Hans Rissmann, of Edinburgh's convention
centre, tells Raymond Duncan his plans.
HANS RISSMANN, who in May took up the post of chief executive of the
#38m Edinburgh International Conference Centre, is not a man to leave
anything to chance.
No less a person than Princess Alexandra can vouch for the German's
meticulousness. Some years ago she visited Clydeside for a ship-naming
ceremony. During her stay she spent time in what was then the Eurocrest
Hotel at Erskine.
As general manager, Rissmann was aware of an intermittent fault
troubling the lifts. Just in case anything went wrong, he arranged to
have an engineer at the top of the shaft, one at the bottom, and a third
riding shotgun on the cabin roof.
When the dreaded mishap occurred and a look of horror crossed the
royal face, he was able to reassure her that she was in safe hands. On
her eventual arrival on the sixth floor she asked to meet her fellow,
but not visible, passenger.
The career of the 48-year-old from Heidelberg has certainly not been
of the stop-start kind. Over the course of 20 years, he has risen from
trainee manager in one of Germany's top five-star hotels to his present
prestigious position, in charge of a world-class venue for conventions,
product launches, and corporate events due to open in autumn 1995.
Along the way there have been many highlights -- and one tale of the
unexpected.
He worked in a five-star Paris hotel during the 1968 student
revolution. The hotel welcomed kings and queens as well as the odd movie
star. He remembers one particular Hollywood couple very well. He won't
say who they were, but he will reveal that the lady required her
dressing-table mirror in a certain position to do justice to her
appearance, and the gentleman required a daily bottle of vodka in the
room.
Rissmann had always wanted to travel to the US. On the way, he stopped
off in the UK and stayed.
It was on the Isle of Bute, at the 104-bedroom Glenburn, then owned by
the Marquis of Bute, that he realised his ambition to be a hotel general
manager by the age of 30. He made it by three years.
His next job was with what was then Eurocrest, running the company's
200-bedroom hotel at Erskine.
As well as Princess Alexandra, the Queen Mother, in the town to meet
patients at Erskine Hospital, was also a guest. Looking out of her
window she asked, ''And what am I seeing here?''
He explained that under the Erskine Bridge lay the village of Old
Kilpatrick, once a Roman stronghold. ''So you're not the only foreigner
who has held fort here,'' she responded.
The company was expanding and Rissmann was appointed ''director of
development for the management contract division for Europe''. For a
couple of years he travelled widely seeking sites for development.
He later became a freelance consultant doing the same sort of work,
and then found himself headhunted by Penta Hotels for the position of
general manager at its 645-bedroom Heathrow Penta.
In his time there it made the news several times, picking up a number
of ''conference hotel of the year'' awards.
It also became famous for a more dramatic reason -- a Jumbo almost
crashed into it one foggy November morning, after the radar and
landing-strip lights fused.
Contrary to reports that guests had to scatter, only two people, he
says, really noticed the aircraft. ''Two engineers changing light bulbs
in car parks saw the undercarriage coming towards them.''
Forty per cent of business done at the hotel was conference-related,
and it was through this that he met the recruitment agent employed to
find a chief executive for the Edinburgh project.
Almost three months into the appointment, Rissmann is relishing the
job and the challenge of establishing the EICC as a conference centre of
international standing, rivalling those in Hong Kong and Berlin.
Marketing initiatives for the joint venture between Edinburgh District
Council and Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Ltd, which is being built
near The Sheraton Grand Hotel, have already had an impact throughout
Europe and the US.
At the touch of a button, its 1200-seat auditorium will be converted
-- by revolving the two seating areas 180 degrees -- to create three
separate, self-contained auditoria, one for 600 and two for 300. This
feature will make it unique in the European conference market.
There are already a number of major conferences booked, including one
with 2000 delegates confirmed for the year 2000. Many other
international events are under negotiation.
Rissmann says: ''What we have not done yet is make any major inroads
into the corporate market, but we will be addressing that very soon.''
While recruiting staff, he has been pleasantly surprised by the number
of people in Edinburgh's employment market with language skills. ''It is
very encouraging and the myth of Scottish people not being linguists is
totally untrue so far.''
Between 55 and 65 people should be working at the centre on a
permanent basis when it is up and running, and it is planned to contract
out catering, security, and maintenance.
The new facility is expected to create more than #4m net additional
annual income for Scotland. Each year it should bring in more than
100,000 business tourists who will spend some #3.5m on accommodation.
But that is some way off. In the meantime, Rissmann will be taking
time off during the summer to take in some culture. One of his two
Scots-educated sons is a prize-winning musician and composer.
Twenty-one-year-old Paul is performing on the fringe and his father will
be in the audience.
His other son, 19-year-old Hans, is already following in the paternal
footsteps -- he is a trainee manager at one of the top hotels in
Germany.
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