Convening EMEA 2023
Belonging from home
How do we measure growth? In the session "The Great Unspoken – An unfiltered and contrarian conversation about growth, degrowth and disaster" moderator Felix Rundel (left), Co-Founder of futurehain, talks to (from the left) to Seynabou Cisse, Global Events Manager at Dell Technologies, Albert Cerezales Garcia, Strategic Consultant at MCI Group, and Sonto Mayise, General Manager at the Durban KwaZulu-Natal Convention Bureau. Photo: PCMA EMEA
How do we measure growth? In the session "The Great Unspoken – An unfiltered and contrarian conversation about growth, degrowth and disaster" moderator Felix Rundel, Co-Founder of futurehain, talks to Seynabou Cisse, Global Events Manager at Dell Technologies, Albert Cerezales Garcia, Strategic Consultant at MCI Group, and Sonto Mayise, General Manager at the Durban KwaZulu-Natal Convention Bureau. Photo: PCMA EMEA
Shortly before the Convening EMEA conference, I catch Covid-19 and can't travel to Copenhagen. Fortunately, unlike other organisers, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) is not doing without a virtual extension. A stable line and a user-friendly app, great music and good content in the livestream keep me happy and glued to the screen. An experience report by Kerstin Wünsch.
Felix Rundel is the founder of the creative studio futurehain, event designer, moderator and obviously a singer. He introduces the session "The Great Unspoken – An unfiltered and contrarian conversation about growth, degrowth and disaster" at Convening EMEA 2023 by singing "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell: "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot ..."
His singing and his gentle voice touch me. I'm in, but I'm not in Copenhagen in the Bella Center: I'm sitting in front of the screen in Berlin. The day before the PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) conference from 20 to 22 September 2023, I have caught Covid. Disappointed, I can’t attend at Convening EMEA with the motto "Let's Collaborate. Let's Grow. Let's Belong.". Small consolation: I can cancel my hotel and train free of charge. Big consolation: My ticket can be switched to a digital participation. I download the event app and follow the hashtag #ConveningEmea on LinkedIn. 557 participants make their way to Denmark.
About PCMA
PCMA, Professional Convention Management Association, PCMA Foundation, and the Corporate Event Marketing Association (CEMA) build the world’s largest community for Business Events Strategists, providing education, networking, and market intelligence. Their mission is to drive social and economic progress through business events. Headquartered in Chicago, USA, PCMA has 17 North American Chapters, regional communities in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Latin American, all in all members in 59 countries. The flagship event PCMA Convening Leaders 2024 will take place from 7 to 10 January in San Diego (USA), the European conference Convening EMEA 2024 will take place from 30 September to 2 October 2024 in Barcelona (Spain).
Missed Morning Yoga
On Thursday morning, I log in to my iPhone using the app. It's easy, but I'd like to have the full view on my screen. I try it on my iPad, but the view remains a smartphone strip. Is that because of the app, Apple or me? On the other hand, the connection is stable and the sound is good. The picture is a little dark, but this is due to the lack of daylight on the Main Stage in Hall D1 at the Bella Center Copenhagen.
The programme is about to start, so I leave it on my smartphone. "Hey there! 👋 Would you like to learn more about Convening EMEA 2023?" the bot asks and continues without waiting for my approval: "Convening EMEA is PCMA EMEA's annual flagship event bringing together the global business events industry for an immersive 3-day programme in Europe. The event attracts 450+ business event leaders from over 40 countries to challenge each other and develop ways to move forward together. It is the platform to share knowledge, make meaningful connections, learn, do business ..." I love it when I get unsolicited answers. Unfortunately, I can't ask the bot a question, so I go in search of the livestream myself. I find it via the programme and see: Morning Yoga at 6.50 am! Too late – too early. I would have missed it even if I had been there.
The sense of belonging
The livestream wakes up at around 09.00 am. Host Kit Lykketoft Director of Convention at Wonderful Copenhagen takes the stage. Kit runs the Copenhagen Convention Bureau and welcomes us. Instead of a presentation about Denmark, she starts the conference day with a song. "We Danes have sung our life trough", says Kit. The Danes like to sing; at parties, just like that or in times of crisis. "Singing together means something: the sense of belonging," Kit lets us know and invites us: "Let's sing!" I'm happy to listen.
Jaimé Bennett, Managing Director PCMA EMEA, welcomes participants to the Convening EMEA 2023 at the Bella Center Copenhagen and on screen. Photo: PCMA EMEA
Jaimé Bennett, Managing Director PCMA EMEA, welcomes participants to the Convening EMEA 2023 at the Bella Centre Copenhagen and on screen. Photo: PCMA EMEA
The audience and I are in tune. We are ready for the "Welcome by Jaimé Bennett". Jaimé leads PCMA EMEA and is delighted with the record number of 557 participants on site and 56 online. Last year at Convening EMEA 2022 in Vienna we were 460 participants. She briefly guides us through the conference programme, which ranges from AI to climate, and reassures us: "Are you ready?" "Yes, I am ready!" I shout to my mobile phone and wonder about myself.
Dealing with uncertainties
My amusement is interrupted by the first session: "Leading self and others through uncertainty" with Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon Furr. He is Associate Professor of Strategy at Insead Business School, she is an entrepreneur and art historian. Together they founded the UP School and wrote the book The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown. The couple know: "In our fast-paced, constantly changing world, uncertainty is on the rise. We are confronted with it every day. But few of us have learnt how to manage uncertainty well." In their session, Furr and Harmon Furr explore tools and techniques to help people face uncertainty with courage and resilience.
”When we reframe the uncertainty we encounter as possibility, we invoke transilience: from Latin transiliens, to leap across or over from one thing to another.”
In four steps (Reframe, Prime, Do, Sustain), the session takes us from the way we describe something that influences our perception to redirecting our thoughts from negative things to positive possibilities. The two invite the audience to take part in an exercise: "Think of your limits and turn to your neighbour. Cross the boundaries and act in uncertainty."
Das UP Framework
The UP Tools were designed to help you find fuel and direction through uncertainty in order to unlock hidden possibilities
Cake against poverty in old age
Time for me to check on the others in the app. There are 214 people displayed, but not whether they are on site or online like me. There's nothing going on in the chat. I ask the group: who else is there? In the meantime, the exercise has finished and the participants take a break to drink coffee and socialise. Not just like that, no: they get to know the Copenhageners in the Hygge Hub and the Viennese guesthouse ”Vollension”. Vollpension was introduced by the Vienna Convention Bureau last year. In "Grandma" Doris Horvath's living room, there are cakes against poverty in old age and for intergenerational dialogue. It is a good example of sustainable initiatives during business events.
Sustainable networking during the breaks: welcome to the guesthouse Vollpension Vienna with cake from "Grandma" Doris Horvath against poverty in old age. Photo: PCMA EMEA
During the break, the song "When I Look At You ..." plays in the livestream. I let the music play, answer emails and log into a team meeting. Afterwards, I check what's going on in the chat (nothing) and on LinkedIn, where the feedback on the morning session shows: the message "Uncertainty equals opportunity" has been received. As only the presentations and talks on the Main Stage are streamed, I miss the session "From risk to resilience – Fixing and futureproofing your event" on the Impact Stage in Auditorium 11 and "Water Works: Purpose driven collaboration" on the Growth Stage in D2.
I'm back in the livestream at 11.15 am on the dot, but "Accelerating possibility: Finding courage and directions in situation of not knowing" is delayed. Instead, "Dancing queen" by ABBA plays and I sing along happily. The hands-on session with Nathan Furr and Susannah Harmon Furr starts five minutes later. Unfortunately, I can't read the lyrics on stage on my mini screen. I make an effort. The 90 minutes online are too long. I digress and write a news for our website: Fostering a deeper understanding of risks, because the Copenhagen Convention Bureau has published the Copenhagen Risk Assessment white paper.
While the attendees put their heads together to do exercises, I look around in the app and marvel. It says: "Sei die erste Person, die eine Frage an die Referent:innen stellt. Andere Teilnehmer:innen könne mithilfe des Daumen-Symbols für die Frage voten, sodass diese hervorgehoben wird." Not only does the system suddenly speak German almost flawlessly: It uses gender language! I take the question of how much and what kind of artificial intelligence is behind it with me into the lunch break.
Job carving and AI
The topic "How to build human-centred high functioning teams" will follow at 14.00 pm. In her presentation, Australian psychologist Dr Zena Burgess will talk about business and psychological approaches for teams and organisations to achieve growth and retain talent. Unfortunately, she reads off. Did Dr Zena Burgess fly from Melbourne to Europe for this? But suddenly it's all about getting to know each other and about biscuits, Australian biscuits. Tim Tam biscuits, Australia's favourite chocolate biscuits, are on the tables, but not on my desk.
Dr Zena Burgess addresses important topics, including mental health and diversity and dysfunctional teams. You recognise them by the lack of trust in the team and the organisation, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and CEOs with strong egos. As Zena continues to read, there's nothing to see – and no biscuits – I walk to the kitchen with her. While making coffee, we are given a task: "What role do you play in a team?" While I'm thinking about it, I get off the line.
In my haste to log in, I make a typo and end up in a recording of Convening EMEA 2022 and the session "Audience first approaches to understanding changing behaviours" with Tom Reiser, Executive Director of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), and Daniel Waigl, Executive Director of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE). I listen a little.
In between, I do what I would have done on site: I check my mails. I listen with one ear and learn a new word for constantly changing job descriptions: "job carving" is derived from the English word "to carve" and literally means "to carve a job". Various tasks are reorganised to create a new job.
How well the session on artificial intelligence would fit in now. Unfortunately, "Unlocking the power of AI for events and beyond" with Stephen Rose, Head of Global Communication Services at Siemens AG, and Veemal Gungadin, Founder and CEO of the omnichannel event management platform GEVME, is taking place on the Growth Stage in D2. At least I learn about the Spark Accelerator from PCMA and GEVME. Their two learning programmes (Explorer and Innovator) include workshops, the development of applications and an action plan for implementation.
Alongside AI, costs are a topic that concerns everyone. This will be addressed in the session "Can you really manage costs?" with Ori Lahav, CEO of Kenes, Clare Melton, Executive Director, Head of Enterprise Events at S&P Global, and Adrian Ott, CEO of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT). They openly exchange views on the question: Are rising costs only affecting your budget or are they keeping you, your team or your customers awake at night? Adrian Ott is deprived of his sleep when a venue raises the costs five months before the EFFORT Congress with 4,000 delegates. "We sat down at the table together, got creative and asked ourselves questions." For example, do we still need an exhibition? Or: Can we reduce the catering options? Ott: "The positive result is that we had to think about what we could do together with the partners and the venue." His advice: "Look at the price, what makes it work, and sit down at the negotiating table." For me, the first day of the conference ends at 6.00 pm, for the participants it continues with the Welcome Reception at the Copenhagen City Hall.
Felix Rundel (left) and Sherrif Karamat talk about uncertainty as an opportunity, the climate crisis and the new sustainability conference. Photo: PCMA EMEA
Felix Rundel (left) and Sherrif Karamat talk about uncertainty as an opportunity, the climate crisis and the new sustainability conference. Photo: PCMA EMEA
You have the power
While day two for early risers begins at 7.30 am. with a "bommetje" ("canonball") in the waters of Copenhagen, I boot up my computer. At nine o'clock sharp, K'naan Warsame's song Wavin’ Flag plays. This is followed by applause, because presenter Felix Rundel and Sherrif Karamat, CEO und President von PCMA, have taken their seats on stage. The two of them have an intelligent conversation that I enjoy listening to. They talk about uncertainty as an opportunity.
„I don’t want to hang around with people who see the bad side of things but those who see opportunities for everyone a better life”, confesses Karamat. The charismatic PCMA President emphasises: “Our biggest challenge in front of us is the climate crisis, I do believe we will solve this. We can learn a lot from Copenhagen. We should help others on this journey. You people in the business events have power. What we do matters. It changes life, it creates solutions.”
PCMA and SANCBE launch sustainability conference
PCMA and the Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe (SANCBE) announced a new sustainability conferenceto be hosted in conjunction with Convening EMEA 2024 from 30 September to 2 October 2024 in Barcelona, Spain.
Consequently, he is not only inviting guests to Convening EMEA 2024 in Barcelona from 30 September to 2 October, but also to the new sustainability conference that PCMA and the Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe (SANCBE) are holding at the same time. "We are starting our first climate tech conference in Barcelona," announces Karamat. "The sustainability conference will allow people to come together to ensure knowledge transfer, create networks, and provide platforms on which answers to the overarching questions of our time are developed." He repeats: "Business events are an essential setting for solving complex issues."
Felix Rudel listens carefully. He later writes on LinkedIn: "Sherrif has inspired me since I first met him many years ago. He is way too humble to admit it, but Sherrif has been and continues to be a force for good on an incredibly large scale." Felix adds: "Last but not least, I never thought I would ever play Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" to an audience of 557 at an international business conference, but well ..." Many thanks, dear Felix and Sherrif, dear Jaimé and Kit.