Dear Ms Wilmès Our sector was in the news all day on Thursday 18 June with the action at Brussels Expo . Beautifully set up, professional as we are, with expertise everywhere. I am proud of our trade association ACC Belgium and the entire Confederation Events! I am especially grateful that hard work is being done behind the scenes to search for answers, keep trying to get noticed in the hope that we will be seen, knocking on every cabinet door, drawing up and then adjusting the Event Matrix tool and so much more. For weeks on end, we have been trying hard to explain who we are and what we do! The word events is already killing us. You only assume mass events! You and your team and all the other policymakers who don't want to hear or see it, how difficult it can be to pay attention and listen. It's not all about concerts and festivals. We are talking about corporate events, our sector actually has a "name" that means a lot on an international scale: The MICE industry (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions & events), but I fear that this term will only make you more would confuse. We are talking about product launches, family days, staff parties, anniversaries, teambuildings, incentives, fairs, conferences, network events, customer parties, seminars, board meetings, press conferences, ... Dear politicians, we are talking about the events where you, event agencies, annually and certainly 4 years in elections, pitch against each other. Where you write tenders for all kinds of national and international conferences looking for professional event offices to set up that kind of business. To support your election shows. Events from companies where you are invited as a speaker, events where you cut ribbons and proudly support stories about economic progress or examples of entrepreneurship. We look for the appropriate locations, provide technology, scripts, food and drinks, furniture, decoration, hostesses, safety, technology, translators / interpreters, toilet ladies, security, moderators, entertainment, music, DJs, transport, insurance, decoration, flowers, … We direct shows, visualize your PowerPoint, often save certain celebrities from failure last minute, and so on. After your speeches, how often did you receive flowers from a local self-employed person and enjoy that beautiful bouquet at home for days on end? I even bet that some bouquets were passed on to wife or mother with a big smile. Even they have indirectly enjoyed some part of something that we arrange. That is the famous chain, because each 'event' provides employment for at least 8 and an average of 20 suppliers. Anyway, if the term events is misinterpreted, we'll do it differently from now on. We register a wedding or funeral as a demonstration, a team building as a restaurant outing, the staff party is a pop-up summer bar, a product presentation becomes a cultural activity, a staff meeting is a ceremony and an informative conference is a press conference. Today's action at Brussels Expo was necessary, well thought out, serene and clearly noticed. The only response you, Mrs. Wilmes could give is that nothing would change. How the hell can you not want to change something that was never clear from the start? Just adding on the radio that fairgrounds are allowed was too much for me. The annual family day of my largest customer on an annual basis is also organizing a fair tomorrow! A thematic fair this year by the way: CIRCUS. We are still looking for extras! 1.5 meters bubbling this weekend with your faces already smiling in the newspaper. Our population wish a summer of rest, because they deserve it. A blow to our face. Painful, very painful. Not to mention Ixelles. Fighting, trial and error. This is naturally expected of entrepreneurs. That's part of it. Ethics and honesty tout court ... values that I propagate so hard. Our patience and understanding are played with, dragged from here to there, so unfair, so unjust. Entrepreneurs against Corona, beautiful words, beautiful images. Soon disappeared. How should things proceed now? Sophie Naze A "I'll never give up" entrepreneur. But enough is enough. Photo: Nicolas Herbots
Mooi verwoord Sophie. Dank om te delen met onze community!