Q: Which are the biggest and most visible Congresses you organized in Ljubljana?
We have organized 4 larger congresses in Ljubljana already:
EUROGEO – European Association of Geographers, FIMS – World Congress of Sport Medicine, EABCT – Annual Congress of the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies, EUROSON – Euroson Congress of the EFSUMB (European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Q: Which of the Congress halls in Ljubljana do you find to allow for the most creativity for events?
There are several very nice conference facilities in the city, but the largest spectre of different options definitely allows GR – Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre.
It is possible to organise any kind of event there as the halls offer great flexibility and the whole team is extremely professional. It’s a real pleasure to organise our events there.
Q: How do you implement technology in your event management?
Besides the usual A/V, what is broadly used, we have also a lot of know-how about live streaming, satellite transmission etc. from our past operations. But we also developed our own CRM and event management system years ago out of the need as none ‘off the rack’ – system was sufficient for our needs. The development was done in close cooperation with the registration and accommodation staff, but involved also finance and sales departments. Today, after incorporating many additional features we have our system also independently running for several clients in US and other parts of the world. Today this system is the technological backbone of each of our events.
Q: How did Dekon develop their own scientific approach to event management?
While humans grow on their challenges, it is the same with companies. We grow with the demands of our clients, we learn from them, we share with them new ideas we get from our peers and partner companies. And when we run a conference more than once when we work closely with an association, then we grow together, not only as humans, also we as Professional Congress Organizers learn a lot from our clients and their science. Because we want to know what moves them because we have to know what is important to them.
Now, this sounds all very logical, but what happened in parallel to this process was the formation of this big cloud of group knowledge what we have in our company, the Wisdom of the Crowd. And as a multinational and multicultural team we enjoy also our differences and learn from each other.
Q: Tell us something that might surprise the meeting planners about your city.
Meeting planners are always pleasantly surprised when they arrive to Ljubljana. They are charmed by its young, romantic and modern atmosphere but let’s keep it »Europe’s best-kept secret« as mentioned very often in a different media.
Q: What trends do you think we will see in meetings and events in Ljubljana in the next 12 months?
This year is the record year not just for Ljubljana, but for the whole Slovenia. We’ve never hosted so many international conferences, congresses and different kinds of events before.
The venues’ and hotels’ owners are aware of the important movement that’s happening, so they have all started renovating hotels, building new ones, GR – Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre will build a new conference hall… at the end, we will also get new flight connections. So hopefully the »2018 trend« will continue in the future.
Q: What is your personal favourite special venue in Ljubljana?
It’s the City of Design, old printing factory that is equipped and designed into a TOP event space. I LOVE it!
Prepared by: Ajda Borak
