Learning journeys: the new format that we will see in EMEC19

The idea behind the EMEC19 is to offer attendees an innovative testing ground so they can experiment with new forms of learning and enjoy new formats. “We have designed a laboratory for professionals beyond the conference where you sit and listen,” says Gijs Verbeek, CEO of MPI Netherlands Chapter. This edition will offer 16 hours of training and more than 12 hours of networking that will be integrated during the different moments of the conference based on criteria such as the country of origin, commercial interest or the choice of leisure activities.

Learning journeys. The event leaves the venue and moves to different enclaves related to the four axes of the conference (two options for each theme). The assistant will go out of the room to learn about other innovations inside and outside the industry, visiting experts whose challenges are similar to those faced by event organizers. In relation to the topic of risk management, a visit to the Dutch innovation laboratory TNO will be organized to see what trends are in the field of technology applicable to the event industry. You will receive Krihna Taneja, director of National Security of TNO (and former head of strategic development of the National Police), who will show you the latest security and protection applications. Another group will visit the Wargaming room of Scenarios4Summits, where they will face a real crisis scenario that must be solved together.

Related to leadership, animals and music will be the protagonists of the field trip. One of the trips will take you to the Rotterdam Zoo, where behavioral biologist Patrick van Veen will offer a leadership talk based on the behavior of the monkeys, and then make a tour to see the apes in action. And the other trip will take you to the historic “Stadsgehoorzaal” concert hall in Leiden, where you will see a unique perspective on leadership, communication and organizational structure, with a workshop given by a conductor and a complete symphony. The best: the participants will sit down with the musicians of the orchestra, as one more.

To delve into new meeting perspectives, the Straatjutten workshop (name of an inventor) will show how to pay attention to everything around us and translate it into useful ideas. They will go out on the street with their camera and take pictures of everything that catches their attention. Without judgment. Without thinking too much. Then you will learn to translate the images into new ideas. Another option to open up to new perspectives occurs when you are in contact with yourself, for this the workshop “Feel good” will show how to use our most successful version.

And as for the design thinking, the participants will take a tram trip through Binnenhof (a complex of buildings in the center of The Hague), during which they will present a case study that they will have to address using design thinking. The other trip will take this concept to the field of health and nature knowing the history of Koppert Cress in the Netherlands and how they are changing the world through innovation and applying design thinking.