A successful start for the MICE Club in Cologne
There is another way of doing things. That’s the message that successfully came across at the MICE Club’s debut on 14 and 15 November 2013. The new educational format won over its participants with an innovative framework for meetings, efficient communication tools, exciting content and extraordinary locations in the creative metropolis of Cologne.
(firmenpresse) - "We wanted to demonstrate that business events function very well in our wonderful industry, but only if we are willing to say goodbye to the older, less engaging formats. After the debut, we are happy to report that we managed to achieve this, and that the MICE Club came across extremely well with all the participants. Now it is time to evaluate the experiences and feedback from the debut and continue to develop the concept", says Dominik Deubner. The initiator of the MICE Club wanted to create a novel platform for the Meetings, Incentives, Congresses & Events (MICE) industry and encourage sustainable dialogue on common trends, opportunities and visions in order to offer measurable added value to participants. The renowned Swiss branding expert Rolf Gruber confirms that this has been achieved: "The MICE Club has created an atmosphere for dialogue that I have never experienced before. The focus was entirely on the participants and their specific business expectations. This is the future of meeting architecture! Moreover, it was quite apparent that the event attracted a high-calibre audience in Cologne. Without exaggerating, I can say that the MICE Club was a meeting of the Premier League".
Overall, 90 suppliers and event planners from all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland got together for this groundbreaking educational format. Already on the first day, the unconventional introduction round in the MICE Club Arena proved its ability to encourage dialogue: The participants arrived in Cologne with high expectations and specific goals. After two intensive days, the majority agreed that the MICE Club was not only a very inspiring knowledge platform with valuable content and a noticeably positive atmosphere, but that it had also brought measurable benefits as a networking event for their own businesses. "I was looking for a new event format and found it. As a supplier, the highly interactive atmosphere of the MICE Club offered me a great way to elegantly present our products. I really rate the very personal way I got to know the participants. The carefully considered communication tools encouraged the dialogue that enabled me to generate an above average number of qualified contacts", enthused Karina Grützner, Business Development Manager of the Stuttgart Convention Bureau.
From branding to deceleration
The MICE Club offered a programme with high-calibre content. Among many highlights was the keynote speech on the art of brand positioning by Rolf Gruber and a theme cloud on deceleration by Willem Stortelder, co-founder of the communications think tank "21 Lobster Street". Mike van der Vijver excelled as moderator. The Dutch coach and author of the bestseller "Into the Heart of Meetings“ led and motivated participants confidently over the two days − with expert help from media partners Urs Seiler, Chief Editor of the Swiss magazine EXPODATA, and Hans Jürgen Heinrich, Chief Editor of the German magazine Events. Jürgen Metzler, Managing Director of Austrian agency (f)acts Events, praised the inspiring mix: "I very much welcome the fact that the MICE Club put together an event that works so well. This ranges from the open and forward-looking meeting architecture to the interesting speakers from the Netherlands and Switzerland, who inspired expert networking, right through to the extraordinary locations. Mike van der Vijver was also extremely inspiring in his moderation of the event. Overall, this exchange of ideas took place amongst like-minded people on an equal level. To which I can only say: Hats off to you!”
Changing locations and MICE Labs instead of stage performances
The new event format is based on an extraordinary meeting architecture conceived by Oliver Malat: "Our aim was not only to activate the participants in terms of communication, but also to create a hybrid structure which allows us to identify the individual interests of the participants and immediately integrate them", explains the Creative Director who − partly in collaboration with Mike van der Vijver − developed the concept behind the MICE Club.
In this design, organisation and content were perfectly matched. The first day started in the communications arena with Meeting Hell to Meeting Heaven and the second in open room-in-room installations. The MICE Club presented five exciting event and off-site locations: Altes Pfandhaus (Old Pawnbroker Building), Rheinloft Cologne, Exquisit, Design Quartier Ehrenfeld and The New Yorker | DOCK.ONE − locations that even some attendees from Cologne were unaware of. Essential content included three compact theme clouds on "Meeting Architecture", "Themed Destinations − Themed Venues" and "Be here − Be now", as well as two so-called "MICE Labs" − thematically structured supplier presentations with interactive sessions. This unconventional approach, with work taking place in small groups, went down well with the buyers: "The MICE Labs broke the ice between the participants in a playful way. We had active involvement and could steer the content. This created an interaction that actually met our current requirements", said Stefan Blasius, a freelance Event Project Manager attending on behalf of the agency Marketing And More.
A workshop atmosphere instead of spoon-feeding
A primary foundation block of the MICE Club concept was active involvement by the participants. They were invited to help shape and evaluate the proposed content and tools themselves. Thus, for example, two different networking and matchmaking methods were tried out in the MICE Labs. While a highly structured and question-led variant met with great approval by the participants, a more open, random-led version was less positively judged. The fact that content-driven participation can also work in large groups was demonstrated in the theme cloud "Themed Destinations − Themed Venues" by Rolf Gruber and Urs Seiler. In this case, a spontaneous request made the day before by participants to analyse a real-life case study was taken up on the following day. Kolia Jebram, Managing Director of the Hamburg agency kuk Live GmbH, summed it up: "The MICE Club kept its promise to offer a completely new format. What convinced me in particular was that the theme of framework for dialogue in meetings was directly experienced on the first day. What I got most out of the second day was content. I have personally never experienced an event of this type and can really recommend it".
MICE Club − Networking 365 days online
The entire meeting architecture was supported by the specially developed MICE Club App. This not only facilitated general networking, but was also designed to steer working groups and organise matchmaking during the entire event. The innovative tool works hand in hand with the MICE Club's online portal, which provides the industry with a regularly updated magazine featuring daily industry news, industry events, opinion leader articles and a comprehensive supplier directory with an innovative search mechanism. In a password protected Club Area, MICE Club members can also find valuable functions, including an industry-specific contact network, planning tools for their daily work, interesting added value tools, such as a cost-neutral initial legal assessment by a specialist law firm, and free subscriptions to leading journals. Participants at MICE Club events automatically become members for a year. Interested parties who were not at the debut in Cologne can register directly at www.mice-club.com.
You can find more information about the MICE Club at www.mice-club.com.
Themen in dieser Pressemitteilung:
Unternehmensinformation / Kurzprofil:
Kerstin Männer
Presse.Text.Konzept
Tel: +49 (0)221 – 16 99 59 30
E-Mail: presse-domset(at)kerstinmaenner(dot)com
Datum: 25.11.2013 - 04:53 Uhr
Sprache: Deutsch
News-ID 1286470
Anzahl Zeichen: 0
contact information:
Contact person:
Town:
Phone:
Kategorie:
Travel & Hospitality
Anmerkungen:
Diese Pressemitteilung wurde bisher 237 mal aufgerufen.
Die Pressemitteilung mit dem Titel:
"A successful start for the MICE Club in Cologne
"
steht unter der journalistisch-redaktionellen Verantwortung von
DOMSET Live-Kommunikation (Nachricht senden)
Beachten Sie bitte die weiteren Informationen zum Haftungsauschluß (gemäß TMG - TeleMedianGesetz) und dem Datenschutz (gemäß der DSGVO).
