On October 22, IACC staged its annual Europe Knowledge Festival which took place using IACC’s MultiPOD format, enabling the event to take place online and across two in-person locations in Europe.
IACC partnered with hybrid event specialist Abbit to stage the one-day conference, which held in-person sessions at Skogshem and Wijk in Sweden and Warwick Conferences in the UK. The event was attended by delegates from across Europe and the US.
The conference program included keynote sessions from Helen Moon, Founder and CEO of Eventwell and Julian Stubbs, CEO of UP THERE, EVERYWHERE as well as a variety of plenary sessions, breakouts and a highly collaborative cross-channel innovations laboratory. As part of the Invention Lab each POD, in the live and virtual locations, was tasked to design a future meeting environment.
Each meetings POD, including the virtual POD, had a regional facilitator who was supported by master facilitator Michael Jackson. In addition, IACC’s team of volunteer members were coached by Mike Van Der Vijver of Mind Meeting on facilitation techniques, with Michael Jackson helping them to deliver the complex multi-location workshops. To further support the event, ABBIT provided skilled technicians for each POD site as well as a technical director at the ABBIT HQ in Belgium, making it a seamless conference across several locations.
Jeroen Janssens, Account Manager International Associations at ABBIT says, “ABBIT is always happy to be the technical partner of IACC.”
The conference concluded with the IACC Europe 2021 Awards Ceremony, where attendees recognized and celebrated the outstanding contributions from individuals and IACC member companies.
People and organizations recognized in this year’s awards were:
- Europe Distinguished Service Award: Pieter Allaerts, Director of Sales & Marketing, Dolce La Hulpe, Belgium.
- Europe Regional Ambassador Award: Marlene Sylvester-Hvid, CEO at Danske KonferenceCentre, Denmark.
- IACC Better Tomorrow Service Week Award of Achievement: Sigtunahöjden, Stockholm, Sweden and Wyboston Lakes Resort, Bedfordshire, UK
- IACC Better Tomorrow High Achievers Award: Hayley Chilver, Operations Director at De Vere, UK and Maria Griffiths, General Manager at etc.venues, UK
Mark Cooper, CEO, IACC comments, “Our goal was to create a conference that enabled as many of our members to come together, in person or virtually and we achieved that through our MultiPOD format and the incredible support from ABBIT. It is an incredibly important time for our industry, and it is crucial that collectively we share knowledge and insights with our colleagues to support its recovery.”
Attendees at both locations were joined by hospitality students from Lincoln International Business School and Frans Schartaus Handelsinstitut. The student event registrations were sponsored by the IACC Europe Foundation.
Founded in 1981, IACC is dedicated to representing the best meeting venues globally and is, by definition, the future of the meetings industry realised. The association brings together the brightest, most innovative minds from around the globe. IACC elevates the meeting experience by creating a unique point of entry that is inclusive of the best-in-class meeting venues internationally. IACC membership is a symbol of meeting excellence and exceptional connections amongst the best in the meeting industry. This exclusiveness makes IACC’s members part of an elite group representing the most innovative, forward-thinking and results-driven meeting venues globally.
All members meet a set of stringent Quality Standards and agree to a Code of Ethics. IACC includes over 400-member conference venues from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Malaysia, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Wales, Canada, Costa Rica and the United States. The IACC Mission Statement: “To bring together the brightest industry minds to promote the best meeting venues, which deliver exceptional meeting experiences. There are meetings… And then there are IACC Meetings.” The IACC Vision: “IACC is a global community of passionate people and organisations delivering innovative and exceptional meeting experiences.
