Re-designing Association – Destination Partnerships
Workshopdesign: Stelios Filopoulos, Co-Facilitators: Robert Rassmussen, Dominik Rinnhofer

In 2022, Meet Denmark (MDK) introduced the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) method to break the habitual way of doing things, foster creativity, and create a shared understanding of the emerging events landscape in the meta-COVID era. Since then, WoCo, an MDK member, has actively participated in and led a much-needed dialogue with association leaders to reimagine future events.

The Pioneering Congresses of Tomorrow Initiative helped to co-create a representative landscape of future congresses and a publication with the building blocks for an enchanting and impactful experience for delegates. The initiative’s findings have been disseminated broadly in big industry events and various communication channels, generating a much-needed dialogue between the Danish Convention Bureaus and International Event Organizers.

Copenhagen CVB is part of WoCo. The department seeks to create broad and long-term value by attracting and developing international knowledge congresses, business, culture, and sports events connected to Danish society and focused on solving global challenges, including climate, green transition, and health. To attract large international scientific congresses aligned with Danish strongholds that can create positive, societal value, WoCo must understand the event organiser’s aspirations and challenges andcultivate trusted relationships.

Copenhagen CVB organises a workshop with ESAE, the leading society of association executives in Europe, to present the results of the Pioneering Congresses of Tomorrow initiative and engage in a dialogue using the LSP methodology to understand how cooperation between associations and destinations can improve.

The workshop will identify elements necessary for successful, sustainable and impactful congresses and offer a new perspective on the cooperation between the event owner/organiser and the destination. Understanding that each association and destination are unique and different, the workshop will work to identify the aspirational relationships and the agents that can affect these relationships positively or negatively. The findings of this workshop will further inform the work under the Pioneering Congresses of Tomorrow Initiative, multiplying value.