Conference Matters 142

ROI & PARTNERSHIP

the potential to change their lives. There are so many stories of connections between people that have happened during TNW, from new busi nesses to marriages, and those connections are much more important than the business part.”

there’s always a sales motive behind a story somewhere, but it’s up to us to help speakers shape a proper story so that people really learn something. What matters is that we always make an effort to turn a good event into a great experi ence that people will remember.”

our audience and started building a sound pro gramme. These types of programmes are now growing along with events. I just want to say that we need to know the sponsors’ goals and link them to the audience that we know better than anyone else.” Does good data help with this? “Of course, we know a lot, but we have to adhere to the GDPR.” Are you still able to grow? “We think that this year’s Amsterdam event will have a big audience like before the corona period. However, it’s not so much about the quantity; it’s about the quality of the people who attend. My mission was always about the right mix of visitors, not just launching a large event. For instance, it’s important that many corporate professionals come because it makes it interes ting for start-ups to speak. Last year, about 40 percent of visitors worked at a corporation, and that has doubled since the corona period.”

What are the key moments of the 2024 line-up?

“This year, we have many top speakers again, such as Glenn Fogel, the CEO of Booking.com; David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done; Blythe Masters, a founding partner at Motive Partners; and Sadira E. Furlow, the Chief of Global Brand and Communications at Tony’s Chocolonely. There are many more fantastic speakers within themes such as Ren-AI-ssance, Next in Tech and Finance Disrupted. And once again, we have a great festival site, a programme full of side events, and many other experiences because that’s what we’re known for.”

You indeed work with a lot of sponsors. What do they want nowadays?

“The importance of the ROI of every euro that companies spend has definitely increased. Spon sors like to associate themselves with our brand but also have bigger, more direct goals, such as generating leads and building thought leader ship. We help companies with this by organising events such as round tables. We also help our clients produce reports so that they have hard data. It’s still difficult to measure effects, but we now have customer success teams to help us do this.” “What we do more and more is advise clients not to reserve a standard spot on the exhibition floor but rather to develop a sound programme. We work more proactively because if you always just send an invoice without looking at the effects, the relationship will dilute. In the case of a spe cific client, we focused more on a certain part of Can you give me an example of a successful collaboration?

What impression of your brand do you want visitors to get?

“Our motto is ‘the heart of tech’ because techno logy is important, although in the end, it’s always about people. A ticket is quite an investment, and we hope to inspire visitors with stories that have

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