Education

The role of esports in employee engagement: Case study of PwC Gaming Masters

Posted on September 15, 2022

PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC Germany) is the host of an innovative and award winning recruitment event format called the PwC Gaming Masters. PwC Gaming Masters uses esports, short for electronic sports, played as an online video game with competitors which spectators can watch for entertainment. The PwC Gaming Masters was founded in 2017 by Gian Luca Vitale, Gaming & Esports Advisory, Lead Business Development Gaming & Esports at PwC Germany, who also holds the naming rights for this event. This novel concept for recruitment, talent attraction and retention connects PwC with new and ambitious talent and invites them to compete in online gaming and develop skills that are important in the workplace: teamwork, strategic thinking, collaboration, flexibility and decision-making, among others, and also other corporates can join the competition and experience corporate esports.

Esports is growing rapidly and attracting the attention of big brands to its tournaments, livestreams and athlete sponsorships. This competitive video gaming format strongly appeals to Generation Z (born from 1997 to 2012), a younger demographic which is difficult to reach with traditional advertising and that’s one of the reasons why brands are paying close attention to the growing esports industry. In this interview with Gian Luca Vitale, he explains the importance of esports, who are the stakeholders in this industry, what the future looks like, what is corporate esports and how to attract more female players to this industry.

The interview took place in April in Interlaken at the Congress Kursaal Interlaken and Gian Luca joined remotely from Dusseldorf.

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Education

Event design ideas inspired by my visit to Art Basel 2022

Posted on August 26, 2022

In recent years I’ve developed an interest in art, architecture and design. My interest deepened in large part from working with MICE (Meeting, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Exhibitions) destinations and venues that focused on these topics. Through site visits, interviews and conversations, I was able to familiarise myself with prominent names and works in the architecture and design world.

A prime destination for art and architecture is Basel, Switzerland. It’s a city with world renowned museums such as the Kunstmuseum Basel, Fondation Beyeler, Museum Tinguely and many others and is a base of several prominent architecture bureaus such as Herzog and de Meuron, the designers of Messe Basel, Beijing National Stadium and Elbe Philharmonic Hall. There’s a major street art scene in Basel, and Basel is the host of the world famous event, Art Basel. It sparked my interest in event venues and the experience itself opened my eyes to all the possibilities of this new world.

After learning about Art Basel, I set a goal to attend it. One of the world’s most important international art fairs, this inspiring event pushes the boundaries of creativity and design, showcases new artistic work, uses the entire city as a big and colourful gallery and presents innovation and trends that many industries can learn from. This year, Art Basel took place from 16 to 19 June. I visited it over two days and I’m thrilled to share with you all my insights.

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MICE Destinations

Small but mighty: incentive destination Interlaken, Switzerland

Posted on July 28, 2022

The Swiss resort Interlaken is a prime destination for congresses, exhibitions, meetings and of course, incentive travel. Incentives are a unique aspect of MICE (Meeting, Incentive Travel, Conferences and Exhibitions) travel because they can be customised to the tastes of the client and are highly exclusive. On a visit to Interlaken in April, I had the pleasure of interviewing Camilla Struben, Team Leader MICE at Congress Kursaal Interlaken, about why Interlaken is the perfect destination for incentive travel. Camilla shared the variety of possibilities for incentives in Interlaken and how the Congress Kursaal Interlaken can support event planners for organisations.

Interlaken caters for different group sizes and requirements and offers a variety of programmes for incentives, ranging from adventures to luxurious activities. The destination provides access to privatise hotels and venues, surrounded by beautiful lakes and mountains. The availability of customisable programmes and the natural environment makes it an extraordinary experience.

Even though Interlaken is small, it has many possibilities. There are more than 30 hotels and a variety of venues, including the Kursaal Interlaken. There are rooms for more than 1,000 people. As the adventure capital of Switzerland, it is centrally located with easy access by train.

This interview will showcase the destination and what activities can be organised for corporate groups.

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Education

Participant experience design — moving from the old to new event world

Posted on July 27, 2022

One of the presentations that highly inspired me to think differently about event design took place in 2019 at the MICE Forum at ITB Berlin (Organised by VDVO). Even after all these years, and a pandemic in between, these principles remain extremely important when we want to create a seamless attendee experience at events, be it live, virtual or hybrid, and put the human in the centre. I want to re-share this article that I wrote back in 2019 and was initially published on VDVO website, because the principles of event design remain the same, the human is in the centre of every experience that we want to design for our events and technology should enhance this experience, and not replace it.

In 2019 the ITB MICE Forum theme was ‘The Human Factor’. The conference programme was designed to highlight the importance of the individual who is the centre of every live event. In the connected world we live in today, the personal needs of each attendee have become even more important, and technology should enhance this experience, and not replace it. One of the talks that impressed me the most was ‘Participant experience design – how do we create meetings which move people more deeply?’ given by Felix Rundel, Co-founder, futurehain (at the time of the presentation Executive Director of Falling Walls).

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MICE Destinations

SwissSkills Bern 2022 – Shaping the future for young people

Posted on June 21, 2022

Over 60 percent of young adults in Switzerland choose vocational training or apprenticeship over an academic path. This is an important economic factor that affects a country’s competitiveness in terms of the labour market and low unemployment rate, which in Switzerland is at about 4 percent.

SwissSkills is an agency focused on promoting the vocational education system in Switzerland. Its goal is to demonstrate the benefits of apprenticeship in Switzerland and to showcase a wide range of professions to young people who are interested in pursuing a career path that enables on-the-job learning.

SwissSkills organises a biannual event which will take place this year from 7 to 11 September at the Bern Expo in Bern. The experiential event format will showcase 150 professions and will allow attendees to engage directly with the employers and ask questions of current apprentices in the programmes.

Vocational training is common in many countries around the world. The EuroSkills and WorldSkills events are two global events in which young people compete to showcase their skills and win gold medals for their countries. These events are important to promote the variety of career paths available to young adults and also to support them in identifying and integrating the new skills required by the job market today, such as digital skills.

I interviewed André Burri, General Manager of SwissSkills, about the event this year and the uniqueness of the vocational training and apprenticeship system in Switzerland. We also discussed why Bern is the perfect destination to host an event of such scale and importance.

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