and international clients among its users. To name just a few, hub.brussels, Axa, the European Parliament, BMI Executive Institute, bpost and Belfius are among the organisations convinced by the added value the venue brings to professional gatherings.
"Comet Meetings is extremely easy to reach, right in the centre of Brussels. It feels like walking into a hotel, and it is very inspiring. It makes you want to step off the beaten track and it heightens our creativity. There are many possibilities when working as a group, thanks to the different room capacities. When you arrive at Comet, you know the experience will be seamless and successful, thanks to the teams who support you from designing the event to running it," says Thalys.
Organising motivating, high-quality meetings for their staff is a concern shared by many companies, whatever their sector. Comet therefore sees real diversity among its clients, with this top 5:
- Associations and public administration (27%)
- Business and construction (17%)
- Consulting (11%)
- Banking, finance and insurance (10%)
- Services (9%)
International expansion
After a strong year in Brussels, Comet Meetings is continuing its international expansion and opened its first site in Spain in the summer of 2022: a new 2,000 sq m venue opened in Madrid, on Calle Alfonso XII, opposite the famous Retiro park. Now present in three European markets and with total revenue of more than €25 million, Comet Meetings certainly does not intend to stop there.
"We are passionate about collective intelligence, so it is fundamental for us to convey our vision of Comet and to embody it in our many projects: with everything going digital, companies and their staff need to move towards a better approach to meetings. We help them do less, but better," says Victor Carreau, co-founder and CEO of Comet Meetings. "Our recent openings in Paris and Madrid allow us to introduce ever more companies to this approach, for a result that is higher in quality, more unifying and more memorable."
Comet Meetings in a few figures:
- 8 co-meeting venues in Paris (Paris Bercy opened in October 2022)
- 1 co-meeting venue in Brussels
- A brand-new co-meeting venue in Madrid
- More than 30,000 sq m entirely dedicated to stimulating participants' collective intelligence
- A team of 140 people
- More than 250,000 clients welcomed since 2017
- A single price per participant, accessible to as many people as possible
