...not easy to get lost...
Midway through Venice, we had some time for
pictures at the famous Ponte di Rialto:
a very busy Canal Grande
Finally, around noon, we arrived at the Piazza San Marco and the Basilica di San Marco a Venezia:
On the other end of Piazza San Marco, the
huge stage was already set up for the CreArt
performance in the evening. We were able to catch a few snippets
from the soundcheck.
Our meeting point was the Caffè Aurora, beautifully
located on the Piazza San Marco. It was great to have a reserved
space with free refreshments and snack. VIP treatment with
Swatch :-)
We then headed towards the Teatro La Fenice, the place of the press conference for the launch of the CreArt Swatch collection.
We had to wait a few minutes outside of the
theatre because the press conference for the journalists was still
going on.
After the journalists had left the press conference, our collectors group was lead to the room with (from left to right): Billy The Artist [not on the picture below], Laurent Berthonneau (head of 'Marketing Project Management'), Arlette-Elsa Emch (Swatch Brand Manager since May 2009), Nicolas G. Hayek, Nick Hayek, Ted Scapa, and Matthew Langille.
So they were holding a special press
conference for us collectors! It lasted about one hour and
everyone was in a real good mood as this was probably the most relaxed
press conference of the day (in the afternoon, there was a third press
conference for the sales people). Especially Nick Hayek gave
some really funny answers to our questions.
Later, the three artists and Nicolas G. Hayek took a lot of time to patiently sign stuff, posing for pictures etc. It was really an enjoyable atmosphere and I am sure that many of these signed items will find a central place in the respective Swatch collections...
Billy The Artist
At around 1.30pm, the press conference was
over and we entered the great hall of the theatre where the artist
watches were on display.
The CreArt
collection consists of the following twelve watches (10 gents
and 2 Jelly In Jelly):
When we left the theatre, each collector
received a goodie bag with the CreArt
by Swatch press special (GZ204-1):
Click here to read part 3 of my Venice report ("Dragon boat race in Venice and CreArt performance").
Back to Stay tuned to Swatch.