HUONE Singapore: The Events Hotel Bringing Creativity and Fun Back To Meetings
PUBLISHED February 15th, 2019 01:10 pm
Clarke Quay is known for many things: Singapore’s most famous nightclub, a mini golf bar with metre-long pizzas, and the first Hai Di Lao in the city. But as it turns out, it’s also home to an epic meeting and event space like you’ve never seen. Operated by the award-winning Finnish company of the same name, the two-year-old HUONE (pronounced huo-neh) provides event and offsite meeting spaces with top notch personalised service and convenience, and we think it’s brilliant.
Finnish innovation meets Asian hospitality
Co-founded in 2012 by Malaysian-born Evon Söderlund and Jussi Söderlund, HUONE (Finnish for “room”) is a merging of Asian hospitality and Finnish innovation. While it’s coined as an ‘Events Hotel’, HUONE isn’t actually a hotel – not in the traditional sense anyway. Unless you’re throwing a toilet-themed company party, you won’t find bedrooms or fancy bathrobes. Instead, what you get is the same kind of welcome you might receive at a five star hotel – an element they want to bring back to the MICE industry.
Not just an ordinary meeting venue
HUONE Singapore occupies a 20,000 sq ft. shophouse space with 11 boutique meeting rooms in varying themes and sizes, each accommodating between 12 to as many as 130 people. We may not be able to work in companies like Google, but we can surely meet in equally fun rooms where swings and beanbags are the norm.
Offering a fresh and fun take on meetings are novel rooms like the Sandbox Room, a double-tiered space filled with toys to encourage creativity during brainstorming, and the Runway Room, a long rectangular boardroom that doubles up as a fashion runway. Want to feel like you’re actually in Finland? The most magical space here is the Igloo Room, a literal dome inspired by the Finland’s Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort, a glass igloo where guests can see the Northern Lights.
A Peranakan-themed ‘Makan’ area to showcase themselves being in a heritage shophouse
Eating together is a big part of social gatherings, right? Take a break from spreadsheets with a dedicated in-house catering service across breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Having their own kitchen also means that food is fresh and they are able to take into account all sorts of dietary requirements at very short notice. HUONE’s conference packages include a buffet breakfast or lunch (and all day free-flow coffee!) at their dining area, Makan. It is also there that you will find an impressive bar that’s even stocked with Finnish beers and spirits, including the award-winning Napue Gin.
Customisable events according to your needs
Since opening in 2017, HUONE Singapore has successfully executed over 1,000 events from corporate workshops and seminars to galas, to off-sites, to team-building sessions, and event product launches and media conferences – we’ve been told that HUONE hosted several hackathons, including one that lasted for 24 hours. Past clients include names like Google, Sephora, Standard Chartered Bank, Facebook, and Shell, who have all held creative and productive sessions with no holds barred.
As HUONE Singapore prides itself as a partner to your corporate meetings and events, the enquiry process starts from understanding your profile of guest, proposed agenda, meeting objective, and other details. This allows HUONE Singapore to propose the suitable room and layout. To take it up a notch, the team at HUONE Singapore is ever-ready to provide you event consultation without charge. Want a magic show-themed D&D or garden-style product launch? Anything goes.
Giving back to the community
What we love about HUONE is their belief in giving back to communities. A portion of the company’s net profits are donated to charity annually, and each employee ’sponsors’ a child somewhere around the world – HUONE pays for the sponsorship while employees are responsible in writing letters to encourage them. As HUONE Singapore’s CEO Joewin Tan once said in an interview “We may not be ready to write big cheques to charity organisation but we believe in giving back in our little way.”
Are you a corporate company tired of hosting meetings in a traditional meeting space? Take the first step and call +65 6255 4793 or email to [email protected] for a site visit.
HUONE Events Hotel Singapore is located at Blk D, #03-01, Clarke Quay, 3 River Valley Road, Singapore 179023.
