ImpactCity The Hague
A race we must win
In the Ocean Race 2022/2023, the Germans sail on the Malizia Seaexplorer and fly the flag for sustainability: "A Race we must win – Climate Action Now". During the stopover in The Hague, the participants of the Impact Fam Trip are allowed on board. Photo: Peer Kolberg
In the Ocean Race 2022/2023, the Germans sail on the Malizia Seaexplorer and fly the flag for sustainability: "A Race we must win – Climate Action Now". During the stopover in The Hague, the participants of the Impact Fam trip are allowed on board. Photo: Antoine Auriol, Team Malizia
With the sustainable transformation, a word is making its way into the world of events: impact. What impact can business events and the destination have on sustainability? The Hague calls itself ImpactCity and uses the stopover of The Ocean Race sailing regatta as the start for the first Impact Fam Trip together with MICE Impact.
The Malizia Seaexplorer is 18 metres long. On the ocean-going yacht, the five-member German crew around skipper Boris Herrmann is sailing around the world in the Ocean Race. In 2022/2023, the sailing regatta runs over seven months and seven legs from Alicante in Spain to Cabo Verde (Africa), Cape Town (South Africa), Itajaí (Brazil), Newport (USA), Aarhus (Denmark), Kiel, The Hague (Netherlands) and Genoa (Italy).
The Ocean Race 2022-2023 | Be there
During the stopover in The Hague, a group of event managers are allowed on board. The participants of the Impact Fam trip are happy to stand on each other's feet, ask questions and marvel: the technology on the command bridge resembles a spaceship, the galley and bunks are reminiscent of camping. Team director Holly Cova answers every question and expands the horizons of the far-travelled event professionals beyond the sport: to the oceans.
After all, the fam trip from 13 to 16 June 2023 in The Hague is all about impact. What is meant is the impact that business events can have on sustainable transformation. The brains behind the new concept are Bas Schot, head of The Hague Convention Bureau, and Tanja Knecht, founder of the MICE Impact initiative and brand ambassador of the IMEX Group in Germany.
Bas Schot, head of The Hague Convention Bureau: “Impact is in our DNA: we want to create impact ourselves.” Photo: The Hague and Partners, Arjan de Jager
Bas Schot and Tanja Knecht are united by their conviction that in all business activities, the limits of ecological and social capacities must be kept in mind, and that it is becoming increasingly important for events not only to focus on business objectives: Business events need a message and a mission to have a sustainable impact.
The Ocean Race: Bigger than sport
In that sense, the Ocean Race is a benchmark. The sailing regatta is about more than a competition at sea with side events on land: it is about the situation of the oceans, about awareness and education, about science, research and training. The Ocean Summits organised at the stopovers address the (un)healthiness of the oceans. Finally, the sailors see the devastating effects of pollution and climate change with their own eyes.
Sustainability is embedded in the guiding principles of The Ocean Race, which works to preserve and protect the world's oceans. "The Ocean Race is about more than sport, it's about science, education and sustainable event management," explains Meegan Jones, Senior Sustainability Advisor at the Ocean Race. She adds, "When you look at the boats, each of them has a sustainability message with it." The large sail of Team Malizia reads: "A Race We Must Win – Climate Action Now!" With this, the Germans raise the flag for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations, more specifically SDG 13: Climate Action. A topic on which skipper Boris Herrmann exchanged views with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the stopover on Cabo Verde.
"Our biggest stakeholder is the ocean!" emphasise Meegan Jones and her colleague Biente Taekema. The Dutchwoman oversees the sustainability goals at the stop in The Hague. Like their colleagues, they are open to speak at conferences and share their Sustainability Action Plan with the participants in the Race & Sustainability Village. The Ocean Race wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75 percent for the 2022/2023 race. One challenge is the various partners in the cities such as hotels and of course the visitors. Therefore, there is a Sustainable Stopover Guide for each country. Claudia Krause is inspired by the idea of bringing the topic of sustainability to the world through the Ocean Race. As Head of CSR at Vok Dams, she is taking part in the Impact Fam Trip to rethink sustainability.
The Hague is the city of peace and justice. The International Court of Justice of the United Nations sits in the Peace Palace. In 1913, a year before the First World War, the Peace Palace opened. Today, its restaurant can be rented for 100 people and the garden for larger groups. Photo: tw tagungswirtschaft
ImpactCity The Hague
"The Ocean Race is one of the most sustainable events. It is a great event to create more sustainable destinations," says Bas Schot. He is considering using the Sustainable Stopover Guide for other events. The Hague Convention Bureau, headed by Schot, is part of The Hague & Partners, responsible for city marketing including business development and conferences. The Hague is known as the city of peace and justice. It is home not only to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, the Dutch Parliament and the Royal Family, but also to international organisations that want to do good and do business along the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
In 2015, the Dutch city on the North Sea awarded itself the title ImpactCity The Hague and has since seen itself as a city for entrepreneurs who want to create a better world. The belief behind this is that economic success goes hand in hand with solutions for a better world. ImpactCity provides investors and event planners with access to a network of companies, scale-ups and start-ups, NGOs, research centres and knowledge institutes, as well as talent, capital and infrastructure.
“Whether you work in the fields of climate, new energy, water, food or humanitarian innovation, ImpactCity aims to bring together people who are committed to achieving the Sustainable Development goals.”
Jan van Zanen, Mayor of The Hague
"We open doors", Bas Schot calls it. „For us as a city, impact is the delta to change and to create value. This is our DNA: we want to creating impact ourselves.” After all, his city is the second largest city in the United Nations after New York, which obliges. He wants to make a difference and create an improvement for every inhabitant of the planet, in terms of health, justice and security. "Sustainability is about changing behaviours and impact should create something better," says Schot: "It is about changing behaviour of individuals like you and me."
Eco systems along the SDGs
Climate change is something the 560,000 inhabitants in The Hague experience first-hand on their coasts: sea levels are rising. Around 10,000 of them are working in organisations that contribute to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. These are clustered in ecosystems and made visible through ImpactCity. On SDG 7 "Affordable and clean energy", for example, Oceans of Energy appears. By its own account, it is the first company in the world to have developed a proven offshore solar system that has been operating for more than three years in high waves at full sea.
The North Sea will be increasingly used for energy production in the coming decade, and its Dutch part is set to become the centre of offshore wind production. With this goal in mind, The Hague and the province of South Holland have launched the Campus@Sea programme, which unites initiatives such as the Ocean & North Sea Summit 2023 in June. "For any company that wants to play a leading role in new offshore activities, the North Sea is the place to be and The Hague is the ideal location to set up shop," finds Arno Segeren, programme manager for coastal activities at The Hague & Partners.
In the Startup Hub Apollo 14, the participants of the Impact Fam Trip meet founders and learn about their business ideas along the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations. Photo: tw tagungswirtschaft
"We can introduce you to the ecosystems," informs Bas Schot. These can be speakers, start-ups and sponsors. His team members have corresponding focus areas. International Sales Manager Jeanine Dupigny, for example, is the contact person for the topics "Impact and New Energies, Sustainability, Peace and Justice". "We as a convention bureau are the connecting part," explains Schot and adds: "We want to make the difference and help our clients to make the change. We help them to design and redesign events and to create a legacy programme." He and his team help event organisers share their knowledge with the public, create awareness and connect with the press.
Hubs of social impact
In addition to know-how and contacts, ImpactCity offers start-ups and scale-ups space to work and meet in its Impact hubs, which are open to event planners. Today, innovative companies are located in the former industrial area Binckhaven. The participants of the fam trip visit the hub Apollo 14 with 34 companies in the immediate vicinity of the former tobacco factory Caballero Fabriek with 110 start-ups. Nearby, the Holiday Inn The Hague – Voorburg opened last year with 125 rooms, an open lobby, co-working spaces, two meeting rooms and the restaurant Miss Jones.
"We love it," the participants remark a little later during the site inspection at the Impact Conference Center De Titaan with 13,000 square metres for start-ups and students, living and food labs, maker spaces, various programmes, events and an impact community. "We fuel founders to fix the future," is how Campus Manager Rachelle Brusselaars puts the idea.
At The Titaan Impact Conference Centre, event managers can hold meetings and meet innovators like Ali Abedi. The engineer at Hygro wants to make hydrogen accessible as a primary energy source. Photo: tw tagungswirtschaft
Impact hubs for entrepreneurs and event planners
1. Apollo 14: The hub for impact makers in The Hague
2. Campus@Sea: Innovation in and around the North Sea for the world of tomorrow
3. The News Farm: Creative hub at a unique spot in The Hague
4. Living Lab Scheveningen: Smart City Hub
5. The Hague Humanity Hub: The leading community of innovators striving for a peaceful and just world
6. The Titaan: State-of-the-art innovation hub for impact startups and scale-ups
7. The Hague Security Delta: The Dutch Security Cluster
8. Technology Park Ypenburg: A unique place for the high-tech manufacturing industry
9. The Hague tech: The biggest tech community in The Hague
10. YES!Delft The Hague: Leading tech incubator in Europe
Focus on encounters
The Impact Fam Trip focuses on such encounters. There are many places in The Hague that are suitable as locations for events. The Omniversum Museum applies the Sustainable Development Goals in everyday life for young and old with the exhibition One Planet Now, while the Louwman Museum tells the story of over 130 years of technical innovation with 275 contemporary witnesses from the history of the automobile. The distances in ImpactCity are short, the connections are good with two train stations and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is 30 minutes away by train.
Next to Den Haag Centraal Station is The Hague Conference Centre New Babylon with a 650-person plenum, co-working spaces, lounges and meeting rooms where participants enjoy the Chocolate Sculpture Workshop with Anat Ratzabi. For many journeys, they hop on a bicycle, because The Hague has 300 kilometres of cycle paths. Garages for bikes are as much a part of the cityscape as bicycles in front of the hotels, i.e. the design hotel ibis Styles Den Haag City Centre with 41 rooms or the listed boutique hotel Carlton Ambassador with 88 rooms.
From there, it's just a few steps to the Panorama Mesdag museum. In the rotunda, the largest painting in the Netherlands (1,680 square metres) can be explored with a view of the sea, the dunes and the old fishing village. Painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag captured the situation of the coast in 1880/1881 – foreseeing that it would change through industrialisation. The collection in the museum has an overarching theme: the North Sea.
"I have learnt a lot about sustainability and I will deal with the topic even more and seek dialogue with my clients, especially the regular clients.”
Alexander Gruneisen, founder and managing director of the Coreventus agency
Participants discover the North Sea by pulling Pullka sledges behind them during Sea Hiking and collecting rubbish during a beach walk. At the new Inntel Hotels The Hague Marina Beach with 224 rooms and three conference rooms and possibilities for meetings by the sea, the participants meet an impact champion: Kees de Vries, Head of external affairs at Sea Rangers Service. The company is committed to protecting the world's oceans and coasts by preparing young people for maritime careers and carrying out protective work at sea such as fishing for plastic. "We are 24/7 on the sea. We can monitor everything what is happening there," Kees de Vries reports and emphasises: "We can make a difference in climate change and we are very eager to roll out this idea to make the world a bit better."
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