Conference Matters 144

'COVID made us resilient'

And, as is often the case, every crisis also offers an opportunity. Canadian organisa tions may focus more on Europe. New initia tives could emerge from these developments. People are inventive. We’re alert; we’re working on it, but for now, everything seems to be running smoothly. And let’s keep the discussion clean. You can be against Trump, but you don’t have to be against the United States. The country is still just a partner we do business with and where we hold events. I hope that everyone remains sensible and carries on.”

“I don’t see this situation as a crisis yet, like the Internet bubble, SARS, the Icelandic ash cloud that paralysed air traffic, or the financial crisis. COVID was an exception; everything stopped for two years, which nobody could have predicted. We came through all the others crises reasonably well. They affected us, but not to the point that conferences and trade fairs came under much pressure. We stay up to date internally by asking our domain managers what’s going on. As management, we try to pre pare ourselves for what’s to come. I don’t see any major short-term effects. For example, we don’t have any cancellations for the trade fair we’re organising in the United States in September, and we’re not hearing anything about people dropping out. We have to be well prepared by assessing the signals and scenarios that need to be taken into account. We survived COVID, which made us resilient.

Maurits van der Sluis COO at RAI Amsterdam

'I have yet to hear of any major unrest'

fewer speakers from the United States travel here. In that sense, hopefully we will experience less disruption in our industry. I am grateful that things are going well, conside ring all the madness in the world and war. There’s a demand for local speakers, such as Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, former Secretary Gene ral of NATO; Mart de Kruif, retired Lieutenant General; and Peter van Uhm, retired General for the NATO Summit in The Hague in June. What’s the answer? With President Trump, everything could change tomorrow. History shows that after chaos and change, there’s always a period of calm.”

“As an international speakers agency, Assem blee Speakers works with speakers from here and abroad. Last week, we provided a speaker for a meeting in Las Vegas. There is regular con tact with fellow organisations in other coun tries, especially the United States.” For now, I don’t have the impression that it’s really an issue for them or that there’s a lot of unrest. We’re not hearing this, at least not from our contacts there. Of course, it’s being discus sed, but it’s impossible to say at the moment how all these developments will affect the demand for speakers. The US market has always been mainly domes tic. Regarding speakers, the majority of those sought are regional domestic ones. Contribu tions from here often go online. Since COVID,

Maurice van der Kant CEO at Assemblee Speakers

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