Munich is a prime international MICE destination. It’s a superbly connected and modern city where tradition meets a cosmopolitan lifestyle.
Today Munich welcomes a new venue highlight with the opening of the Munich Marriott Hotel City West.
The hotel brings an additional 398 rooms to Munich, along with 2,326 square meters of event space. Only a few hotels in Munich offer such a large capacity in both rooms and event space, making this hotel’s size a game changer for the city.
The 15-Minute City concept is the biggest trend right now in the events industry. It refers to creating urban environments where residents can access their essential needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their homes.
This trend is gaining popularity as more people seek to:
While the concept applies to private lives, it has a big influence on the events industry, too.
Siemens Healthineers, a healthcare company, acquired Varian Medical Systems, a company with a mission to create a world without fear of cancer. The merger was completed in April 2021 and to launch their combination, the executives of both companies organised an event called The Combination of Siemens Healthineers and Varian – Day One Digital Event. The event aimed to achieve a feeling of unity among all colleagues, which was especially challenging given the different cultures and sizes of the two companies.
The event team, made up of professionals from both Varian and Siemens Healthineers, faced several challenges, and despite these challenges, the team was able to come up with creative solutions to create an emotional and engaging event which was inspired with their combined potential of saving lives. This project was a sub-project of a larger workstream that spanned all internal and external communications channels and addressed all internal and external stakeholders from both companies.
The Global Event Team at Siemens Healthineers is led by Eszter Mattiassich-Aszody, who brings a wealth of experience as Head of Global Events and is committed to elevating the team’s offerings to new heights. Her team is a dynamic group responsible for delivering end-to-end digital, hybrid, and onsite events for both internal and external audiences. Based in Erlangen, Germany, they are dedicated to developing events on a global scale, with a focus on innovation and excellence and are dedicated to creating impactful experiences for attendees.
When I was invited to be part of the jury at the International Corporate Events (ICE) Awards, I jumped at the opportunity. I was really excited to join this international jury, as it gave me a front row seat to see what some of the best corporate event planners are doing, but there was another reason. This year was the first time that the ICE Awards took place in Germany, after six successful editions in London. The awards ceremony took place in Munich, which is one of my favourite cities in Europe. It’s always a pleasure to visit Munich, and the awards were in June, which is mid-summer, so that was a bonus.
I was blown away by the quality of the events and their execution. I judged two categories: Best Customer Experience – Live; and Best Transformational Change. I read through all the submissions, narrowed down my selections to three finalists in each category, and then got together with the other judges to choose the winner. There were so many excellent entries that it was hard to pick just one, but eventually we decided on SAP Sapphire 2022 in the Best Transformational Change category, and Siemens Energy Business Conference 2022 in Best Customer Experience – Live.
SAP Sapphire 2022 event stood out for the way they ‘retired’ the old event format and designed a novel event concept to adapt to new times and changing customer needs. This is a prime example of what you can achieve if you have vision and are willing to make big changes to bring that vision to fruition.
When we think of the word ‘legacy’, mega events like the Olympics and FIFA World Cup immediately spring to mind. These events are known far and wide, and large amounts of time and money go into their organisation, with the aim of positive long-term impacts in the host city through the infrastructure development, event attraction and tourism. But what about smaller events? These are often forgotten, even though they can have just as strong a legacy. The days where meetings were just meetings are over. Audiences expect experiences beyond the act of gathering together, sharing a meal and socialising. What happens at the event is important, but the impact and legacy are significant measures of event success.
In this interview with Meg Strahle, Sustainability Manager at The Bulb Eco, we discuss event legacy in a hybrid world (combining live and virtual events). Both of us have reaped the benefits of event legacy and its power to partnerships. In fact, Meg and I met online, and collaborated on multiple occasions. Meg had helped me to launch and coordinate the Event Planners Talk hackathon in April 2020 and the Event Planners Talk Digital Festival in June 2020. Meg is a source of inspiration and an expert in events management and sustainability. She holds a Master of Research in Sustainable Futures, Master of Tourism in Hospitality and Events and Bachelor in Media Communications.
By working together on these virtual events as a community and learning from each other, we’ve found lasting relationships that have led to new business ventures. We wrote an ebook together and created business plans, resources of which are available to anyone who needs it. Furthermore, through shared learning and experience, we’ve found that participants of our events have gone on to inspire others through their own blogs, social media channels and events.
In this interview with Meg we present elements that event planners can incorporate to generate a lasting impact for their events, no matter how small or large, live or virtual. This interview took place in April. Meg joined from London and I was in Bern at Hotel Kreuz.
