Gijs Verbeek | Executive Director of the MPI Netherlands Chapter

‘It was logical to host the inspiration conference for the Dutch event industry there’

  Gijs Verbeek is Executive Director of the MPI Netherlands Chapter. On 29 and 30 March, he organised, along with a team of MPI volunteers and Amersfoort 'standard bearer' Jeannette van Namen, the annual MPI NL Conference in the Rijtuigenloods in Amersfoort. The event was attended by over 250 industry professionals: planners, conference organisers, event agencies, suppliers, hoteliers, venues and exhibitors. “What is central to conferences and events? The individual! The theme of the MPI NL Conference was 'Evenemens' [‘event human’] and was about the importance of live encounters in the world of social media, online marketing and digitisation. Sometimes we forget that live encounters still yield the best results. Given the fact that Amersfoort is the centre of the Netherlands, and because the Amersfoort region, thanks to the City Marketing Region Amersfoort Foundation, is perfectly equipped to host national and international conferences, it was logical to host the inspiration conference for the Dutch event industry there. The appreciation of the participants was great. Amersfoort has much to offer: stakeholders working well together, good accessibility, a beautiful historical and compact city centre, many extraordinary accommodations, museums, festivals; in short, everything that a participant or organiser could wish for.”