Expert Talks: Meet the event organizers!

An event organizer is the person who schedules an event, and usually the person that runs it and reports it. Organizers make sure their events run smoothly and if there are any problems, they resolve them. They are responsible for the event from start to finish. They are the ones who make sure you have an amazing event experience!

Time to meet the experts!

"An interview with Emmanuel Katrakis, Secretary General, European Recycling Industries' Confederation (EuRIC)"

How many events do you organize per year and for how many persons?

Emmanuel: Ranging from EuRIC’s Annual Conference hosted every year at BluePoint Brussels, the European Recycling Conference, the General Assembly to reoccurring working group meetings but not counting delegation or site visits, I would estimate a maximum of 40 meetings to be organized entirely by EuRIC. With the exception of EuRIC’s Annual Conference and the European Recycling Conference gathering more than 200 PAX furthermore the General Assembly with its 60 participants, we can confidently count with an average of 20 participants / meeting.

Which type of events are these and for which target group? What are your main objectives for your events?

Emmanuel: There are two types of meetings. The ones organized with Members of EuRIC to discuss the latest policy and regulatory developments, be them high-level or very technical, relevant to the recycling industry and the ones to advocate recycling benefits and recyclers’ interests to the outside world. The former are only opened to our Membership structured in Branches per material stream while the latter are targeted a much wider audience, high level EU officials, industry executives and stakeholders active in the circular economy.

In terms of public events, we are working on the European Recycling Conference (ERC) which is held in a different member country every year. In 2020, we are headed to Madrid where partnered up with FER  and SRR, ERC expects around 200 participants. Being our biggest and only public event focused on providing information for a greater circle than EuRIC members, our target group is rather extended including industry professionals, experts and European lawmakers.

Are your events part of a marketing strategy and if yes, could you achieve the same goals without organizing events?

Emmanuel: Completely, in a world where communication is vital to channel the vital role played by recycling, events are an essential moment every year to wrap up the work done, meet with new stakeholders and provide practical solutions to speed up the transition towards a more circular economy. EuRIC is still a young organization which has constantly grown since its foundation in 2014, hence the importance of being based in a business center with the right infrastructure to efficiently organize meetings and events supporting our goals, namely advocating EU recyclers’ interests at European level. While internal events (Working Group Meetings etc.) are organized to ensure the smooth running of our organization, EuRIC Annual Conference, the European Recycling Conference is there to promote EuRIC and raise awareness about the benefits of recycling in Europe. It is strategically important and so far, growing by the year.

While maintaining smaller and reoccurring Brussels based events, we could be able to navigate smoothly in the “EU Bubble”, having a moving conference gives us more exposure on a proper European level. It strengthens the relationship between EuRIC and its hosting member furthermore emphasizes its diverse roots counting members from all over Europe. I believe that EuRIC Annual Conference and the European Recycling Conference contributes greatly to our “advocacy goals” which could not be matched otherwise.

How do you choose an event venue?

Emmanuel: In Brussels, we prefer to stay close to home, in the BluePoint building while abroad, our events are always linked to other EuRIC Members. Frankly, it makes our job quite easy!

What are the most important criteria to make your venue choice?

Emmanuel: In most cases, we prefer to stay put and organize the meetings internally in BluePoint. The most important factors, of course, are availability, budget and quality of the service.

How would you rate BluePoint as a venue?

Emmanuel: Most of the meeting rooms are modern and well-equipped with a nice layout. The service is attentive and our guests do like their mini sandwich plates ;-)

"An interview with Laurent Coessens, External Communications Manager and event organizer at Agoria."

How many events do you organize per year and for how many persons?

Laurent: Agoria organizes more than 300 events per year. This means that we must be above the 10.000 attendees in total.  It is very important for Agoria to be able to offer all these people a professional event and a fun event experience

Which type of events are these and for which target group?

Laurent: Our event teams manage several type of events : trainings, workgroups, statutory meetings, trade fairs, economic missions and service, networking & business development events.  These events are mainly targeted for our members and stakeholders

What are your main objectives for your events?

Laurent: Our major objectives are to highlight the technology of our eight business cluster, our members technology but also to generate business devolvement thanks to networking opportunities during the event itself.

Are your events part of a marketing strategy and if yes, could you achieve the same goals without organizing events?

Laurent: Events are indeed more than ever a channel of communication in their own right.  Some of our events could maybe be replaced by hosting a webinar but this way, we will unfortunately lose the networking benefits of live events.  That’s why we still prefer to host an event for our target audience.

How do you choose an event venue?

Laurent: The selection and decision of the perfect venue is based on a mix of several factors like technical abilities of the venue, catering proposal, sufficient parking spaces, accessibility, modernity and look & feel of the venue and last but definitely not least, the flexibility of the event team on site.

What are the most important criteria to make your venue choice?

Laurent: It’s for sure a mix of all the above criteria. :-)

BluePoint venues are here to further assist you with the organization of  your next event! We offer the most innovative technological support and our event experts make sure that you have the maximal on-site support for a perfect organization. Our three venues are centrally located and easily accessible with underground parking options!

Schedule an appointment to visit one of our venues in Antwerp, Brussels or Liege via marketing@bluepoint.be  or +32 2 706 88 00.