RAI has high ambitions for fostering talent

RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre, a longstanding member of AIPC, is the exclusive sponsor of the 2022-2023 edition of Future Shapers, the AIPC talent programme. The RAI is a role model when it comes to attracting and fostering talents, both by promoting a career in the events industry at high schools and universities, and by offering a wide range of professional trainings to its staff.

During a video conference, Maurits van der Sluis, COO at the RAI, explains that the management of his organisation firmly believes in investing into talent. In that sense, supporting the AIPC talent programme is a next logical step.

At the RAI, a lot of attention is given to both attracting and fostering talent. Recognising that there is a war for talent at the moment, the RAI applies a ‘bring the outside in’ policy, actively scouting for talent at high schools and universities. To that purpose, partnerships have been set up with institutions such as Hotelschool The Hague, HL Stenden, BUAS, Windesheim and ROCvA in order to highlight the importance of the events industry, to collaborate on projects and to attract young professionals.

Attracting talent is one thing; retaining and growing these talents a completely different one. On this front, Van der Sluis insists on the fact that there is no ‘one size fits all’, as needs and expectations from individuals can be profoundly different. Therefore, the HR department of the RAI has developed a range of programmes, from the more ‘classic’ internal training to tailor-made programmes for high-potential individuals. Here again, the partnerships mentioned above bring great value as they provide the RAI with ‘insider’ insights on the type of education offered and the value it can bring to the organisation.

As a result of these efforts, the RAI is very successful in attracting and retaining the talent it needs to deal with both a changing market landscape when it comes to customer requirements and the increased use of technology, both at the level of the customer experience and the level of the convention centre management.

Coming back to AIPC’s Future Shapers, Van der Sluis tells me that he was very impressed by both the quality of the lectures and the level of ambition when it comes to addressing event industry challenges of the first edition. “The presentations given by the Future Shapers at the AIPC Annual Conference in Budapest were extremely professional and relevant –for a moment, I thought these were existing companies pitching their products. Instead, these were two teams consisting of convention centre talents, who met face-to-face for the first time two days before their performance.”

As for the 2022-2023 edition of the programme: it is well on its way, with 13 talents from across the globe developing ideas that have the potential of truly changing the way convention centres are managed and which will be presented during the AIPC Annual Conference in Luxembourg.