Digitalisation, demographic change, disruption, corporate social responsibility etc., what is behind the mega trends and the buzzwords of the MICE industry? How do they play out in practice? How effective and efficient are these developments? At the ITB MICE Day MICE industry professionals will be providing answers to many questions and highlighting best practices and actual scenarios. The event is organised by Vereinigung Deutscher Veranstaltungsorganisatoren e.V. and will take place on 8 March 2017 at the ITB Berlin Convention.
In her keynote speech opening the ITB MICE Day Anja Förster, a business pioneer and bestselling author, will encourage listeners to embrace non-mainstream views: “Straying from the norm paves the way for progress.” Dr. Charles M. Savage, president of Knowledge Era Enterprise Intl., will also implore listeners to be creative. In his lecture on ‘Digitalisation, Sustainability and Wisdom – Forces Remodelling the MICE World’ he will explain the opportunities that digitalisation offers and how knowledge and experience can contribute to organising events in a more sustainable way, in order to make them more efficient and effective.
Digitalisation and sustainability are not the only topics being discussed at the ITB MICE Day. Practical examples will also provide visitors with advice on how to implement decisions. Taking the Leipzig Interventional Course (LINC) as an example, Ronald Kötteritzsch, director of Marketing & Sales, Leipziger Messe GmbH, will highlight the impact that some mega trends have already had, and how they will dominate conferences in the future, so that visitors can make their own selective and interactive choices.
“Digitalising a lousy process gives you a lousy digital process” – this is the provocative title of a lecture that Bernd Fritzges, CEO, Vereinigung Deutscher Veranstaltungsorganisatoren e.V., and Felix Undeutsch, Head of MICE & Groups Expedia.com, will be giving. In it they will aim to dispel half-truths and provide an insight into the status quo of “genuine” digitalisation processes. According to Günter Mainka “stage effects and a bit of drama always work.” He will be holding a session entitled ‘Making MICE work – staging and communicating events, conferences und incentives in effective ways’. In addition to stories recounting life in the events world the managing director of Twilight Events Deutschland GmbH will have valuable advice on how to manage on only a limited budget and how to cope with falling visitor numbers. This session will also be the first time that visitors to the ITB Berlin Convention will be able to witness a live visual graphics session. Anne Lehmann, a graduate designer and illustrator from Berlin, as well as an expert on visualisation, will create colourful drawings in real time reflecting verbal exchanges.
Raul Krauthausen will highlight what organising events means in these diverse times and in an age of demographic change. In his lecture entitled ‘When revolving doors become a challenge – why barrier-free access concerns us all and how we can make things better at events’ the founder of Berliner Sozialhelden e.V. will give an insight into how attitudes must change. By ‘Looking at things with the audience’s eyes’ the Slovenian Convention Bureau has also subscribed to the maxim of the event organisers. With their lecture entitled ‘Power to the Meeting – The Slovenian methodology for creating memorable events with Conventa Case Studies’ Miha Kovačič, CEO, Slovenian Convention Bureau, and Gorazd Čad, CEO, Toleranca Marketing, will show how events can become even more successful.
