Sven Boelhouwer stood watching as the last attendees at the European Meetings and Events Conference (EMEC) walked out of the final general session Tuesday at the World Forum in The Hague, and he simply could not hold back the tears.
A year of planning, a year of working feverishly alongside fellow Meeting Professionals International Netherlands Chapter members and community partners, a year of driving home the theme, “Changing the Game,” the countless hours finally coming to fruition.
For Boelhouwer, project manager for EMEC and a board member for the Netherlands Chapter for more than a decade, the overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride was evident as his eyes watered, his voice trembling before stepping away for a moment.
“I’m so very proud of the team,” he said when he returned. “Everyone worked so very hard for 11 months to create a whole new experience. We didn’t want something that everyone sees at a regular conference. I hope everyone out there will feel that we accomplished that.”
The consensus is that the host committee delivered on their promise of Changing the Game after the 30th EMEC three-day education and networking event for meeting industry professionals came to a close. From music- and dance-infused presentations to networking events in and around the central venue of the World Forum that showcased Dutch culture, food and beverage to the learning journeys on four education tracks, EMEC19 was impressive on many fronts—and for that, Boelhouwer and the organizing committee should be proud.
Beginning with a thought-provoking opening keynote from Dutch artist and innovator Daan Roosegaarde, the conference featured inspiring presentations such as the powerful story from Dutch para-Olympian Bibian Mentel or the session that convinced us we need to “eat a frog every morning,” and finally the eclectic closing keynote from Irfan van Ewijk, who has influenced some of the world’s biggest electronic music festivals such as Mysterland, Sensation, Thunderdome and Tomorrowland. In all, the 330 attendees were treated to a cornucopia of education sessions and speakers that focused on four key areas—risk management, leadership, meeting perspective and design thinking.
Tuesday’s final session began with a presentation from Steve O’Malley, president of MPI's International Board of Directors, who challenged the audience along the conference theme.
“Meetings should never end,” he said. “They should trail off into the next year. We are designers, not meeting planners. So how do we design with confidence?”
He walked the audience through a discussion on seven points—simplicity, storytelling, cultural symbols, novelty, when (time), breaks and personas—as themes to consider in a new way of engaging with attendees.
“We need to understand and define how and when people learn,” he said.
O’Malley was followed by van Ewijk, who told the audience that “shows need to come from the brain, not an excel sheet” as he showed videos of some of the massive music festivals he has organized as examples of understanding audience needs. Tomorrowland, for example, is an electronic dance music festival held in Boom, Belgium, that has become one of the world's largest and most notable music festivals, stretching two weekends since it debuted in 2005.
Moderators Samme Allen and Roderik van Grieken closed the event by challenging attendees to “change their game.” They shared a statistic from an upcoming research report from Cvent and Edelman that shows only 38 percent of attendees will engage with conference content post-event. “We can do better,” Allen said.
MPI, the world’s largest association for the meeting industry, announced it was expanding its commitment to supporting members and growth in Europe. Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO, said the organization would be investing in the areas of human resources, branding and content. He announced the appointment of Angeles Moreno, a former MPI Iberia Chapter president, former EMEC host and 2018 chair of the European Advisory Council, to the role of strategic development, senior advisor for MPI in Europe, beginning March 1.
The organization also announced that next year’s EMEC would be held in Seville, returning to Spain for the second time since 2017, when EMEC was in Granada.
Pieter Allaerts will lead the European Advisory Council in 2019.
The MPI Foundation held its signature Rendezvous event to bring attention to the organization’s commitment to raising funds for industry scholarships and to support research initiatives.
One of the unique aspects of the conference was carried out on the opening day when attendees had the option of seven different learning journeys on the four education tracks that included sessions at venues such as TNO, a leading Dutch innovation lab, a wargaming room at Scenarios4Summits, the Rotterdam Zoo and the historic concert hall Stadsgehoorzaal.
The tone for “Changing the Game” started at Saturday night’s opening reception at the impressive Loumann Museum, a mecca of automotive history where attendees engaged in networking designed to bring people together: they had to match up with new people in order to get food from stands throughout the hall. It led to many new friendships throughout the night.
In all, 50 percent of the tracks were interactive, and more than half took place outside the World Forum conference center.
