| Jeu Bressers CEO (Heeze, The Netherlands) Kapellerput Conference Centre Since many years He has been working in the hospitality and meeting industry, corporate training and development and adult education. He was engaged as managing director, projectmanager, training officer and He is the founder of Conferencehotel Kapellerput. A specialized venue for mid size business meetings. In recent years he was consulted several time in starting up new meeting hotels from "scratch". He focus on market opportunities, innovation and entrepeneurship. He is writing short articles and blogs for the website "Kapellerput" and "CongresWereld" . He chairs the board of directors at IACC Europe, the International Association of Conference Centers and serves IACC also as Vice President of the global board of directors. He is also the chairman of two supervisory boards in Mental Health Care institutions. | |
| Steen Broby Managing director (Klarskovgaard, Denmark) Comwell IACC Denmark Chapter President, IACC Global Vice President, Managing Director Comwell Klarskovgaard, Hotel and Conference Centre at about 1 hours drive from Copenhagen. | |
| Joanne Celens CEO (Brussels Belgium) Synthetron Joanne Celens Belgium CEO of Synthetron. She co-founded Synthetron and is the CEO since 2007. Joanne holds a degree in business and in international relations. Previously she worked 18 years for Shell in various international management positions Joanne focuses now on helping clients with Synthetrons unique social brainstorm approach. The synthetron method allows to engage in one hour 10 to 1000 in moderated online interactive chat type of discussions. In these anonymous private discussions participants will identify their shared short list of most important ideas. Proactive crowd-source is made possible with all advantages of social media without the disadvantages of groupthink, overload or public exposure. | |
| Stefania Conti-Vecchi CEO (Sardegna, Italy) EVENTagist Co-founder and CEO of EVENTagist, an innovative community of international experts with specific know-how in the Meeting Industry and in the Business Tourism. Within EVENTagist she assists and supports customers to easily define and to implement conventional and unconventional marketing strategies, to design and develop any type of communication campaign through the organization of events with special attention to the new formats, the world market trends, the new technologies and social media tools. Member of the Education Committee of MPI Italia Chapter, she was for several years Director of the Sardinia Convention Bureau. For over 10 years she worked for the Chamber of Commerce of Cagliari as Manager of the Tourism office, the Quality and Environmental Certification office, the Internationalization of Enterprises office and the Training office, organizing seminars and training sessions specifically focused on major current issues. Qualified consultant and auditor for the certification of quality according to ISO 9000. Lecturer and speaker at conferences and training courses on the topics of Green Meetings, Destination Management, Social Media and New Technologies (including apps and mobile devices) connected to the events matters. | |
| Eric de Groot Meeting Designer (Leeuwarden, The Netherlands) MindMeeting Alignment between meeting owner and meeting designer is probably one of the most critical success factors in the field of Meeting Architecture. MindMeeting has developed several techniques to establish this alignment in the very first stages of an assignment. Eric masters them, and describes them as co-author (together with his colleague Mike van der Vijver) in “Into the Heart of Meetings”, to be released in the spring of 2012. He likes the diversity of his work as a Meeting Designer, since 1994. His current portfolio of assignments include the design of meetings for The Dutch Ministry of Defence, an EU-agency, an Association of Companies in the Tourist Industry, as well as an educational debate on Social Innovation, two Meetings on Safety in the Oil & Gas Industry and a large HRM-conference. For this last meeting, Eric will experiment with formats for 1000+ groups, during Fresh. | |
| Stefaan Decroos CEO (Belgium) beMatrix Stefaan Decroos is co-founder and CEO of beMatrix, a practical conference and event wall system, designed and produced in Belgium and the first tool-less system on the market. Before he held several international sales and management functions in bigger companies. He will explain : · what he can offer to the conference business · why beMatrix system is the fastest building system on the market · the green side of the system · its endless possibilities | |
| Maria Eliasson Facilitation Guru (Sweden) Facilitatorhuset Both are facilitators and organizational consultants. They have many years of experience in change management in both the private and public sectors. Organizational development that harnesses the power of the group is what characterizes Maria and Pia’s work process. They use the workshop as a working forum to create dialogue, support and commitment within an organization. They are educators in the art of facilitating workshops, specific workshop methods and change management. Together they run the company Facilitatorhuset, which since 2004 has inspired more efficient meetings in all sectors in Sweden. | |
| Rosa Garriga-Mora Marketing and Media Manager (Barcelona, Spain) Event ROI Institute I am an Events professional with special interest in designing meetings whose results are measurable and aligned with an organisation’s strategic objectives. I am especially keen on looking for ways to increase events' effectiveness through its design and the use of technologies before, during and after it. | |
| Shuli Golovinski CEO (London UK) Newtonstrand Author of the Book: From Gimmicks to Value: The Future of the Events Industry CEO at PSG Group CEO at Newtonstrand | |
| Hans Gordon Ph.D., Professor, Psychologist (Stockholm, Sweden) Gordon Consulting Graduated from Stockholm university with a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology in 1973. Former University lecturer at the Department of Education at Stockholm university. Licensed psychologist and psychotherapist. Authorized Aviation psychologist. Senior Consultant in psychology at Gordon Consulting Ltd. Author of text books concerning psychological issues. Writer for magazines. | |
| Mael Guillemot CEO (Martigny, Switzerland) KLEWEL Mael Guillemot is the founder and managing director of Klewel. Founded in 2007 in Switzerland, Klewel provides event webcasting solutions. Maël is living in Switzerland, born in Britanny (France). He holds a European Master of Science from the University of Rennes (France). During his studies, he spent one year at the University of Huddersfield (UK) and six months at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona (Spain). He is laureate of the Swiss Venture Leaders 2008 and holds the "Passeport Bretagne pour Entreprendre". He spent six years of Research and Development experience at the Idiap Research Institute (Switzerland) in the area of multimedia information management. He specialized in digital image processing and automatic video analysis. At the frontier between video and Internet, Maël decided to put in practice his technical know-how at the service of the event and education industries. The software developed by Klewel obtained the 2008 Seal of European e-Excellence in Multimedia at the CeBIT forum, one of the largest international trade shows in the domain of Information and Telecommunication technology. Klewel was finalist of the 2009 AIPC Innovation Award in Congress Center. Klewel is member of the MSI - Meeting Support Institute, the ICCA - International Convention and Congress Association, the MPI - Meeting Professional International. Klewel is present at IMEX and EIBTM tradeshows. | |
| Urs Haeusler Business Development Amiando Current: Head of Sales / Management Board at Amiando GmbH Past: Managing Director Switzerland at Ticket Online AG Head of Marketing & Sales at Voice Publishing AG Country Manager Switzerland at JAMBA! - MOBILE INTERNET PORTAL Education: University of St. Gallen (HSG) | |
| Dr. Elling Hamso Managing Partner The European Event ROI Institute Meeting Management Consultant and Managing Partner of the European Event ROI Institute he teaches the skills of meeting management, in particular how to evaluate meetings and events and provide consultancy services on a wide range of meeting and event related issues to corporations, associations and suppliers of meeting services. He speaks frequently at conferences and seminars on subjects like ROI, Procurement, Meeting Architecture, Technology, Risk Management, Project Management, etc. He is a Past President of Meeting Professionals International Norway Chapter and he has been a member of MPI's European Council and Research Advisory Panel. Conference & Incentive Travel magazine ranked him 5th on their 2006 list of the most influential people in the UK meetings and event industry, Meetings International ranked him 11th in Scandinavia in 2008 and Eventbranche included him among the 40 most influential in the Dutch events industry in 2010. He is a Management Sciences graduate and also has a Ph.D. in supplier-customer relationship managment from Manchester University. | |
| Gerrit Heijkoop Entrepreneur & trainer (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Triqle Event Intelligence Amsterdam, Netherlands) Entrepreneur and networker with a passion for events and social media | Owner Vivo.nu | Co-Founder of Triqle Event Intelligence | Eventprof | Public speaker Main strenghts: enthusiasm, execution power, analytics and communication. Specific fields of interest: Social Media, Events, Technology and Innovation. About Triqle Event Intelligence: Reduce your CO2 footprint by eliminating the use of paper. At the same time increase the interaction and engagement with the attendees of your next event. Our service "What's On?" provides real-time program information to event visitors through screens, mobile phones and the Internet. It shows what is going on now and what happens next, all in one glance. "What's On?" provides a seamless integration with Social Media at your event, meeting or conference. Find out more at http://www.triqle.eu | |
| Elizabeth Henderson (REMOTE SPEAKER) Conference Game Architect (Calgary, Canada) Meeting Change Elizabeth Henderson is the Gamification Architect for excellence from Calgary, Canada. She designed the Extremely Gamified Conference from the Green Meetings Industry Council (GMIC 2011). Her work strongly influences the current hunger for gaming in meetings and conferences. What works and what doesn't in ‘Work hard, play hard’? If anyone knows it is Elizabeth. Elizabath is CMM, CMP, M.E. Des. | |
| Damian Hutt Commercial Conference Creator (London, UK) Compelling Conferences Damian Hutt is Executive Director of Association Resource in London, UK. He owns the biggest Association Conference in Europe and has a background as a commercial conference organiser. Tens of thousands of people in London alone organise thousands of conferences all over the world, just for the money. Love them or hate them, but they have a few design principles we as Meeting Architects can all learn from. Damian shares some of the darker secrets of an unknown but gigantic industry. We will get a FRESH perspective on why meetings work… | |
| Mireia Iglesias Project Manager (Bilbao, Spain) Meeting Support Institute Mireia holds a degree in Advertising and Public Relations, and after that she became a Master in Congress, Events and Tradeshows Management by the University of Deusto. She took the Meeting Architecture Course and ROI Course in London, 2010. She started working for the Meeting Support Institute in April, 2010. She has worked in the meeting industry coordinating projects at different levels such as IMEX Frankfurt and EIBTM Barcelona. She considers herself an eager to learn professional and strategic team player with a tenacious spirit. | |
| Ms. Nicoline Jacoby Hansen Ph.D Conference Consultant (CPH, Denmark) AGORA She holds a PhD from the Danish School of Education/Aarhus University and an MA in Communication and Psychology from Roskilde University, Denmark. During the past decade she has hosted a vast number of conferences and workshops and through her company AGORA COPENHAGEN she advises conference organizers on how to increase the potential for learning at meetings. She has published a number of articles and books on a variety of subjects, including learning at conferences, knowledge management, research methods and leadership. | |
| Ruud Janssen CMM Serial Entrepreneur (Basel Switzerland) TNOC Ruud Janssen, CMM (1970) is serial entrepreneur specialised in bespoke new media and online collaboration at TNOC | The New Objective Collective. He is active as a trainer, facilitator and has co-founded Event Camp Europe and curator of TEDx events based in Arlesheim, Switzerland. He is a veteran Global Conference Organiser, Strategic Marketing Consultant and a social media digital nomad. He is one of the co-authors of The Tweeting Meeting and as an association leader he has completed a term on the International Board of Directors of MPI Meeting Professionals International as well as serving a chapter president for MPI in the Netherlands. His is currently on the board the Meeting Support Institute and Project Meeting Architecture. Besides his role as a jury member for the EIBTM World Wide Technology Watch, he is an emerging technologies speaker, MPI Global Accredited Trainer and serial entrepreneur at TNOC | The New Objective Collective and Amplixs Interaction Management. | |
| Roger Kellerman Publisher (Ystad, Sweden) Meetings International Roger Kellerman has been writing about meetings for more than 25 years. Together with his wife and editor in chief, Atti Soenarso they have worked as journalists for more than 55 years. For the past six years they have presented The Scandinavian Meeting Planner of the Year Award, in addition to this they have been working closely with leading Scandinavian industry exhibition TUR in Göteborg to create Meeting Industry Week, which gives the exhibition the Association Meetings Day and the Corporate Meetings Day, with high profile speakers. | |
| Mr Banz Ledin Founder (Lausanne, Switzerland) SpotMe Banz thinks the greatest thing about meetings is how they build trust between perfect strangers. He likes the drive of a bold vision, as much as figuring out the many details that will make it happen. Before SpotMe, he was failing to adequately answer friends’ concerns about the use of studying German, mathematics and Spanish for 7 years. Unlike some hot-shot CEOs, he does not own 20 cats - though his family says that might change. When the cats reach twenty, he will build a plane, fly it to Oshkosh and then to where the wild things are. | |
| Alok Nandi Narrative Design + Interaction Design (Brussels, Belgium) Architempo Alok Nandi from Architempo presents his experience with (the official)Pecha Kucha Nights he is organising since 2007 in Brussels. After several years of organising Pecha Kucha nights, Alok now adds the Ignite format to his list of projects, and the coCreationcamp. 20 slides of 15 seconds = 5 minutes where as Pecha Kucha is 20 x 20 seconds… Is there a difference? Mr Nandi’s background in Design and Storytelling and Engineering adds to the flavour of an already creative session. | |
| Holger Nauheimer Change Agent (Berlin, Germany) Change Facilitation Holger Neuheimer is a Change Facilitator based in Berlin, Germany. He uses conferences and meetings as a tool to change groups, to facilitate change. Changing something in the participants behaviour is the key factor to success (Ref. ROI Methodology) so her lies leverage to meeting effectiveness. Holger also organises the Berlin Change Days; one of the world’s biggest events on the topic of Organisational Change. He will introduce us to this niche world and what they are up to. Meeting designers need to know more about this. | |
| Miguel Neves Social Media Champion (Hove, UK) IMEX World wide Exhibitions Miguel has produced meetings, conferences and events worldwide since 2005. Since August 2011 Miguel has held the title of Events and Projects Planner for the IMEX Group and as an active member of MPI Miguel is the current Director of Online Marketing for MPI United Kingdom & Ireland Chapter. Miguel is a passionate social media advocate and frequently speaks at industry events on Social Media as well as Generation Y, Return on Investment, Meeting Architecture and Cultural Challenges. Miguel holds a Masters degree in Conference and Events Management from the University of Westminster. | |
| Kristine Nygaard Graphic Facilitator KISSTHEFROG.DK Illustrator/visuel dokumentation at Konsulent gruppen INNOVATOR Owner at Kiss The Frog Past: Grafic facilitation at Collaboration Lab | |
| Janne Orava project manager HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences Janne Orava (M.Sc. Econ) is a project manager of Conference Hotel of Tomorrow research project. This research project aims to find out, what are the physical, virtual and social changes that will take place in future meetings. As an outcome, a new Meeting Design service is created. The project is coordinated by HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences and funded by Tekes (The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) and 14 partner companies. Janne is an entrepreneur, who has been working with different Living Lab projects almost six years now. During these years he has been in charge of several Living Lab projects and also Living Lab cases. In these projects he has witnessed how users have empowered themselves when taking active role in research, development and innovation processes with the companies. Lately Janne has worked especially with Finnish universities of applied sciences. | |
| Ib Ravn Lecturer, Ph.D. (Copenhagen, Denmark) Aarhus Universitet, Emdrup campus Ib Ravn Associate Professor, facilitation trainer, Ph.D. (Copenhagen, Denmark) Aarhus University (Emdrup campus) Ib Ravn heads the research group ”Facilitating Knowledge Processes” that designs, facilitates and tests processes for learning and knowledge sharing at meetings and in organizations generally. He directed the research-and-development projects The Learning Meeting, More Effective Meetings, and Meetings that Create Value and Meaning, all of which were conducted in collaboration with some of Denmark’s largest organizations, such as Nokia Denmark, Novozymes and Danske Bank. He previously worked for thirteen years in the private sector, including five years as a business consultant. He has written five books in Danish, most recently “Facilitation” (Hans Reitzel, 2011), as well as Steen Elsborg and Ib Ravn: “Learning Meetings and Conferences in Practice” (People’s Press, 2007). | |
| Gil Renders Theatre Director and Process Facilitator (Belgium) TheO Gil Renders is specialized in combining care and coaching with creative teaching methods. After directing the theater program she worked several years in the theater full time. She made productions with young people, amateurs and professional actors and dancers in various contexts (eg Genk cc, cc The Muse/Heusden, The Palace/Atwerpen). As a freelancer she combined the theater more and more with the design and supervision of numerous workshops on creativity, personal development and communication. She started in the communications world as an independent trainer for various companies (including Abyzco, Truvo, Telenet, Fortis). She kept training on techniques including presentation, inspirational communication, and leadership. In January 2007 she also started a private practice as a creative coach and therapist. IN SHORT : Gil Renders is a theatre director, systemic constellator and creative coach. Her independent work as a trainer and process facilitator revolves around topics such as inspiring communication and inner leadership. Gil is passionate about the role that creativity and theatre methodologies can play in the development of personal as well as collective consciousness. Theatre-constellation work is a unique and innovative outcome of that. | |
| Violeta Salonen project assistant / Student Haaga Helia University Violeta Salonen is a Montenegrin native that has lived in UK before finally settling for Finland. Currently project assistant on Conference Hotel of Tomorrow research project, taking care of meeting design concept. Third year student of Experience and Wellness Management Degree Programme in Haaga Helia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, specializing in Media and Entertainment studies in NHTV Breda, Holland. Proud member of Haaga Future Leaders Club and a winner of Young Hoteliers Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, 2011. Blue Turtle ambassador for Finland. Prior to that Violeta Graduated Music Conducting from London College of Music and Media, and worked as a music teacher and a performer for 6 years. | |
| Gerdie Schreuders Owner agency for events, social media & live reporting Live Online Events Gerdie Schreuders Owner agency for events, social media & live reporting LiveOnlineEvents Loves live events and hates waste of knowledge. This social media early bird helps companies to increase the impact of their live events with online ideas to engage more people for a longer period of time. Integrates the idea of recycling knowledge. She cherishes content and spreads the word as a writer, blogger, trainer & speaker.Has more than 15 years of experience in live events in Danmark and Holland. Is working with a team of TweetReporters for live events, is social media moderator & virtual host. Nice to meet you! @Gerdie. | |
| Samuel J. Smith (REMOTE SPEAKER) Participation Technology Guru (Minneapolis, USA) Interactive Meeting Technology Samuel J. Smith is the global guru in meetings interactivity and technology from Minnesota, USA. He initiated and co-organised several EventCamps since the very beginning in 2009. What is an EventCamp? And what can we learn from the experiments EventCamps do with hybrid formats? Hybrid meetings are certainly an upcoming trend surfing on the waves of economy and environment. EventCamp experiments on (and over) the edge to help us to introduce hybrid meeting techniques and technology without breaking our necks. | |
| Ole Sorang Director of Regional Marketing Raddison BLU (Copenhagen Denmark) Ole Sorang currently hold's a position as Director of Regional Marketing - Nordic Countries of The Rezidor Hotel Group. Ole is responsible for the brand and marketing activities within the Norwegian, Finnish, Sweden, Danish and Icelandic market. During his 7 years with The Rezidor Hotel Group he has held various leadership positions within Sales, Marketing, Revenue Management as well as hotel operation. Before joining the hotel industry Ole Sorang was responsible for the international sales and marketing for the Wonderful Copenhagen CVB from 1996 to 2000. Prior to that he has held various sales, marketing and operational positions in individual hotels. Ole studied economics, marketing, sociology and international business before joining the hospitality and the meetings industry. He has been involved in the MPI organization on a chapter and international level since 1998. | |
| Danny Stevens CEO (Willebroek, Belgium) Wales on Waves General Manager at EventDrive - online platform for Event Communication and ROI optimization. Active in the event industry since 1990, and wide creative and field experience in event communication with over 3000 productions. Founder and CEO of Event Masters, for 16 years. Started new company EventDrive since 2008. Web-based platform for Event Relation Marketing. Strong focus on EventROI and Event Intelligence. Open for International partnerships and investor opportunities. | |
| Andrea Sullivan (REMOTE SPEAKER) Food & Brain (Philadelphia , USA) Strengh System Inc. For more than 25 years people have benefited from Andrea Sullivan’s expertise. Her specialization in understanding the application of brain research has helped organizations with their learning design, group dynamics, organizational growth and leadership. Now she brings the expertise to FRESH to discuss how food enhances moods, learning, and performance in meetings. Andrea holds a Master's degree in Organizational Psychology from Vermont College of Norwich University. Through her companies, LeaderStrength Systems, Inc. and BrainStrength Systems, she's worked with many organizations. | |
| Leonora Valvo CEO (USA) Etouches CEO at Etouches, a company that provides event & meeting planning professionals an online suite of integrated applications that offer efficient, cost-effective tools to support the planning and management of any type of meeting. | |
| Paul Vanherck Meeting Support Manager Abbit Meeting Support With 20+ years of experience in the AV, ICT and production side of meetings and conferences Paul is well placed to talk about the old and new in AV, technology and more. Conferences use specific microphones, special technologies and unique ways of managing things. Paul Vanherck is a specialist in AV for meetings and conferences and therefore a first class resource, willing and able to share. | |
| Maarten Vanneste Fire starter (Turnhout, Belgium) Abbit Meeting Support Maarten Vanneste started his company at age 18. It grew into a professional AV company with a team of 12 full-time staff. In the 90’s he started to focus on meetings, expanding services for this international niche market. The business plan from his MPI CMM project became the Meeting Support Institute (2006); an association for companies with services and products on the content side of meetings. In 2007, Vanneste wrote the book “Meeting Architecture, a manifesto” (MSI 2008). This lead to a movement and an international not-for-profit ‘Project Meeting Architecture'. For his accomplishments Maarten received the IMEX Academy Award in 2005 and the MPI RISE Industry Leadership Award in 2011. | |
| Mr. Rik Verschueren Positive Entrepreneur (Leuven, Belgium) TheO Rik Verschueren is an independent process-facilitator in Flanders, Belgium. As a social worker and entrepeneur he developed a variety of innovative socio-economic and -cultural projects. As a process facilitator he knows how to work with the interrelation between the personal level, with the cultural and structural level. He has a large experience in tracing the flow of systemic change by means of systemic constellation work. Together with Gil Renders, theatre director, process facilitator and systemic constellator, he developed the format 'Theatre Constellations' (TheO). Theatre Constellations combines the powerful impact of systemic constellation work with the accessibility, dynamism and humour of a theatre play. This results in an impressive tool that facilitates deep change processes to take place within large groups of people, thus operating on a bigger scale. | |
| Simon Waddell Meeting Architect and Conference Producer (Geneva, Switzerland) Simon Waddell Events Services A senior Swiss-English meeting planner, designer, producer with 20+ years of corporate conferences. An ever returning challenge is the improvement of presentations by always new first timers and consistently amateur speakers. They have a lot to share, they think they do a good job, they have no idea about presentations creation, educational principles, they have no time to really prepare well, and are totally stressed on stage. We urgently need an industry standard for Begin Improving Presentation of Amateur Speakers (BIPAS). Also for the break-out sessions! | |
