Corporate event organisers are being driven to extremes to find the perfect destination and venue that can deliver a memorable incentive or conference package culminating in the ultimate gala celebration.
How about holding a feast in the rainforest of Borneo, with orang-utans and chirping crickets as uninvited guests? Unfortunately, a deep-jungle jamboree is likely to attract less welcome party crashers: insatiable ants, blood-thirsty mosquitoes and hooligan monkeys. However, the 485-room Nexus Karabunai Resort offers an alternative.
Set in 1,350 hectares of natural and landscaped surroundings on Malaysia's Sabah Island, Nexus caters for high-end corporate groups looking for an unforgettable getaway that really is 'away'. And the resort specialises in theme parties in Borneo's jungle.
'The Borneo rainforest theme is our best-selling product for incentive groups and is the most expensive as it is done indoors and requires a lot of logistics to put it together,' Nexus' director of sales and marketing, Brendan Wong, said.
'We decorate our entire ballroom with plants to create the feeling of being in the virgin forest, yet with all the comforts of an indoor venue.'
Borneo Rainforest Night welcomes guests to the wilds of Sabah, laid out like a jungle thicket complete with a rainforest canopy. A thick carpet of leaves covers the floor.
However, Nexus does not chop down the jungle for the sake of the theme. 'We cut foliage only from non-native or non-endemic trees which grow wild by the roadsides. We also recycle the dry foliage,' Mr Wong said.