“My team inspires me every day. I enjoy what I do, the industry we’re in and, most of all, the people I work with,” Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group, radiates happiness in the run-up to IMEX in Frankfurt in mid-May. This is where the fair made its debut in 2003, launching IMEX America in Las Vegas in 2011. Positioning the IMEX Group as an innovator and trendsetter at the heart of the meetings industry is Bauer’s mission. And for this, British-born Bauer relies on valuable friendships and partnerships built over the years.
Right from the beginning she has strived to be more than an exhibition organiser: “Our aim is to unite and advance the global meetings industry,” says Bauer. In this context she designs IMEX shows in a manner that helps meeting professionals learn, connect and do business. “We work hard, to create shows that ensure meeting planners can connect easily with suppliers across the globe and build powerful working relationships,” says the skiing and mountain climbing fanatic. The mother of two sons lives near Brighton, on England’s young multicultural south coast.
“Examining our business and the wider global trends ensures that we enable events to become even more powerful and relevant in the future,” points out Bauer. As the meetings industry changes and grows, the IMEX team continually researches what buyers need and want.
IMEX works closely with its industry partners, who in turn bring their own events to IMEX shows. Bauer singles out SITE Nite and MPI Rendezvous, which will feature CIM clubbing on May 15 for the first time in 2018, as well as the annual ICCA member meetings, as part of the IMEX family. However, for the head of IMEX and her team it is clear that people’s desire to come together hasn’t changed: “At IMEX we’re firm believers in the power of face to face events and – what’s more – we really enjoy them!”
A marketplace for thoughts, ideas, information, and knowledge that enables people to establish personal networks is how best to describe Hilmar Guckert’s Congress Centre Düsseldorf (CCD): “Personal communication always takes centre stage,” says the CEO. Because his mission is a constant process, he won’t even rule out that it may be renamed into “CCD Communication Centre Düsseldorf”. As a service provider, CCD constantly has to “ensure a good atmosphere, provide networking opportunities but also integrate the destination,” underlines Guckert.
As part of the centre’s refurbishment, his team is establishing appropriate technical conditions. And that‘s not all: “We want to know if our local services, signage and visiting conditions are appropriate.” Movement sensors are to detect whether the views of the Rhine from the foyer are of a low or high relevance. Guckert is thinking about how to maximise the river’s impact as a “positive incentive for the senses” with real or abstract projections. This could also boost the congress centre as a “communication base” from the digital aspect.
The CCD has many different break-outs and spaces. “With the new Hall 1 we are expanding these options,” says the CEO. The building gives attendees space to move and encourages personal communication. Any event at the CCD could shine as a “mental start-up for everyone, says Guckert.
As head of Düsseldorfer Congress Sport & Event (DCSE) the trained business manager is also in charge of the Mitsubishi Electric Hall, ISS Dome as well as the Esprit Arena. At the end of this year he will make his final bow to DCSE after as much as 24 years with the company: “The CCD’s mission continues. The stakeholders will keep on grasping the opportunities of the dynamic hub Düsseldorf.” Guckert is optimistic that his legacy will be carried on in this vein.
“Managing the CPD expert MCI Healthcare Academy is the project closest to my heart,” says Dr. Christina Buttler. Having studied ethnology, history and political sciences, she already joined the events industry while working on her PhD in the 1990s. She worked her way up from project manager to head of the events department of a healthcare agency. There Dr. Buttler discovered her penchant for organising and concept design.
She has been with MCI Germany since 2015: “I have a very diverse job here. This enables me to keep on developing exciting new concepts and event formats with interesting customers,” says the director of the MCI Healthcare Academy. Positions in agencies and several years of experience as a marketing manager for an event-tech company brought her to MCI. As Director Experience Development, Dr. Buttler designs events and conferences with new formats for the agency. She wants her Healthcare Academy to “offer the most innovative kind of medical CPD events.”
Along with the “ambition to be effective, sustainable but also interesting and enticing” this is her mission. Integrating top-notch speakers and current topics, Dr. Buttler focuses on “participatory formats based on a new intensity and quality of practical relevance”. It makes a huge difference whether content is designed for or by the attendees. In addition to an “extremely positive” feedback from participants, she is now happy about the need for waiting lists.
“Attendees are becoming younger, more female, more agile, and they expect events to provide an added value that goes beyond mere content.” Formats need to involve some risk, interaction, and adaptation. Dr. Buttler enthusiastically puts her “own creative ambitions” to use for the second part of her mission: She wants to open up “the MCI Academy to further topics that go beyond medicine and offer the most innovative scientific CPD events.” This is to entice association and industry customers: “I think it won’t be long until we announce our first non-medical CPD event”.
