This week, INCON partners met at PCMA’s convening EMEA. We had the pleasure of meeting in the beautiful boutique Hotel Motto and were guests of the Vienna Convention Bureau.

During the INCON Board meeting we talked about HR challenges, trends in the industry, creating value for clients and whether we really are still PCOs?. We also welcomed new potential partners to our group. 10 of us met in person and 3 joined virtually from China, Israel and UAE. INCON also had the pleasure to connect with our latest partner supplier: Xlab realtime a company specialising story telling experiences and virtual platforms.

The PCMA congress demonstrated that when we bring people with shared interests together then magic can happen. Aside from catching up and networking with colleagues, partners and clients, it was a great opportunity to press pause, to stop and reflect especially after so much industry disruption.

The keynote speaker and futurest, Gerd Leonhard guided us through an optimistic vision of the future. His perspective on the importance of human engagement and interaction was such a relief to the event organisers who focus on building sustainable connections. He explained that people at their very core want to share and learn. Meeting organisers have the pleasure of making that happen by delivering experimental and exceptional personal experiences for our clients. Other noteworthy messages from Gerd included: data & looking at behaviors; story telling; exploring new ways to transfer knowledge; green is the new digital; maximizing event ROI; leveraging new technologies and creating new partnerships.

Giulia Sarri, Creative Strategist at our partner AIM Group International shared her expertise on Audience first approaches to understanding behaviors. Sharing a panel with association executives Tom Reiser, Executive Director ISTH and Daniel Waigl, Executive Director of CIRSE, Giulia emphasised the importance of defining “why” meetings are taking place and “why” audiences want to engage in the content. She also remarked on the need to cross contaminate content, procedures, models and stakeholders to keep things interesting and engaging.

We learned a lot throughout this congress and we were inspired. We were grateful to have had an opportunity to learn about Vollpense a unique Vienna-based business which is social, sustainable and meaningful. One of the speakers, Doris Horvath called on us to consider using older skilled workers to fill our skill deficits.

A session on business models led by Patrick Van Der Pijl and Niki Seelen referred to finding new ways to create value, including: asking your customers, marrying business and design, planning for People, Planet, Profit, searching exploring; being curious and finding a system to funnel new ideas.

Thanks Jaimé Bennett, Sherrif Karamat and all the PCMA Convening EMEA team for a great 2 days.

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