IFES World Summit 2018

„Reaching New Heights“

Flashback

From the Global Campus in 2017 we moved to the big city! 2018 the 20th IFES World Summit brought us to the Wind y City: Chicago. We assembled in a former Sports Club which w as built as a Hotel reserved for the rich and famous during the World Exhibition 1893, Here member s and friends met for our annual meeting.

Reaching New Heights was the Motto: And this is what we did. What in the World: Global Design Trends (Travis Stanton), The status of the global exhibition industry with a special focus on the service industry (Jochen Witt), A Glimpse Into Our Future Through the Looking Glass (Jackson Young), … The lectures itself were varied and entertaining. We enjoyed lively + in teresting presentation of Lawyers, trade unionists, (this is possible) and learned a lot form People like Glenda Brungardt, a real trade show industry experts. The World Summit was rounded off by wonderful evening events. The evening ride on the Chicago River tour ended on Lake Michigan with a gorgeous firework. The gala dinner at the Shedd Aquarium was the place to thank Bruno Meissner for all his efforts he did for IFES. After 4 years of presidency and 4 years as a Past President Bruno finished his career as an active IFES Board member.

Flashback

The IFES Summit in Chicago showed how a perfect team brought the stage and the forum to life. The concept came from the designers of AKTIV, the building was set up by beMatrix in collaboration with Coastal. Brumark supplied the flooring as well as the lectern and Duo produced the prints for the back walls. AKTIV installed the LEDskin Video Wall from its own stock in the warehouse in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last but not the least, TWI guaranteed that all material on time came to the venue.

The ambience of the Stagg Court at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel has been atmospherically staged for the particular requiremen t with an optimum ligh ting design provided with AKTIV show lights. In order to give all participants the opportunity to see the presentations, two 4K large screen monitors were used in addition.

Since there would be nothing on the monitors withou t specialist s taff and transmission technol ogy, the team at AKTIV took care o f directing, audio and image mixing, playback and the cameras. There were 3 highend 4K live cameras used. Two s taffed by experienced cameramen and another remotely controlled. The audio transmission was set to both wired connections as well as wireless technol ogy. And everything played together perfectly.

Two absolute technical innovations were used as highligh ts for events. For the direction Riedel Communications provided the latest digital radio in tercom Bolero, which is the benchmark at big events today. In addition, we had a Catch - box-Microphone in action, which c ould be thrown for questions from the audi t orium.

Since events, especially success ful ones, always pass by way too fast, they also rec orded all contributions in HD and the IFES provides them f or downloading.

Among others, AKTIV Kommunikations-Marketing GmbH w as partner of IFES in the implementation of the IFES Global Summit in Chicago. AKTIV is a full-service provider with the fields of ad vertising, trade fairs, film production and multimedia that make every event a pleasure. In addition to the large in-house ren tal stock for audio, electrics, pho to/film/video, lighting, trade f air, furniture as well as presentation, transmission technology and optimal networking partners make every event a success. Whe ther inch or centimeter –whe ther 110V or 220V – AKTIV knows about both worlds and ensures that the technology always interacts – not only in the USA but also anywhere else in the world.

5 th MasterClass

Amsterdam, Dec 10 – 12, 2018

U nder the title “Stop talking – Start doing” 30 participants met. The y came from around the gl obe: Hong Kong, Me xico, South A frica and of c ourse Europe. Their declared goal: to overcome barrier s in the sales process. “ Presen ting sounds so easy ... and if done right it is” w as the conclusion a fter the two seminar days.

Flashback

Han Lenhouts and Jean-Pierre Brouwers, the two masterminds of this year’ s MasterClass, brought renowned speakers and trainers to the start, such as Pieter-Paul Visser or Riemer R ijpkema, both acquaintances in the Dutch live communication scene. But the undisputed highligh ts were Marius Smit and Fares Boustanji. Smit is the f ounder of the company “Plastic Whale”, an initiative that has se t itself the task of clearing the Ams terdam canals of plastic w aste. But that’s not all: the discarded bags, bottles, buckets – and everything else you can find – have turned into heralds o f excursions or, more recen tly, furniture.

All clear upcycling products that are far away from “eco charm”, bu t real design highlights. Smit used his own example to show how you can win people over to your ideas by motivating yourself and believing in the project.

Initially ridiculed as one of the man y eco-spinners, he now runs a company with 30 employees and has sponsors like the cit y of Ams terdam or PWC who support his ideas for up-cycling plas tic w aste.

Fares Boustanji is completely differen t: thrown off track by a burnou t, the trainer, also known as “Bird Man”, sought a retreat as a falconer. It soon became clear to him: “You also have to c ommunicate with birds – but this happens much more directly. Birds react much more sensitively to body language, voice modula tion, facial expressions and gestures. Or to put it another w ay: If I manage to get a bird of prey to trust me, I am also able t o gain the trust of a human being. The art here is to get in volved with one’s own needs and to understand them in tuitively.

The IFES MasterClass w as the somewhat different: No “tschakka” or “we are the bigges t” but a training and ne tworking aimed at strengthening the competences of the individual.

The next MasterClass “Stop talking – Start doing” will be again in Amsterdam December 1 – 3, 2019.