Monday, November 30th, 2009
HeadQuarters magazine is happy to announce the winners of the Dress to Impress Awards that took place during ICCA’s Congress Gala Dinner. This year saw even more people participate - we guess we can call the event a success!
Picture 1:
Marcel A.M. Vissers and Cécile Caiati-Koch, respectively Editor in Chief and Managing Director of HeadQuarters magazine, were happy to present the 3rd Dress To Impress Prizes during ICCA’s Congress Gala Dinner.
Picture 2:
The President of the Jury, Annick Debels, Director of Gent Congres, a lady who obviously likes jewellery - she boasted a new collection of Pasta Art at the Gala Dinner - was more than happy to hand over the Best Belgian Chocolates to the winners.
Picture 3:
The Have Flair Prize
Awarded to Juanita Males, Operations Director, Scatterlings Conference Events, Johannesburg (SA)
Picture 4:
The Have Creativity Prize
Awarded to Ilona Manning, Sales Manager Association, Swedish Exhibition &
Congress Centre, Göteborg
Picture 5:
The Sense of Humour Prize
Awarded to Becky Graveney, Head of Association, VisitLondon
Picture 6:
The Public Prize
Awarded to the Bedouk Girls - Paris
Picture 7 and 8:
And last but not least were two newly-created awards: the Poddle Prizes
First Poodle Prize:
Awarded to Dennis Speet, Director Marketing and Sales, ICCA Amsterdam
Second Poodle Prize:
Leigh Harry, President of ICCA and Chief Executive of Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Will this nice ephebe be in Florence?
Who can impress me during the Dress To Impress Award during ICCA’s Gala Dinner on Tuesday 10 November in Palazzo Corsini in Florence? A lot will have to change for that to happen because at the moment the world is only dressed in dark and dreary colours: black, dark grey and dark blue. Even in Italy!
I experienced a few visions about this year’s Dress To Impress Award.
Vision 1: I see a man walking in the moonlight. He is dressed in a formfitting red nylon suit and swinging a yellow umbrella while walking through a forest. Isn’t that Martin Sirk?
Vision 2: One sunny autumn afternoon a lady comes cycling towards me. She looks as if she has just left the stage of Verdi’s ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’. Is it Anne Wallin Rodven of visitOSLO?
Vision 3: This same afternoon a man dressed in a gleaming white suit with black patent leather shoes, an Italian hat and a stiletto in his right hand, takes a stroll through a park. Isn’t it Richard Yore of Tourism Vancouver?
Vision 4: Who do I see early in the morning in an olive grove? This is Meeting Manager Pier Paolo Mariotti dressed as El Duque de Bolzano!
Vision 5: I have this restless dream about Joshua the beautiful ephebe (see picture). Will he too be present 10 November?
HeadQuarters and MIMmagazine will contribute the following prizes:
First prize: The FLAIR prize
Second prize: The HUMOUR prize
Third prize: The CREATIVITY prize
Fourth prize: The PUBLIC prize
All winners will receive the best Belgian chocolates from Marcolini (www.marcolini.be) and a tree, planted in our Meeting Forest of course.
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
A detail of our company grove where meetings trees are going to be planted
You certainly know that publishers of printed magazines use a lot of trees. This does not show a lot of love for society and nature. You also know that the meetings industry has suffered a bit - sorry, a lot - from negative press comments all over the world - especially in the United States, where the industry is considered a business composed solely of good-for-nothings.
I got some wise advice from a wise man during the last AIPC congress in A Coruna. His name will sound familiar: Simon Anholt. He’s a genius concerning ‘branding’. He (nearly) literally said: ‘You walk with bowed heads and slumped shoulders because you got slapped in the face. How is it possible that such a rich industry gets dragged through the mud?’ ‘Well,’ I said to myself, ‘we all owe it a bit to ourselves.’
To the outside we only showed the good life and too little of the importance of meetings. What do we have to do instead? Improve the meeting brand, polish it and do good work.
I myself have done the latter by buying a grove in the Caledonian Forest, thanks to the Trees for Life organization, a world-famous green restoring project. The idea is to grow a Meetings Forest there and therefore I need 10,000 or 100,000 trees. The Worldwide Meetings Industry Community already planted more than 600 trees. Only 99.400 to go. Who wants to buy a tree from HeadQuarters and MIM magazine. It is only 5 UKP a piece: you can check it out here.
And I also have a dream: to have a meeting in a tree house in the middle of the Meetings Forest! Guess what? I already know the architects!
In times of war, famine, pestilence and death, it was customary in Europe and elsewhere to go on a pilgrimage. On the program of the AIPC Annual Conference – held this year at the beginning of July in Palexco A Coruna, Galicia – there was a planned visit to Santiago de Compostela. I had heard a lot of good about this pilgrimage site and I decided not to let this opportunity pass.
Lord knows, after hearing the sermon by Simon Anholt, I felt obliged to pray for the recovery of the Meetings Industry and I needed absolution for the sins committed by me and others these last few years. You see, during the conference Simon Anholt, the keynote speaker and originator of “destination branding”, had held a mirror up to our faces. We looked like a battered meeting industry – a stain on the soul of the finest industry that God created.
On this drizzling Sunday in July, the rain felt like holy water. Around eleven o’clock the cathedral filled with a flow of pilgrims from all over the world, young and old. I settled myself between some weary youths from Zaragoza, who looked like they still had unblemished and innocent souls. They were modern and pious. For more than an hour I paid unrelenting attention to the young nun, who led us into song with a voice like an angel, and to the archbishop, whose voice rang like a clock. When Mass ended and the botafumeiro – a large and famous incensory – was swung over our heads, I felt compelled to stand and cry out: “Our Father, forgive us our many lavish party trespasses and forgive us for not preaching the Gospel of the Meetings Industry to the lay people. Amen!”.
When we left the cathedral, I only saw happy faces as if all AIPC-attendees had been converted to joyful pilgrims. To celebrate the New Opportunities, we went to the parador “Hostal de los Reyes Catolicos”.
For this unforgettable trip, I will now give thanks to Enrique Pena Gonzalez. Deo gratias.
I wasn’t sure whether to publish this blog text because I might step on some Canadian toes, which is not my intention at all. All the time I get to hear that Canada is a wonderful congress country, but it doesn’t have a brand, nor humour. I’ve recently visited five Canadian cities and I have to decide: Canada is the country of new values! And how better to describe this than with a story in which I got involved innocently. Here goes nothing.
If you pay attention, you could catch me exercising an innocent interest in Sex and the Fair. In a couple of my blog texts about meetings fairs, you’ve already been able to read that Norway likes an absolutely naked man and that Saint Petersburg favours erotic nudity − and my latest discovery is that Canada feels very warm.
I admit it: at the recent edition of IMEX in Frankfurt, I strolled past the Canadian stand more often than usual. The body-paint couple ( I show you only one) enabled you to see a lot of the beautiful human shapes with which not every one of us is endowed. Someone must have noticed my particular interest in the painted hockey player, because I was suddenly overtaken by voices saying: step into the midst of our warm, mountainous, infinitely beautiful country.
And believe me or not, it was Torsten the hockey player who grasped my hand and said: “Feel the warmth and the tenderness of a vast, hilly, endlessly lovely country.” I let out a shout: I feel Canada! Those who would like to know more about Torsten’s torso should take a look at his website. During IMEX he has shown a sexy Canada. To women and to men.
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
If I look at the ICCA PR Kit and count how many meetings magazines there are all around the world, I’m shocked. Almost 300!! How on earth can they all make a living? I’ll leave the answer to the reader and the advertisers. I always assume they’ll make the best choice.
Now I can proudly announce that the total number has gone up by ONE: number 301. The magazine will be called HQ magazine Asia-Pacific (HQmagazine.asia) and is a sister (or brother) of the existing (and famous) HQ magazine Europe (HQmagazine.eu). Its headquarters will be in Singapore, a city that has claimed the title of capital of international association headquarters, just like Brussels and Washington. Associations are starting to flourish and grow in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. If that’s not good news, in these troubled times. By now you’ll surely have understood that I’m for the biggest part the one to blame for the addition of another new magazine.
After visiting the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre I dare to confess that the MCEC is the most beautiful congress building in the world. Oohlala, of all the nerve! Vancouver, Kuala Lumpur and Cape Town are not far behind and there are probably new centres that still have to open that might catch up with Melbourne but they’ll need to have what it takes, because how can you possibly overtake a 6-star purpose-built centre? By using more colours, perhaps? The lady at the Qantas check-in counter in Melbourne said to me very spontaneously: ‘Sir, you must be European, because you’re wearing such a nice and colourful suit. Aussie men are afraid to do that.’
‘How right you are,’ I said. ‘But miss,’ I continued, ‘you have to go and visit the new MCEC, it’s one big colour palette. You definitely need to see the ballroom with its chairs that appeal to the imagination.’ They are selected by Frank Mohren, the Operations Manager of the convention centre. They’re really simple, are a great seat and are very colourful. ‘A Swiss product, fully recycled from plastic waste and available in red, black and orange,’ Frank added. The way Frank is talking about his chairs, I’ve never heard a man talk about his wife like that. The MCEC could be a great example for Australian men and women for how they should dress in the future. A tip for Leigh Harry: organise a conference in the main auditorium about ‘How to bring colour into your life’. And Leigh, you can end the conference by letting the chairs dance like you did for us when we visited the centre. The big Gala Systems ball!
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
When I was 10 years old and was a naughty boy, I was very afraid of a bull. Our neighbours had a big beast running around with sharp horns and a long “shopping bag”, of which I had no idea what it was used for… That animal was the fright of my life. I would walk a mile round for it. Now that I’ve become older, wiser and a bit less naughty I visited Australia for the first time for the AIME fair. Shame on me that I waited so long to go there. When I arrived at the Melbourne airport, after 24 hours of travelling, I was stopped at the customs for an extra hour and a half and I didn’t even know why. Their questions were as old as the hills and at least as stupid. I couldn’t but react. After all, I’m a “pitta type” according to the Ayurveda principles is release one of the characteristics. To give you an example of an – I’ll give you that – very well trained customs officer: “Sir, have you been in contact with animals in the last month… or have you brought sport shoes that have sand on them?’. Again, shame on me, because according to the lovely Hayley Blumenthal, the new marketing manager of Melbourne Convention Bureau I should never have given the following answer: “Yes sir, I kissed a cow before leaving Europe.” Sorry, Melbourne customs officers, I’ll never do it again. But promise me you’ll review the rules of the game and start thinking “outside of the box” or “outside of the island”, or even better “outside of the continent”.
But I’m no longer angry because Mal Douglas and Winnie Jones, a great farmer’s couple from Myrrhee have given me the chance to kiss a bull, the son of their first-class bull. And when I left Melbourne I received a VIP treatment from the customs officers at the airport. Within seconds I was in safe territory. And I also got safely through the London and Brussels customs, because kissing a bull – pooh! – that’s something that could mess up the whole of the UK and Belgium. The moral of the story: Customs officers need to start thinking about customers again.
Friday, January 30th, 2009
Meeting in a tree, on a rock or on a rooftop, you name it. But meeting in the oldest conference room in the world is something else. For the transition to the new year I was in Sri Lanka at a time when the decisive battle was fought with the Tamil Tigers. I didn’t notice a thing, like it was surreal.
What was real, was the enormous split boulder in Sigiriya, better known as the Audience Hall of King Kaspaya, the master builder (459-477 A.D). How they were ever able to split such a rock is still a mystery. I couldn’t keep myself from sitting down on the five metre long conference bench of the king and overlook the empty room.
I believe you can have a meeting with 150 people in seating arrangement on the platform of this meeting rock. Is there a PCO in Sri Lanka who can book me this rock for an entire day? I don’t need any chairs or tables, comfortable cushions are more than sufficient. And provide some space for Ceylon Tea Time, please.
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Around Christmas and new year I always get an almost animal urge to migrate towards warmer regions. Really warm! I was in Sri Lanka at a time when a decisive battle was being fought with the Tamil Tigers. I didn’t notice a thing though.
I felt like someone who arrives in a big city and gets good advice from the taxi driver: don’t go to that and that neighbourhood, but for the rest it’s a safe town. In Sri Lanka this meant: don’t go to the north, but the rest of the country is completely safe. So I stayed in the centre and the south and I plunged into Buddhism, speaking to a monk for hours. I let myself slip away into the teachings of Ayurveda and I remembered one thing: I hope I’ll come back as a fish in the Indian Ocean. When everything’s blown over, Sri Lanka will become a top meetings destination again, just like in the good old days, and just like Nepal did.
