This is the fourth year in a row that I have spent some time at the North Sea at the beginning of January. It’s a very productive time, as I take a few moments to plan the new year, reflect and think about what’s on the agenda this year.
Well, last year, 2024, we had a number of global events such as the European elections, the European Football Championships, the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the US election with the re-election of President Donald Trump. Many events that provided thematic, content-related social events as well as business meetings and get-togethers. In 2025, there will be an important event in German-speaking Europe, the Bundestag elections in Germany on February 23, 2025.
It will therefore be a very exciting year for the event and conference industry, and I think it will even be a very challenging year in business terms. Many companies are going bankrupt, employees are being made redundant, departments are being dissolved and therefore events are being canceled and scaled back. And it’s a very difficult time for the hotel, MICE and event industry in particular.
What to do? Well, this is an exciting question that I have been dealing with since last fall. Always being innovative, unpacking and implementing new ideas is great fun. We are very vigilant and are keeping a close eye on the market, changing our external communication, reorganizing our platform economy with more visibility, working on our websites and profiles on a daily basis and expanding our services with traditional speaker booking management.
2025 will be an interesting year with many challenges, but we are confident that it will be another great year. The best is yet to come.