EMEC Column: Go bananas and flea more often!

Something exciting is about to happen next February. We are talking about the yearly European Meetings & Events Conference (EMEC). The 2019 edition, to be held from 9-12 February in The Hague, The Netherlands, will definitely be one to remember. Why? Because 60 event professionals jointly developed a totally new design for EMEC19. We have created a unique learning experience rather than the usual dime a dozen conference. No on-stage speaker in a big ballroom while you’re playing with your phones. Instead at EMEC19, over 50 per cent of the 4-day program takes place outside of the conference centre. Get off your seat and explore!

The program title ‘Changing the game’ is inspired by a quote from the Netflix hit Peaky Blinders: ‘We are not here to play the game, we’re here to change it’ . EMEC19 inspires meeting & event professionals to change the way they meet, experience and learn. You are challenged to put your action mode on. Sitting and listening is just not an option, since more than half of the sessions is interactive. Try out new formats in a safe environment and gain the confidence to apply them in your next event yourself.

You have a choice of four tracks: Risk Management, Design Thinking, Leadership or Meeting Perspectives. You can choose to become a ninja on one track or cherry pick from the number of different sessions. All sessions are based on at least 50 percent participation. For instance, within the track Leadership, we take you on a learning journey to Rotterdam Zoo to train your management skills. A behavioral biologist shows you a mirror for your behavior through studying how apes behave. Right, go bananas! This so-called ape management teaches you, among other things, about the function of hierarchy. Ape behavior is a mirror for our personal and organizational behavior, such as development and improvement of collaboration and communication and, naturally, leadership. After this visit your conclusion might be that you and your team should flea more often.

The track Risk Management is about safety & security developments. A subject on everybody’s list but where to start? At EMEC19 you can practice skills such as teamwork, problem-solving abilities, responsiveness, persistence and perseverance by joining a real-crisis scenario in a gaming room. If it’s good enough for 58 world leaders during the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in 2014, you might learn something from that as well.

Are you ready to become a game changer? Give yourself this season the gift of education and join EMEC19 asap

See more info emec19.com or mail us: seeyou@emec19.com

Sven Boelhouwer
Project manager EMEC19