50 Years Meetings Made in Germany: Navigating a Fluid Future

In 1973, the GCB German Convention Bureau was founded. “50 Years Meetings Made in Germany” is a reason to celebrate, to look back and, more importantly, to look ahead. Cue this three-article series on LinkedIn, discussing key aspects that have shaped our industry over the past decades and will continue to do so. Topic number three: our fluid future.?

In the 1970s, when the GCB was founded, the meetings industry became firmly established in Germany. With the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH) and the International Congress Center Berlin (ICC Berlin), the first major conference centres of a new era and according to the latest requirements were built in 1973 and 1979 respectively. They were the first purpose-built business event facilities in the country – large, specially designed buildings tailored to the needs of hosting meetings and conferences.

New customer needs require ongoing adaptation

Since then, not only the requirements for event venues have changed. Our sector is now in a state of constant adaptation to new customer needs and altered circumstances. At the GCB, we therefore believe that it is key for all of us to embrace this fluid future and seize the opportunities that lie in perceived challenges. Consequently, our work in recent years has increasingly focused on providing our community with the know-how and tools needed to navigate change and future-proof the world of business meetings.

Research to provide guidelines and strategy impetus

Our own “GCB Marketing Strategy 2023+”, that we headlined with “Embracing a fluid future”, very much reflects this mindset and is at the same time an invitation to all stakeholders in Germany to take a multidimensional approach to business events of the future and to align their own offerings accordingly. To support venues, event organisers and service providers in that, the research of our “Future Meeting Space” (FMS) innovation network concentrates on how to handle the fluidity and complexity of our world, e. g. by providing scenarios for business events that give our multidimensional future a face and can serve as a valuable basis for strategy development.

Our current FMS research project on "Navigating Business Events in Challenging Times" continues with this theme as we look at the changing role of business events in times of multiple and simultaneous challenges. Last year’s FMS research has shown that while people will continue to seek out face-to-face meetings, they will make more deliberate decisions than before on whether they attend an event in person or not. The event ecosystem will therefore have to look at the question of what kind of solutions business events can offer in the context of climate change, pandemics, international conflicts or energy issues. With our 2023 research, we aim at defining distinct event types and formats for this new age of business events and look at the role of business events as a social space and place for learning from each other that can support transformation processes.

Customer focus as north star for successful business events

Ultimately, what we are focusing on is finding ways to adapt to changing customer needs. It is my firm belief that navigating our fluid future requires from event organisers and service providers alike to put customer expectations at the centre of everything they are doing. In fact, in a world of change, this aspect is the one constant that we can rely on as a key success factor to get it right. As long as we keep on doing that, I am confident that the business event community will continue to master future challenges as successfully as it has past ones.

If you want to learn more about our latest Future Meeting Space research, click here .