Mr. Kulhavy, the 19th Stuttgart Knowledge Forum, like many other events, had to be canceled due to the coronavirus. Where up to 3,000 people usually gather, this time only a limited number of people were allowed to come together under strict conditions. How did you, as the organizer, deal with this challenge?
Gerd Kulhavy: It was definitely a shock when it became clear in the spring and early summer that the events industry would be massively affected by the Covid-19 measures. And therefore, all our events in 2020 as well. After all, we organize at least ten major forums per year, along with various seminars and conferences in Cologne, Rosenheim, Rostock, Villach or Vienna, in Karlsruhe, Berlin, Tyrol, or Switzerland. And of course, our flagship event in Stuttgart, one of the largest and most prestigious knowledge and education events in Europe. Fortunately, as event organizers, we are particularly skilled at mastering unforeseen situations: we quickly switched to planning a hybrid congress and put all our energy into the smooth and exciting execution of this new format. It was a challenging task that, from our perspective and especially from the participants' perspective, was a complete success.
How many participants were finally present live at the Porsche Arena?
Gerd Kulhavy: A total of 1,000 visitors were allowed, which is quite unique for an arena of this size that can accommodate more than 6,000 spectators. We had planned for this number and developed a sophisticated hygiene concept. However, suddenly the infection numbers rose significantly again, and many ticket holders changed their minds. We had developed a Flex-Ticket exactly for this case, so that participants could decide last minute how and where they wanted to participate. About 500 visitors were ultimately in the arena, while around 1,500 people followed the live stream of the Stuttgart Knowledge Forum on monitors and displays outside.
What were your personal program highlights at this year's Knowledge Forum?
Gerd Kulhavy: You can't ask an organizer that question. Everything was great, of course! Our events thrive on a sophisticated mix of topics and personalities, a spectrum of content, interaction, and entertainment. Luckily, our acts and speakers are true professionals and can easily handle such a hybrid event with its unique challenges. We had some celebrities this year: Detlef Soost and Jochen Schweizer, innovation expert Nick Sohnemann, digitalization expert Felix Beilharz, motivational trainer Jörg Löhr, and body language expert Monika Matschnig. Jörg Hawlitzeck on the "Leadership Mindset of the 21st Century," Loredana Meduri and Alessandro Spanu on their "Be Wow" theme. Then Jasmin Biermann-Gässler, who is well-versed in "BestPlacement - How to find and retain the best minds," Katja Porsch, who knows how to awaken the doer within, and the wonderful René Borbonus, perhaps the best rhetoric speaker in the German-speaking world. Dr. Dr. Cay von Fournier, cabaret artist and keynote speaker Vince Ebert, and the dynamic moderation by Ralf Schmitt and his "Impulse Pilots" contributed to a sensational Knowledge Forum.
How did you and your team bring together the two different target groups, in the arena and virtually? After all, your events are famous for networking opportunities and the good collective atmosphere in the hall...
Gerd Kulhavy: We have long emphasized work in the digital world, and we have launched several developments in digital booking and event business proactively. Our motto here is "Conference Excellence - live and online"; after all, we have over 20 years of conference design experience with more than 1,000 events. Three years ago, we successfully launched the "Expert Marketplace" as a live booking platform for the event industry. We are co-initiators of the "Digital Heroes Festival." Our participants have access to the specially created Speakers Excellence event app, where they can find everything about the speakers, content, location, or arrival. They can ask questions to the speakers and provide feedback. To create interaction between the different participant groups, both in the hall and in front of the screen, we came up with some gimmicks. A great applause app allows external applause triggered by those outside to be transmitted into the arena, so that live attendees can sense the atmosphere on the screens. Emojis pop up to show the community's mood outside. We also used a fun quiz format where an exciting battle took place, allowing online and offline participants to play against and with each other.
How do you see the future of the events industry, corporate events, educational congresses, and trade shows? And how can event organizers of all kinds be professionalized to ensure that digital and hybrid meetings really work?
Gerd Kulhavy: People definitely long for live events, but remote presentations and especially hybrid events are here to stay - pandemic or not. Consultation, conception, planning, staffing, organization, participant management, dramaturgy, direction, moderation, and the complete technical implementation are by no means trivial - they are real challenges. This requires high expertise if you want to inspire your audience live and online. The digital aspect can offer sensational advantages here. You can play event formats like customer events, sales kick-offs, online series of impulses, or employee training on a completely different scale. From regional to global, from segmented audience groups in interactive, digital meeting points, with large group moderation and polls or surveys: almost anything is possible today. Event elements can be combined individually, and visual elements can be optimally coordinated. At Speakers Excellence, we deliver all of this from a single source. With 20 years of experience, we are well-positioned for the digitalization of the event industry. I can only advise companies and event organizers to plan and initiate their "restart" for 2021 in a timely manner to be among the first to design and conduct their kick-offs and customer events in a hybrid manner. We are happy to provide advisory and implementation support. For those interested in learning more, further information can be found here: www.hybridevents4you.de
Background
SPEAKERS EXCELLENCE - The Speaker Agency for Your Success
Speakers Excellence is the speaker agency for your success. Founded in 2002 by Gerd Kulhavy, who still leads the company with the support of 35 employees, the core business of Speakers Excellence is the placement of speakers for companies for lectures, training, and seminars for live and hybrid events. In addition, they offer their customers the well-established event series of "Knowledge Forums" throughout Germany. Besides the opportunity to experience top speakers live and gain new insights, Speakers Excellence places special emphasis on the networking aspect and promotes exchange between participants and various partners during communication breaks. The company has access to a pool of over 3,000 speakers, trainers, entrepreneurs, and entertainers and highlights the "Top 100" for each category every year. Correspondingly, the company publishes an annual catalog featuring the Top 100 Excellent Speakers, Entrepreneurs, Trainers, and Entertainers. Since 2018, the speaker agency Speakers Excellence, led by Gerd Kulhavy, has presented their new live booking platform "Expert Marketplace" with many pioneering features, offering a direct route to the perfect speaker, moderator, and show act. This platform provides immediate information on areas of application, focus topics, availability, fees, and travel costs. Over the years, Speakers Excellence has specialized in speaker marketing and is one of the leading agencies in this field. With a wide range of offerings, they provide immediate support to speakers in their self-marketing efforts. These offerings include training seminars, trade show appearances, and professional photo and video shoots. XING Interested in more content and expert knowledge? Then follow our blog on XING to stay up to date.
