Creating meaningful immersive multi-venue events is a topic that every event planner seems to be talking about. Yet, we often fall back on the well-known single-location setup that facilitates networking, programs, drinks, and dinners. The risk? Not making enough use of your actual surroundings and leaving no lasting impact on your participants. Going home after sitting in an uninspiring conference room for 8 hours, seems to belong more and more to the past.
Jeroen Mann, national program manager at FBNed, Familiebedrijven Nederland, the Dutch chapter of FBN explained: “We know, people make the event, not just the venue. You can create the best experience for your event, by combining the different venues. In The Hague we made this happen together with the help of The Hague & Partners.”
Family Business Network, FBNed | Familiebedrijven Nederland and The Hague & Partners Convention Bureau carefully evaluated their multivenue approach in a showcase and they have created 5 conclusions on how to engage with NextGen participants. The conclusions are also based on the latest trends and experiences about how the Next Generation is travelling in general and how they experience an interesting city trip.
- Experience a fun icebreaker like fun beach games. Within the event planning proper team building always lays the foundation and allows participants to connect faster.
2. Experience the ‘energy of a city’. Like taking the ‘city bike’ and experiencing different locations from a different perspective. The Hague is the ‘City by the Sea’, so the beach and the dunes are typical for The Hague and need to be experienced.
3. Break routines and take on a multi-venue approach. In order to spark the interest of the Next Gen switching between locations keeps up the energy.
4. Let visitors use all their senses and integrate them into a visit. Let them taste the local delicacies, tell the story behind them, and let them smell the fresh breeze from the sea and integrate it to experience the city tour like, a taste of the local cuisine or a cultural experience like Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Girl with the Pearl’.
5. Choose sustainability. The Next Generation values accessibility and sustainability. Travelling green, sleeping in a hotel with a green key certificate and connecting them to local impactful entrepreneurs. They like to experience that they have ‘done something back for the city’ they have visited. A good example is the beach or canal clean-ups.
Bas Schot, head of The Hague & Partners Convention Bureau stated: “By taking this multi-venue approach we have seen a significant difference. The participants paid more attention to the topics, the city experience is much more intense, and it definitely creates more legacy for the participant and The Hague as a city.”
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