The Rotterdam Experiment: The Future of Events 2030 - The Rotterdam Way
#RotterdamExperiment Quick links
The world is in a rapid transformation that crosses cultures, industries and localities. In the midst of everything that is going on, the events industry is looking for ways to meet the demands of a future still open for definition. What does the future hold? What are the new technologies and methods of collaborations that are needed? How can we learn to thrive? Besides these questions, it's clear that for the foreseeable future we won’t be able to travel or come together in the traditional way. Hybrid and online events are expected to become more and more the standard.
Rotterdam is the capital of innovation; resilience is in our DNA. When conditions are challenging, we excel. And these challenging times call for future focused solutions. Led by Rotterdam’s own futurist, best-selling author Mr Yuri van Geest, we will engage you during a dynamic series of 7 hybrid collaborative experiments to explore the future of the events-industry.
“We are entering a new world: from control to trust, from scarcity to abundance, from separation to unity and from short term to long term. In our hearts we are connected to ourselves, each other, nature and the universe. We allow necessary imagination for the transformation of the system that is now revealing itself. For the event industry this means, among other things, space for co-creation, longer content-driven sessions, deep, personal and professional stories, retreats and new forms of being together.”
– Yuri van Geest
During the 1st Rotterdam Experiment we will discover the exciting possibilities mixed reality offers the events industry in a living experiment connecting the virtual & live sphere to each other.
Learning and sharing
Like any good experiment, we will collect real-time data and exchange knowledge with each other. Experts from the events industry & beyond will provide an interdisciplinary perspective of our findings, and together we will build up the cumulative knowledge needed to give shape the event of the future. Knowledge and insights gained through The Rotterdam Experiment will be shared on this page!
7 events in 2020/2021
Each of the 7 editions of The Rotterdam Experiment will be a step toward the future of events, by the industry and for the industry. Each Rotterdam Experiment will be a new experience, taking place at a different location, with different speakers addressing progressive themes within the event industry. The topics for the 7 scheduled events are (dates or themes may change, so check this page regularly):
Join The Rotterdam Experiment!
You too can be part of The Rotterdam Experiment! Contact us at conventions@rotterdampartners.nl. We will then update you about the next experiments!
Coverage by The MICE Blog
The Rotterdam Experiment is attracting a lot of attention from partners and organisations in the industry, and from the media. The MICE Blog (by professional industry blogger Irina Graf) is following the Rotterdam Experiment closely and reproting about the experiments and the learnings we can take from them on social media. Here’s a short extract from the blogs about experiment 1 ‘Mixed Reality’.
The world as we know it is in transformation. How do we adapt? How do we prepare for the future we don’t yet have the answers for? Through experimenting, that’s one way to find out. We are all experimenting every day. We are using new platforms, creating new types of events: hybrid, online, luckily also live again in small groups, but we are all attempting to adapt, and we are experimenting without even knowing it. Will technology influence the future of events? In the first Rotterdam Experiment we explored the world of VR/AR/MR.
Keynote speaker Yuri van Geest: “We are living in an extraordinary time, experiencing a systemic transformation that is holistic in nature: technology, organisations, values and leadership. The shift in values means that we have to move away from “me to we”, from “competition to collaboration”. Corona is an amplification of trends that were already there, accelerating everything in terms of value shifts, new technologies, digitalisation, climate and nature. Shifts in technology, organisation and values have implications for events and also for technologies within events, such as VR and augmented reality (AR).
In a live experiment, participants on location and from home participated joined a VR environment where they could interact ad if they were at a live event. For this experiment we used a specially designed AltspaceVR environment. While mingling in the VR environment, VR expert Freek Teunen did a Q&A about VR and the opportunities for events. “‘VR offers the opportunity to host an event in the virtual world. An event is always an experience. VR is a technology that can deliver an experience. In VR, you can move around in an environment that can be branded. Participants can do the experience from their own home.”
During a Table Talk discussion, local and industry experts agreed that combining online and online events (hybrid) can add value to the delegate experience ad that VR technology can be a good way to enable online experiences. To make the most of these technologies and opportunities, the industry will have to work on the familiarity with VR, AR and MR, which is currently still limited and could hinder acceptance. Also, interacting with the target audience before the actual event is crucial to learn about their expectations, needs and wishes. Finally: in order to make the most of the exciting new possibilities modern technology offers us, we have to be bold and dare to take a risk.
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For more information
If you want to connect with us, please contact:
+31 (0) 10 790 01 40 
e.vanderpluijm@rotterdampartners.nl 
linkedin.com/in/eveline-van-der-pluijm-degenhart-a4919716/ 
+31 (0) 10 790 01 40 m.vandekamp@rotterdampartners.nl linkedin.com/in/mirjamvdkamp/ 
+31 (0) 10 790 01 40 c.kalamidas@rotterdampartners.nl linkedin.com/in/catherinekalamidas/ 
+31 (0) 10 790 01 40 m.hamann@rotterdampartners.nl linkedin.com/in/maaike-hamann-van-den-boomen/ 
+31 (0) 10 790 01 40 m.dejong@rotterdampartners.nl linkedin.com/in/markdejong20/ 
