More than 300 meeting and event professionals joined us recently in Budapest, Hungary for the European Meetings & Events Conference, and the experience left me enchanted with the city and inspired by the delegates.
A powerful opening general session with couches and yoga balls amidst chairs for delegates to watch dance, live music, dynamic speakers and experience facilitated networking - all coupled with keynote speaker Sahar Hashemi who explained the importance of being clueless and taking leaps - was riveting. A lady sitting next to me shared that we'd just "blown away 17 years of General Sessions" in her estimation. And as I know that my feeble attempts here to explain what we experienced can never replace sitting in the room and feeling your hair tingle in excitement you can experience via video the general session online at http://bit.ly/WatchEMEC12 .
As well as the opening session set the tone for EMEC 2012, each element along the way seemed to just get better. The sustainability measures put into place through the Novotel Congress Center and the planning team were noted on many occasion from recycling efforts (battery drop offs at the elevators, back of house sorting of all bins) to the locally sourced foods the delegates enjoyed during their meals and breaks. Not to mention the great work delegates were able to do with Budapest Underguide to help feed the homeless within the city.
Oh and the breaks! Talk about putting innovation into practice. Advised by Danish celebrity nutritional expert and chef Christian Bitz on catering choices, the event team in collaboration with the Novotel built out three really unique "coffee breaks". Themed around Vitality, Brainfood and Artisanal each break transformed the MPI Cafe while the delegates were attending concurrent sessions. When the delegates adjourned they were greeted with unique displays of unique food and beverages in a variety of choices around each theme. In the case of the Artisanal break - delegates opened session doors and entered into a vintage Hungarian marketplace to explore.
As these unique elements blended together through the conference I feel confident saying that the delegates were truly able to experience innovative ideas being re-imagined as they learned. And it is that experiential learning that can catapult them into activating many of these concepts, ideas or practices. That was certainly the goal with the closing session known as "The Solution Room". Facilitated by Ruud W. Janssen and Mike van der Vijver (who made an early appearance at the OGS- see above), the Solution Room was a hit with more than 175 participants. Designed as an attendee-led session where each individual walks away with an actionable plan to implement towards their goals after experiencing EMEC, the Solution Room is an exceptional example of why face-to-face meetings can never completely be replaced. Ruud has done an exceptional job of crafting a video that depicts what we experienced in Budapest.