Home INTERVIEWS Quick Talk EENA coming back to Cankarjev dom in 2022

EENA coming back to Cankarjev dom in 2022

Quick Talk with Gary Machado, Executive Director at European Emergency Number Association (EENA).

Jul 5, 2019

Organiser of European Emergency Number Association (EENA)

Gary Machado, Executive Director at EENA

Every year, professionals from across the public safety field meet at the at European Emergency Number Association (EENA) Conference for 3 days of sessions, presentations and innovative exhibitions. Gary Machado, EENA’s current Executive Director, joined EENA in October 2006. He is responsible for the strategic development of the association. Over the years, he led the creation of several successful EENA membership platforms, committees and events. He is also in charge of government affairs and he managed a number of advocacy campaigns in Brussels. He led the growth of EENA from 2 to 9 staff and from 280k to about 1 million EUR budget and he helped grow the EENA Conference from 90 participants in 2009 to about 500 in 2016.

gary_machado_eena — Photo credit: Personal archive

Q: Why did you choose Cankarjev dom for EENA Conference 2018?

The facilities of the Cankarjev dom were fantastic, with spacious conference rooms and a large, convenient space for an exhibition area. The location was ideal, being in walking distance from many of the hotels and with easy access to attractions in the centre. Overall, we saw that the Cankarjev dom gave a high-quality service and could easily make our participants feel comfortable and welcomed.

Q: Why has EENA decided to bring the meeting back to Cankarjev dom in 2022?

The Cankarjev dom is the ideal venue for a growing conference, as there are options for us to expand further for a larger audience. We were impressed by the conference centre staff, who worked with great professionalism and hospitality. Of course, we also loved the city of Ljubljana, which is an excellent location for a conference.

Q: What has amazed you about Cankarjev dom the most?

The contemporary, spacious rooms were the perfect setting for our multi-track conference and the theatre-style room gave excellent ambiance for our awards ceremony. This versatility was extremely important for our conference.

Q: When preparing the conference, what do you look for in the venue and have you found that at Cankarjev dom?

We were looking for a professional and modern venue, which was easily accessible, and which could cater to the needs of our growing audience. We found exactly this at Cankarjev dom. We were impressed by both the venue itself and the atmosphere within it.

Q: Would you recommend Cankarjev dom to others and why?

I would recommend Cankarjev dom; we had an excellent experience when holding our conference there. The conference centre can easily be adapted to events of varied sizes and themes and the professional staff were ready to help whenever necessary. We are looking forward to coming back to Cankarjev dom in 2022!