Marten Lühmann manages transportation for customer events around the world. Along with his team, he handles everything including corporate events, conferences, dinners, parties, and roadshows in 60 countries.
You are a Senior Event Manager at Blacklane, what does that mean?
I manage our events team and we handle transportation around big events. This can vary from a couple of transfers to hundreds of rides to by-the-hour or daily vehicle bookings.
How is this different from bookings made directly through our website and app?
When a large number of vehicles are required, events can become quite complex and therefore need to be steered and coordinated. When transportation requests get more complex, a simple change of plans, a traffic accident, or even just a passenger missing a flight, can have a much bigger impact. Our team is on site to deal with issues directly and make sure everything runs smoothly.
What differentiates Blacklane’s Events Service from the rest of the industry?
I have worked in this industry for around 20 years now and the events are always similar — service quality is very high for all providers in this field. But what makes us different is our incredible international network. This is really unique and makes the job much more exciting. And a definite plus for the customer is our competitive pricing.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I really enjoy the job because there is no stiff routine and no single day is like the other. Instead, we adjust to each event, meeting the new requirements and tailoring our transportation. It’s great to create a solution each time for the customer and really make them happy! I also appreciate steering a project through A to Z. It’s very satisfying to see the whole picture and not just a small detail.
Do you have a story that sticks out after managing so many events?
An event we did last December in Paris was a real challenge in terms of timing and size and was therefore a memorable experience.
It all started when we received a call from the customer on Thursday, and we sent them an offer directly, and it was signed on Friday — the event was taking place on Saturday. Our team flew directly to Paris and we organized around 800 transfers, all of it practically overnight.
The event lasted five days — longer than it took us to prepare for it. It was a great experience and really showed that Blacklane is a global provider, locally agile and able to react quickly.
Whichever are the different expectations of partners and customers when it comes to events?
Customers expect very high quality and perfectly managed events. At the end of the day, they are delegating work and responsibility to us. In the case of the event in Paris, our customer was very happy with our performance.
Events are also attractive for our partners as the opportunity is huge and they can plan in advance, which means avoiding downtime. The format is also usually more exciting than a simple airport transfer.
