Home straight. The Congress Center Hamburg (CCH), Germany’s first purpose-built convention centre, will be reopening in 2020 following a comprehensive upgrade costing 194 million euros. With 12,000 sqms of exhibition space, 12,000 sqm of foyer space and seating for 12,000 in 50 rooms, it will meet the diverse requirements of modern meetings, congresses and conventions to optimum effect.
Heike Mahmoud is Chief Operating of the CCH since March 2018. “My mission is to position the new CCH together with my team as one of the leading convention centres in Europe. Sustainability, bringing together business people, the scientific communities and startups and providing new services for our customers are just some of the items on our agenda,” says the experienced Heike Mahmoud.
She places particular emphasis on creating a legacy, asking: “How can the CCH combine the know-how of customers and the excellent networks of the city of Hamburg even more effectively?” The aim is “to ensure that both sides benefit even more from conventions in Hamburg.”
Events deliver added value for participants and can contribute to making the world a better place. That’s the conviction of Gerrit Jessen of Event Design Collective. “We are changing the world – one event at a time! Events that don’t change behaviour are just entertainment,” says the meeting designer, explaining his mission.
His recommendation: “Unless you analyse the expectations of the various stakeholders before an event and define what behaviour is desirable afterwards, you cannot design an event that delivers measurable results.” He uses an “empathy map” for this analysis in order to really put himself in the shoes of a member of each target group: what does this person see, think, hear, say and do before and after the event? The #EventCanvas method provides him with an ideal platform for good event design.
Interaction and participation are the key to successful meetings, believes Dr Christina Buttler, Director of Experience Deve‧lopment at MCI. “Innovative, interactive, participatory formats offer many advantages, particularly for training events. Information can be put across more effectively, implemented with greater practical relevance and retained for longer,” asserts Buttler. The fact that acquiring knowledge in this way is simply more fun is also a significant factor, she points out. You can get through to more conservative participants well by making use of networking elements. “
Conservative participants are just as keen as more agile participants to get to know people or meet again and to talk and network with them,” she says. Formats that create time and space for this are fit for the future. “That means more time than just the coffee break, and more space than you need for a parliamentary seating layout and group work rooms. It means time and space for moving about and meeting others.”
The mission of meeting architect Maarten Vanneste of FRESH 18 is to come up with an even bigger concept of space: the “multi-hub space”. The idea is to link up face-to-face meetings with participants connected digitally.
“The worst meeting room is one in which I sit alone in front of my laptop. I’m a ‘solo’ (a single person alone in the room), who takes part in a meeting of several hundred people remotely. The best meeting room is in a conference venue where everyone comes together and learns to build relationships and enjoy the company of others. The room of the future is the multi-hub space, which consists of an online space as well as many physical rooms (hubs),” says Vanneste.
“In a hub room like this I am not alone. I have direct, real-time contact with my group in a room near where I live or work. In a multi-hub, the room comes to me; I don’t have to travel to the room. That costs me less time and money, and it makes my life simpler and our world a healthier place,” concludes Vanneste, summing up his mission.
