World Forum wins the Conference Award

World Forum has won the Conference Award of The Hague for the hosting of the Future Force Conference 2017. The prize was awarded on 11 September by Alderman Karsten Klein during a celebratory event held at the Fokker Terminal. Other prize winners include Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, with the Leisure Award for its Mondrian year, and Jacobs, the publicly traded international technical service provider, with the Business Award for establishing its European headquarters - with a thousand employees representing forty-three nationalities - in January 2017 in the seat of the Dutch government.

Economic spin-off

The three awards, given for the first time this year, are a token of appreciation for the special initiatives and projects that result in economic spin-off for The Hague. An expert jury selected the three best initiatives and projects from the submissions, after which the public could vote for their favourite in an online poll. Based on the vote tally and the jury's final assessment, three winners were determined.

The Conference Award

The three nominees for the Conference Award were the Cegek-dsa Customer Day 2017 in Madurodam, the Fokker Terminal for its plan and floor design for the DNA Conference and the World Forum The Hague for its Future Force Conference 2017. With forty-two per cent of the public vote and a unanimous vote from the jury, the award went to the World Forum. The jury indicated that the fully renovated and state-of-the art conference venue with the hospitality of the Future Force Conference, a conference with a clear interface with The Hague's 'key cluster' peace, helped bring justice and security to the city. National and international experts and organisations travelling to the city and the conference attracting extensive media attention generated economic spin-off for the entire city.

 The Hague & Partners

During the festive evening, the new pairing of The Hague & Partners was also presented, a merger of Den Haag Marketing, The Hague Convention Bureau and the WestHolland Foreign Investment Agency. Through its marketing and acquisition efforts, The Hague & Partners aims to recruit and retain more national and international visitors, conferences and companies/organisations for The Hague. According to Alderman Karsten Klein, 'The time was right for an economic house for marketing and acquisition as a public-private administrative agency outside of city hall. The Hague & Partners' activities include many top priorities that we, as the city council, have listed in our economic vision: better branding, more visitors, more conferences and more new business activity. In this way, they are contributing to jobs for the present generation and those of the future.'

Photo | Julie Blik ©