Conference Matters 141

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“About five years ago, events mainly revolved around knowledge sharing. Today, fun is the most important thing, with matters such as annual figures or another important message”, says Esther ten Hove, 31, Account Manager at event location De Kaap. “It’s especially important to be agile, flexible and fast. Attention spans are much shorter than they used to be. Draw people in first with atmospheric images, entertain them and incorporate your message into your communication. This also goes for your invitation process, sneak previews, save the dates, etc. Companies will have to make more of an effort to find and retain good staff, which means that more effort will be put into events to make more of a splash. We’re already seeing an increase in overnight stays at events, for example. That also goes for the after-movies shared en masse on LinkedIn and Instagram to show how cool compa nies are and how they take care of their people.” Interaction at online events “Online events will also have to adapt to the call for interaction, maybe even more so”, says Thomas Mulder, 29, Managing Director at We Are Live, which provides live streams, concepts and digital events. “After all, many participants have several tabs open that attract their attention. We see that urgency works particularly well. You want to see a sports match and press launch live, too. But a CEO delivering an annual message

ple, an exclusive dinner with 30 clients who are directly invited by our CEO or one of the directors provides that personal touch.” Trade show festival “It’s important to create real experiences. Sen ding less and receiving more by making conte stants the stars of the show. For example, at the Bouwmaat XXL event, we went from a trade show to a kind of festival, featuring things like a caravan with a ball pit, a mysterious maze, a slide, and fishing for tiles—recognisable things with a special twist. To do this, we asked ourselves what a construction professional would think is cool but wouldn’t easily come up with”, says San dra Kommer, 31, Production Manager and Crea tive at event agency Fjuze. A challenging location An original and challenging location can also help, claims Danny Hartmann, 27, Marketing & Brand Manager at conference location ECC Leiden. “Meetings and conferences can quickly become tiring, which is why we try to add other types of locations, such as a greenhouse on a terrace or converting an old canteen, gym or swimming pool. It adds value to something that could quickly become boring. You can do crazy stuff.” Fun first Fun is increasingly in the foreground since it also helps attract new staff in the current tough labour market.

Young professionals in the event sector often consider the concept of experience as an important precondition when looking ahead to the future developments of business meetings. Not only does this apply to physical events, but it is also a must in the virtual world.

By Niels Achtereekte & Edwin Nunnink

“There’ll be even more emphasis on experience”, says Jeroen Kanters, 29, Event Manager at PostNL. He is responsible for all major internal and external events at the postal company, from the Top70 event for senior managers to the Sinterklaas party for all employees, as well as participation in the Webwinkel Vakdagen e-commerce event and their e-commerce customer event. Making a connection “No more PowerPoint presentations with a lot of information presented unilaterally, but more emphasis on making a connection, which can be done by focusing on visitors and giving them control over what kind of programme they want to follow. Interaction is extremely important to collect input, not only during an event but also before and after. Our business visitors are a lot more critical than they used to be. There are so many events they can go to, so they choose carefully. We notice that sometimes taking a more intimate and personal approach works well. For exam

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