Letter from the CEO

Another EuRA Conference has come and gone and it was an amazing atmosphere that greeted our 750 delegates from 60 countries as we gathered in Dublin.

What a fantastic city! In the years we’ve been running the event, it has been difficult to compare Dublin to other places for the sheer kindness of its people. Wherever we went, from our hotel and conference venue to the party night venue, nothing was too much trouble for the teams we worked with even given the extraordinary numbers that we had in attendance. You can see from Doms’ feedback article that this presented us as organisers and delegates with challenges but nothing like the challenges that were faced by the venue who coped with calm efficiency.

After Covid we crunched the data to approximate what we thought would be our conference numbers. We were confident that after Seville, where 99% of delegates were holding credit notes from 2020, we would see a reduction in delegates as costs increased and the industry adjusted to a new reality. We were wrong. In order to accommodate 150 of the 250 people on the waitlist for the event, we had to expand the Gala into two spaces which you told us you would prefer we did not do again. However, the reality of delivering a conference to this number of delegates means one of two things; we are severely limited to the venues we can use, or we have to look for a balance which means seeking compromises.

Last month in an undisclosed (!) location, my team and our Board spent a day going over the feedback and updating our event process. If you joined Dom, Alistair and Isabel in last weeks’ Briefing, you will know that we have made some significant changes to the conference.

We will now start on Monday with afternoon symposia, opening the conference proper on Tuesday and ending on Thursday with our party night. This will allow people to attend more of the event and still be able to return home for the weekend. However for those who wish to stay on, we will still have a EuRA discounted hotel rate for the Friday and weekend.

We are now limiting the maximum number of delegates from any company to four. There will be exceptions for sponsors, but the idea is that this will ease some of the pressure on numbers.

We will be running only one session at a time. Delegates made it clear that multiple sessions running concurrently is counter productive when trying to draw a balance between networking and taking part in the programme. Depending on the venue we use, we will do our best to set aside a dedicated networking area so people can meet there and not just in the common areas of the hotel.

We will also make it easier for Newcomers to be identified and make further efforts to make sure they feel included. We talk about the EuRA family and it is a truth that the organisation is like a huge extended family, but joining for the first time can be intimidating and can make people feel like they’re not yet part of the group!

All that said, we are delighted by how many comments we received on another successful event. The feeling at the conference is incredibly special and different to other events that we take part in. Our goal for the future is to continue to innovate and improve, but to never lose what we have. At our recent board meeting, President Alistair Murray made the point, that in all of the planning we do to secure the future of EuRA, one essential goal is to never lose the soul of what EuRA has become over the past 25 years.

I need to send out profound thanks to so many people who made the event what it was, from my team to our marvellous volunteers who work so hard. To the venues who delivered amazing experiences. To all the speakers and moderators who gave so much time and made such an effort to bring the event to life. To our Production Designer Mini, our Conference Host Frances, our SC for Content Peggy; your work and brilliance make the conference amazing. And of course to the members of the MLO Band who brought our 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner to such a fantastic conclusion. But most of all to the 750 people who take time from their work to be with us, to continue to support EuRA and who make the family what it is. Here’s to Vilamoura 2024!