Grimaldi Forum Takes Back-to-Back Gold as Monaco Closes Out a Big Week

The Grimaldi Forum has been named Best Overseas Convention Centre at the 2026 M&IT Awards, taking the gold prize for the second year running. The honour, announced on October 9, was shared with Spain's PortAventura Convention Centre, with the Monaco venue fending off competition from shortlisted convention centres in Dublin, Barcelona, Palma and Amsterdam. The M&IT Awards are decided by vote among UK based professional event organisers, with the results independently verified, giving the win weight within an industry that routinely compares venues across borders rather than within a single market.

Just over a week earlier, Societe des Bains de Mer opened two new spaces for its own staff, the Monte-Carlo SBM Academy, an in-house training centre, and a dedicated employee dining area, both housed on the 11th floor of the group's Aigue-Marine headquarters. SBM Chairman Stephane Valeri and Human Resources Director Sophie Vincent presided over the inauguration on October 1, a sign of how much the group that runs Monaco's casinos and grand hotels is investing in training and welfare for the workforce behind them.

Monaco's calendar for 2027 is also taking shape. The 84th Monaco Grand Prix is scheduled for June 3 to 6, with Formula 1 action beginning on Friday, June 4, as round eight of a 24 race championship. For the first time, the Monaco weekend will include a Sprint event, part of a wider expansion that will see ten Sprint weekends across the 2027 season, up from six in 2026, bringing a race format usually reserved for other circuits to the principality's streets.

On the court, Monegasque player Valentin Vacherot added to the week with a comeback win over former world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Japan Open in Tokyo, taking the match 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach the quarter finals. Currently ranked 18th in the world, Vacherot's win over a player of Tsitsipas's pedigree stood out as one of the tournament's bigger upsets, and capped a week in which Monaco's name turned up in headlines well beyond its usual casino and Grand Prix news.