Denmark - Inspiring Meetings

Destination Report Denmark is a special edition of HeadQuarters Magazine - November 2011published by Meeting Media Company (Europe) - www.headquartersmagazine.com - [email protected]

HEADQUARTERS

© J

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INSPIRING DANISH MEETINGS

E U R O P E , M I D D L E - E A S T, A F R I C A

HEADQUARTERS 2

IN THE MINDLet’s be honest. Out of all the press trips

I attended since I joined the meetings

industry a few years ago, the MIND event,

organized by VisitDenmark and Wonderful

Copenhagen to promote the Meetovation

concept (see sidebar), was the best. Not

only because, according to me, my fellow

journalists and a bunch of quality hosted

buyers, the event was organized fl awlessly,

thanks to the involvement of - it seems - the

main players of the local industry, but also

because they had conceptualized the whole

thing, with actually something to say, out of

the box.

MIND is based on the Meetovation concept

which, among other things, is concerned with

increasing returns on meetings investment.

MEETINGS IN DENMARK. WITHIN THE LAST FEW YEARS

COPENHAGEN HAS BECOME AN AVANT-GARDE DESTINATION

WHERE SUSTAINABLE MEETINGS ARE ALMOST A WAY OF

LIFE. AND WITH MEETOVATION AS A KEY CONCEPT TO ADD

VALUE, THE COUNTRY AS A WHOLE IS LEADING THE WAY.

FAR AHEAD OTHER DESTINATIONS THAT CLAIM TO BE EVER

MORE SUSTAINABLE. TEXT RÉMI DÉVÉ

DENMARK LEADING THE WAY

> I N T R O D U C T I O N

CONTENTS

2 INTRODUCTION4 LOCAL FLAVOUR6 INVOLVING THE PARTICIPANTS8 CREATIVE USE OF FACILITIES10 SUSTAINABILITY

the MIND event this June in Copenhagen

HEADQUARTERS 3

> I N T R O D U C T I O N

CONTACT

+ Wonderful Copenhagen

Steen Jakobsen

+45 3325 7400

[email protected]

www.meetincopenhagen.com

+ VisitDenmark

Markus Diefenbach

+49 (0)40-320 21 143

[email protected]

www.visitdenmark.com

MEETOVATION

Shake up the formal structures of conferences and encourage innovative thinking to conceive great ideas: Meetovation is the culmination of Denmark’s fi ght against boring meetings! Meetovation is a distinctive Danish concept. The idea is to utilize conference facilities and their setups, in fact the whole environment, in new and innovative ways. To actively engage, participants and to generate a positive energy that makes conferences and meetings seem less tiring and the big issues solvable. Breaking with conventional one-way or ‘them and us’ communication is at the heart of Meetovation. When involving and engaging all participants, both delegates and organizers feel liberated. This again results in higher levels of learning and comprehension and generates a higher Return on Meeting Investment (RoMI). Essentially, Meetovation is based on fi ve elements:+ Involvement of delegates+ Creative use of physical facilities+ Green and responsible operations+ Integration of authentic and local fl avour+ Measuring the Return on Meeting

Investment (RoMI)

Being a Danish concept, Meetovation’s ambition of generating more ‘brain- energy’, goes hand is hand with the nation’s desire to use more alternative energy. Research also shows that conferences and meetings take a far more fl exible and creative approach to the use of facilities at venues seeking explicit eco-friendly profi les. A vast number of conference and meetings venues in Denmark today happily offer professional advice on how to incorporate elements of Meetovation into international business events. WWW.MEETOVATION.COM

This is achieved by a variety of methods

including improved participant involvement,

new ways of arranging meetings venues, and

greater attention paid to rooting the event

in the destination, by for example featuring

local fl avours and key areas, and ensuring

that the venue chosen is especially well

suited to the aims of the meeting.

So during the event, there were workshops

where you could apply the Meetovation

theory to reality. My favorite one was ‘MIND

the green’, or how to incorporate green and

responsible operations into your meeting.

With the legacy of COP15 (the United Nations

Conference on climat change in 2009) as

a background, the session provided very

practical tips on how to make events more

sustainable. All participants contributed, and

it showed that being sustainable is easy and

most of the time cost-effi cient! More on sus-

tainability on page 10 of this supplement.

A GREEN EU PRESIDENCY To show that it’s not just words, the Danish

meetings industry has teamed up with the

Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure

that also the logistics of the 2012 EU Presi-

dency are as sustainable as possible and result

in ISO20121 certifi cation of the Government

event management system. The idea, known as

the ‘Danish Sustainable Events Initiative’ (DSEI)

is to surf on the same sustainable principles as

COP15 in order to consolidate Copenhagen’s

unique position as a green meetings city.

As a result of the 2012 EU Presidency, over

100 meetings of various sizes will attract

more than 15,000 participants and visitos to

Copenhagen and the city of Horsens in the

western part of Denmark. The vision of DSEI

is to use the Danish EU Presidency to inspire

businesses to greater

collaboration, innovation

and sustainable develop-

ment. The project aims

to increase the competi-

tive positioning of Den-

mark as an undisputed

leader in sustainable

events and clean tech-

nology solutions.

Since staging COP15 in

Copenhagen and the

succeeding launch of the

‘Copenhagen Sustain-

able Meetings Protocol’,

the number of sustain-

able and certifi ed busi-

nesses within the Danish

industry has boomed.

Steen Jakobsen, Con-

vention Director for Wonderful Copenhagen

CVB, is ‘convinced that the DSEI will help

strengthen the competitive positioning of

Copenhagen as the “Capital of Sustainable

Meetings”, and Denmark as a superb sustain-

able meetings destination, even further. With

over 60% of the capitals’ hotel rooms third

party eco-certifi ed, sustainability is already

an integral part of the Danish meetings

industry. With this project we will develop

Copenhagen’s “sustainable” position further.’

SPECIAL MEETOVATION TRIP

Join the MIND fam trip in Copenhagen15-16 November 2012www.visitdenmark.com/mind

HEADQUARTERS 4

> L O C A L F L A V O U R

It’s no secret for whoever visited Denmark

over the past years: Danish cooks have

become experts in combining international

trends with recipes taken from Grandma’s

antique cookbooks and local gastronomy

using only the best of Denmark’s natural pro-

duce while presenting the New Nordic Cuisine.

This change has been led by Copenhagen’s

restaurants, which are now recognised by top

food writers, gourmets and gourmands from

around the world. It started out with Copen-

hagen restaurant noma receiving one, then

two Michelin stars followed by the ultimate

accolade: voted #1 on Restaurant Magazine’s

annual top 50 list in 2010 and 2011! Now

Denmark boasts the World’s Best Chef too;

Head Chef Rasmus Kofoed at Copenhagen’s

restaurant Geranium, who won the Bocuse

d’or this January.

The latest Michelin Guide also awarded

Copenhagen’s restaurants 11 stars which is

more than any other city in Scandinavia, and

in fact more than Rome, Amsterdam, Vienna

and the same amount as Milan. This clearly

confi rms that Copenhagen continues as

the number one food-lover’s destination in

Scandinavia. The main part of the restau-

rants awarded with stars focus on the New

Nordic Cuisine. Worth noting is that Copen-

hagen also offers the world’s only Michelin-

starred Thai restaurant - Kiin Kiin!

If you want to eat green, sustainable and

organic food, especially Copenhagen is

a good place to satisfy your hunger and

fullfi ll your CSR-policy. The city’s #1 organic

gourmet restaurant was just mentioned:

Geranium. On top, there is a fi ne selection

of organic and environmentally conscious

cafés, delis and restaurants, and the number

is growing all the time, in Copenhagen, but

throughout Denmark too!

The selection of high-end restaurants is

extensive, but dining out in Denmark is not

necessary all fancy and expensive - there

is a wide selection of restaurants for all

budgets.

FOUR COPENHAGEN RESTAURANTS WITHIN DIFFERENT PRICE RANGESAt noma1, based in a converted 19th cen-

tury warehouse in the inner harbour of

MEALS ARE POTENTIAL HIGHLIGHTS IN CONNECTION WITH A MEETING

OF ANY KIND, AND GOOD FOOD CAN HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT ON THE

ATMOSPHERE OF A WHOLE EVENT. THE DANES UNDERSTOOD THAT A LONG

TIME AGO AND UNDER THE UMBRELLA OF MEETOVATION, THEY OFFER

CONFERENCE DELEGATES THE POSSIBILITY TO ENJOY A UNIQUE, LOCAL

AND CULINARY EXPERIENCE, STRESSING ONE OF MEETOVATION’S FOCUSES -

‘AUTHENTIC AND LOCAL FLAVOUR’ -, WHEN ATTENDING AN EVENT

IN COPENHAGEN.

GET GASTRONOMICALLY AUTHENTIC

noma

HEADQUARTERS 5

> L O C A L F L A V O U R

THE BRAIN FOOD CONCEPT

Hotel meals vary in quality but at the Radisson Blu hotels in Denmark all meeting packages now include a new developed Nordic brain-food menu, which matches the Meetovation idea perfectly.

In September 2010 the four Radisson Blu Hotels in Aarhus and Copenhagen were the fi rst to launch the new and unique concept, Brain Food, in order to create the most optimal settings for people attending meetings. The concept is designed in cooperation with Nordic Nutrition Experts, who underlines that the Brain Food concept aims to integrate health, taste and wellness in one, and with a key focus on creating better conditions for meeting participants.

Based on in-depth research by Danish brain scientists and chefs verifying how food affects the way the mind works, Radisson Blu developed an organic brain food concept that make participants stay energized and focused throughout discussions, to speed up decision-making and increase the delegates’ energy-levels and sense of well-being.

Brain Food is a holistic catering concept, which main focus is more fi sh, more whole grain products, fruit and vegetables and the usage of mainly local, fresh and pure fresh ingredients with minimal industrial processing - without compromising on the good taste.The concept is now used as a standard catering for meetings, at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel in Aarhus as well as the Radisson Blu Falconer Hotel & Conference Center, Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel and the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel in Copenhagen.

Louise Andersen works for Aktiv Kurser / Probana, a private supplier offering education and courses to companies. She explains how she incorporated the Brain Food concept into her offering: ‘We have cooperated with the Radisson Blu Århus for a long period, and have warmly welcomed there Brain Food concept! Lately we provided it for eight groups of 7 joining an education workshop. It was a great pleasure to receive the evaluation from the participants who had nothing else but positive comments on the Brain Food concept. One of the participants wrote: “Especially after lunch the batteries are normally fl at, but this was defi antly not the case after the Brain Food lunch. It made a huge difference to experience feeling fresh and bright all day - Hurray for Brain Food!” From that one we decided to stick to the Brain Food for all our courses.’

www.radissonblu.dk

If you want to eat green, sustainable and organic food, especially Copenhagen is a good place to satisfy your hunger and fullfi ll your CSR-policy

Copenhagen, René Redzepi blends the most

exciting contemporary techniques with the

fi nest Nordic ingredients sourced from as

far away as Iceland, the Faroe Islands and

Greenland. In 2005 Noma achieved their

fi rst Michelin star, and in 2007 a second

star was added.

www.noma.dk

Restaurant Julian2 at the National Museum

presents delicious medium priced climate

friendly New Nordic Cuisine lunches created

by Jesper Julian Møller, former chef of the

Michelin-starred restaurant, Kong Hans. This

April Møller welcomed guests at Restaurant

Toldboden, where the ambition is to be the

Nordic region’s most sustainable eatery.

www.restaurantjulian.com

Cofoco Restaurants3 is a group of restau-

rants that have become immensely popular.

They offer seven restaurants in Copenhagen

all with different profi les form Mediterranean

to British inspired menus, at different price

levels; the most budget friendly offering a

3-course menu for DKK 275 (€ 38) and the

most expensive offering a deluxe 5-course

meal for DKK 500 (€ 67).

www.cofoco.dk

Rooted in a no-fail concept of organics and

incentive recipes, Bio Mio3 is located in

Copenhagen’s trendy meat-packing district.

Opened in 2009, it seats 200 guests in a row

of tables and is great for a limited budget

and casual groups, since you can order

individually, directly from the chef in the

open kitchen. Naturally the interior is made

out of certifi ed woodwork and that the

energy consumption is low.

www.biomio.dk

1 expensive, 2 midpriced, 3 budget friendly

At Geranium Restaurant

three kinds of brainfood

HEADQUARTERS 6

> P A R T I C I P A N T ’ S I N V O L V E M E N T

THE MEANING OF MOVING MINDS…Conferences and

large meetings

are often succes-

sions of endless

power-point presentations, interspersed

with ten-minute Q&A’s, breaks, lunches and

dinners. This format renders delegates very

passive; several hours of sitting quietly in

rows of seats is simply too boring, which is

why people often seep out of auditoriums by

mid-afternoon...

The Danes declared ‘War against boring

meetings!’ a few years ago, and it is not

just ‘hot air’. The Danish approach to active

involvement at meetings starts from the

fact that cognitive psychology and learn-

ing research have long established that

for human beings to get anything out of

lectures, they need opportunities to digest

it, talk it over, relate it to their own experi-

ences and apply it in their minds to their own

(future) activities. One of Meetovation’s fi ve

key elements indeed focus on ‘involvement

of delegates’ and tackles head on the

troubles of one-way communication at

business events of any size.

PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT ON A LARGE SCALE It is a common misconception that partici-

pant involvement techniques can only be

used at small meetings. Ib Ravn, former

Consortium Director of Learning Lab

Denmark and currently Associate Professor

at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus

University, explains on what can easily be

done at congresses to get the delegates

involved and inspired.

He says: ‘For participants to become involved

more actively during conferences, fi rst of all

planners must cut down on the number and

length of presentations. Two or three twenty-

minute presentations in the morning and one

or two in the afternoon is plenty for people to

take in. The rest of the time should be wisely

spent on digesting the important input and

messages and on meeting the other interest-

ing delegates, who, in fact, may have as much

to contribute to the individual delegates’

professional development and the overall

meeting outcome as the speakers themselves!’

There are, of course, many ways of

changing the traditional one-way communi-

cation lectures at large business events.

A vast number of Danish conference

and meetings venues today happily offer

professional advice on how to incorporate

‘involvement of delegates’ into major

international business events, including a

number of venues as, for example, the Royal

Theatre, Danish Design Center, Scandic

Hotels, Radisson Blu Hotels and Comwell

Hotels. These, and other professionals within

the Danish meetings industry, have with

enthusiasm embraced the Danish Meet-

ovation concept including taking part in

the meetovator training program.

HOW TO INVOLVE AND INSPIRE DELEGATES, BY IB RAVN After a presentation, the moderator asks

the delegates to turn to someone in the seat

behind them or in front of them and spend

5-10 minutes talking about what they found

interesting in the presentation. Subsequently,

the moderator asks a few people to say out

loud what inspired them in the presentation.

This approach is very useful for knowledge

sharing.

Ib Ravn

RESEARCH HAS SHOWN AGAIN AND AGAIN THAT ONE ACHIEVES BETTER RESULTS

IF THE DELEGATES GET INVOLVED, RATHER THAN JUST PRESENTED TO LONG

LECTURES. SO THAT IS WHAT THEY PREACH AND PRACTICE IN DENMARK! AND

FEEDBACK RECEIVED FROM CLIENTS WHO DARED TO ADAPT THIS TACTIC AT

BUSINESS EVENTS STAGED IN DENMARK ONLY AFFIRMED THE ABOVE TOO…

MOVING MINDS

Sculpture at Dronning Louises Bro

HEADQUARTERS 7

> P A R T I C I P A N T ’ S I N V O L V E M E N T

After two presentations, the moderator asks

the delegates to get up and identify two

persons they don’t already know, and share

view points with them for 5-10 minutes. A few

minutes standing up before lunch prevents

burn-out.

After lunch, when ANOTHER lecture will

put people to sleep, try a mingling-type

activity on the open fl oor. The moderator

says: ‘Everyone please, get up and introduce

yourselves to someone you don’t know. Talk

about how today’s topic is relevant to what

you do in your everyday life, or how you

would like to change (if ever so slightly) what

you do in your in the light of the information

you received here’. The moderator will ring

a bell after ten minutes and twenty minutes

respectively, indicating it’s time to fi nd

a new partner.

Later, instead of having a panel with fi ve

eager experts who will volunteer too-long

answers to every question from the fl oor,

ask delegates to spend fi ve minutes writing

down their most important thoughts; fi ve

minutes of complete silence in the big hall.

Then everyone fi nds a stranger and shares

their thoughts with them. Next the pairs team

up in groups of four, and everyone shares just

one important point from their list.

While everyone is standing up, the

moderator interrupts: ‘Please move to the

reception area, where there are high cocktail

tables with four healthy smoothies or snacks

on each. Find a table with three strangers

and evaluate today’s conference.’ This way

the delegates are strongly encouraged to

do some networking while being given the

opportunity to talk about what mostly

mattered to them at the conference.

In short, this sort of involvement creates

happy delegates who will look forward to next

year’s event!

The Danes declared ‘War against boring meetings!’ a few years ago, and it is not just ‘hot air’

ALGO 2009

When the IT University of Copenhagen held ALGO 2009, an international conference with over 100 delegates, the focus was on raising awareness that algorithms not only compute things faster but also compute them by using less power. The organising committee decided that, in parallel with the exciting scientifi c program, they should create a ‘green’ event as well as get the delegates actively involved in the conference!

On the spot in Copenhagen, in addition to being served organic food and drinking water from the tap, using public transport, staying green, and using airlines’ carbon-off-setting footprints, the conference delegates were invited to a reception at the Copenhagen City Hall. Getting there was by using Copenhageners’ favourite mode of transport: bicycles, for the fun and the evident participation involvement of it too! Hence, all the delegates headed off on bicycles - joined by none less than the Danish Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation - with full excitement.

Subsequent to the conference, the organising committee received extremely positive feedback from all participating delegates. They genuinely had a good time in Copenhagen, and highlighted the bicycle trip, as a surprisingly fun and unforgettable experience of the event.

INFORMATION Nhi Quyen Le, Academic Offi cer - Research Administration, IT University of Copenhagen, [email protected], www.itu.dk

MIND session, Clarion Hotel

at the IT University of Copenhagen

HEADQUARTERS 8

> C R E A T I V E F A C I L I T I E S

What do we mean by inspiring, physical

facilities? It could be anything from having

a meeting outdoors, staging meetings in

informal settings, using different table

set ups and/or meetings held in rather

unconventional environments.

In order to obtain participant involvement

and get delegates energized and involved

at meetings (hence creating better RoMI, or

return on meetings investment), research

has shown that great fl exibility of the

physical set up at meetings is of major

importance. In order to succeed in

involving the participants, the physical

frames must be able to support the kind

of participation wished for in a particular

meeting. It is therefore important to offer

psychical frames that are fl exible and easy

to move around - a skill mastered perfectly

well by a fi ne range of Copenhagen hotels

and venues.

The right psychical frame to create a

certain atmosphere in a meeting can help

achieve specifi c goals. If one, for example,

would like the participants to come up

with new, innovative ideas - one can use

the psychical set up to create a ‘Think out

of the box atmosphere’. One example of

this are the usage of gym balls in smaller

meetings as they are fl exible and send a

different signal than if you were sitting on

conventional chairs in a standard meeting

room set-up.

WHERE TO GO TO DO SOThe Royal Danish Theater includes a

number of venues among which the new

Opera House, the Old stage at Kongens

Nytorv and the new Royal Playhouse. The

theatre caters to events ranging from half-

day meetings to major full-day conferences

booth in foyers, in the halls, back stage and

one stage in spectacular surroundings. They

additionally offer expertise within the arts

when they plan and execute events, with the

help of in-house meetovators.

At the brand-new Bella Sky Comwell Hotel,

which is directly connected to the fl exible

Bella Center, you can challenge the tradi-

tional meeting set up thanks to the modern

futuristic and very Scandinavian design of

the many meeting rooms and spaces. Bella

Sky Comwell offers a versatile and custom-

ised meeting and conference programme in

which relaxation, concentration and tranquil-

lity are central elements of the concept.

Their in-house meetovaors take a holistic

approach and are attentive down to the

smallest detail.

MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, A MEETING IS JUST ABOUT A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

ON A BIG SCREEN, WITH PARTICIPANTS LINED UP, SEATING ON CHAIRS

RATIONALLY SET UP IN SEVERAL ROWS. NOW THINK OF A MEETING WHERE

A SEASCAPE IS PROJECTED ON ALL FOUR WALLS OF THE ROOM, WHERE YOU START

THE DAY TO THE SOUND OF WAVES OR SURROUND YOURSELF WITH A FOREST AND

BIRD SONGS. THAT’S THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY CAN GET CREATIVE IN DENMARK,

AND IT’S ALL PART OF THE MEETOVATION CONCEPT, WHICH ENCOURAGES

PLANNERS TO THINK OUT THE BOX AND USE FACILITIES IN AN INNOVATIVE WAY.

HOW TO USE MEETINGS FACILITIES CREATIVELY

Toldboden

> C R E A T I V E F A C I L I T I E S

At the Copenhagen Admiral Hotel, you can

do a number of creative set ups with the help

of the in-house meetovators. You can for

example use the hotel’s schooners, one of

Denmark’s best-preserved schooners, boast-

ing a classic 1900 interior combined with

modern facilities. The Admiral Hotel co-owns

the vessel, which is permanently berthed in

front of the hotel all year round and accom-

modates up to 42 guests. This way, you will be

sure to give your events an extra dimension!

If you choose a venue that doesn’t have

in-house meetovators, fear not! Some local

DMCs have trained meetovators and can help

you with creative meetings. ICS (www.ics.

dk) and Eventually (www.eventually.dk), for

instance, are here to make the most of any

event you might want to organize.

Toldboden, one of the newest restaurants

and meeting venues in Copenhagen harbour,

doesn’t house meetovators, but offers mul-

tipurpose, fl exible event space for up to 600

people in a climate-friendly renovated old

warehouse. Here it is easy not only to create

innovative spaces but also to include some

of the other meetovation elements, like local

fl avour and climate-friendly solutions. Owner

Jesper Julian Moeller strives to make it

environmentally friendly using local sourced

produce.

The menu has information on how much CO2

is used to produce each offering, while other

green features include the use of reclaimed

materials (the bar is constructed from an

old warehouse fl oor, the fl oors are made out

of sand from Danish beaches) and energy-

saving LED lights. On top, Toldboden boasts

fantastic views of Copenhagen harbour and

prominent neighbours such as Amalienborg

Palace, the Royal Danish Opera, Holmen, the

Little Mermaid and the HQ of Maersk Line.

Here you can defi nitely have a meeting with

a twist… in your tongue and in your eyes!

MEETOVATION IN A THEATRE

On several occasions, Det Ny Teater, a century old theatre downtown Copenhagen, has arranged conferences for Exiqon, a biotechnological company operating in Life Sciences and Diagnostics. The head of the meetings department at Det Ny Teater, Meetovator Mette Wøhlk Veneman explains: ‘Once they had a session where they had asked actors to share the way they work with Exiqon’s employees. The main theme was ‘How to Bring out the Best in Each Other’. The goal was to illustrate that, for a theatre performance, the show will be a disaster if the actors fail to help each other perform the best they can. One of the company managers and one of the actors came and shared their way of thinking both during rehearsals and the performance itself.’ Exiqon HR Manager Lotte Gunderskov, says: ‘It was interesting to hear about the work behind a theatrical performance, both from the management and the actors’ point of view.

Actually there were several things we could use, although we are from another branch. For example how people working in the theatre seek to give each other space and help each other, in order to achieve success according to the motto: ‘If your colleagues don’t succeed the show won’t succeed, and you won’t succeed.’ Mette Wøhlk Veneman continues: ‘Theatre-goers that have seen our premises and felt the atmosphere of the facility often have a certain romantic idea of theatres and actors. But a theatre is also an organization. Accumulated feelings and frustrations from everyday life do also exist in our colorful world. We use Meetovation in many different contexts, sometimes even without the end user noticing it. This could be for a meeting setup in a circle without tables or for an increased number of breaks so the participants have the time to pick up on what they have heard. It’s my impression the untraditional settings we offer at the theatre in generally help the participants think out of the box!’

Testimonial

Research has shown that great fl exibility of the physical set up at meetings is of major importance

HEADQUARTERS 9

The Opera House

HEADQUARTERS 10

> S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y

HQ: Every destina-

tion now says they’re

sustainable. What

makes Copenhagen/

Denmark different?

Anja Hartung Sfyrla:

A number of things

has made it easy for us to ‘walk the green

path’. First because Denmark is fl at and cars

are quite dear here, we were born in a biking

culture - it’s been a long time since we’re

sustainable and we didn’t even know it! There

are also great weather conditions for wind

power, but, most importantly, we live in a

very functional society that understand what

it means to promote a healthy lifestyle, green

solutions and sustainability.

The greening of COP15 has made it pos-

sible to incorporate some of these values

to the meetings industry. As a matter of

fact, the event partly transformed, or at

least pushed the greening process in the

Copenhagen meetings industry: we have a

far more green meeting product today than

before COP15. For example, Bella Center

had a greening plan already before COP15,

but decided to speed up the process - they

reduced their CO2 footprint by 20% in the

two years leading to the event and worked

out a solution on how to serve organic food

at reasonable prices. Likewise, many hotels

got some kind of ‘green’ certifi cation and

to this day this number is still rising (see

sidebar).

All of this shows it’s much easier to ask for

and get a sustainable meeting in Copenha-

gen compared to other destinations. Here,

you might even end up having a sustainable

meeting without knowing it!

HQ:How do the Danish ‘EnergyTours’ fi t

into sustainability? What are they exactly?

Anja Hartung Sfyrla: EnergyTours offer a

unique opportunity to come and experience

Danish clean technologies and climate-

friendly solutions. During those special tours,

we invite planners to take advantage of the

lessons already learned by Danish compa-

nies and institutions on how to fi ght climate

change. An EnergyTour will be relevant to

top, technical and commercial management

in leading energy companies and other

companies committed to the energy agenda,

such as developers, technology providers

and consulting engineers.

We give people the opportunity to meet

Danish environmental frontrunners, including

company leaders, politicians and experts. The

groups using this service come as delegations

to Denmark for a study trip, but very often

EnergyTours are ‘natural’ pre- and post- tours

in connection with the many conferences

Denmark host within the fi eld of energy and

sustainabillity (www.energytours.com).

HQ: One of Meetovation’s key concepts

is how to incorporate sustainability

into your meetings. Can you expand

a little bit on that?

Anja Hartung Sfyrla: In Denmark we are

passionate about meeting design! We highly

believe in identifying the purpose of a meet-

ing and then designing it according to this.

Of course this will result in a better outcome

and therefore a higher Return on Meeting

Investment (RoMI) for the company

organizing the meeting.

Meetovation is our recipe for designing

the best meetings. This concept offers fi ve

design principles and sustainabillity is one of

them. We do believe that taking good care of

the environment and our world is very impor-

tant today; a company demonstrating this

kind of awareness in the way they organise

meetings can obtain motivation and a

positive attitude in connection with the

other messages they want to convey to

either internal or external stakeholders.

Integrating a sustainable thinking in the way

the meeting is organised can also be a way to

increase its effectiveness and even some-

times decrease its cost. Sustainable thinking

is everything from using the excellent Danish

tap water in jugs to using the ‘Walk and talk’

technique for a discussion session where you

send participants out of the meeting room to

a get some fresh air on a 20-minute walking

trip so they can brainstorm in a different way.

Another example is the organiser contribut-

ing to rescuing trees in the rainforest instead

of buying gifts which many delegates don’t

bring home anyway to making all conference

material available electronically, etc.

HQ: I fi nd that being sustainable is not

every planner’s primary concern. It’s just

an added value, but not a necessity after

all. What do you say to those people?

Anja Hartung Sfyrla: As sustainability is an

integrated part of our society and of our

ORGANIZING A SUSTAINABLE MEETING IN

COPENHAGEN AND IN DENMARK SEEMS

NATURAL. WITH THE COP15 LEGACY AND

THE GREENING OF THE PRESIDENCY OF

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN

THE LINE OF FIRE, GREEN MEETINGS ARE

EASY TO ARRANGE. I COULD PERSONALLY

EXPERIENCE IT DURING THE MIND FAM-

TRIP LAST JUNE WHERE ACTIVITIES WERE

ORGANIZED AROUND THE MEETOVATION

CONCEPT, OF WHICH SUSTAINABILITY IS

A MAJOR PART. NOW ANJA HARTUNG

SFYRLA, INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

MANAGER, BUSINESS TOURISM AT

VISITDENMARK, TELLS US MORE ABOUT

THE DANISH ADDED VALUE WHEN IT

COMES TO GREEN MEETINGS.

INTERVIEW RÉMI DÉVÉ

GREEN AS IT GETSWITH THE DANISH

Anja Hartung Sfyrla

Integrating a sustainable thinking in the way the meeting is organised can be a way to increase its effectiveness

HEADQUARTERS 11

meeting product we don’t really need to

convince clients who don’t see sustainability

as a priority. We do believe that responsible

thinking can increase the positive experience

for the participant of the meeting as well as it

can often help reduce costs.Those arguments

are often most important to potential clients.

HQ: Is there still room for improvement

when it comes to Copenhagen/Denmark

being sustainable?

Anja Hartung Sfyrla: There is always room for

improvement! A group of hotels are planning

to come together and buy wind power energy

for their hotels. Denmark will also host the

Presidency of the Council of the European

Union in the fi rst half of 2012. As a result, the

Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will organise

over 100 meetings of various sizes, attract-

ing more than 15,000 participants visiting

Copenhagen and the city of Horsens in central

Jutland. At this very moment, key private and

public stakeholders affi liated with the Danish

meetings industry are uniting and creating an

ambitious national sustainability project named

the ‘Danish Sustainable Events Initiative’ (DSEI)

to ensure that Danish sustainability leadership

in action is advanced, showcased and shared.

COPENHAGEN

+ Green hotels: Copenhagen has a pioneering status when it comes to sustainable meetings. This status is underlined by the fact that 60% of the city’s hotel rooms now hold one of the offi cial eco-certifi cates available for hotels.

+ A biking culture: 50 % of all Copenhageners commute by bike, and in total Copenhageners cycle 1.2 million kilometers a year - equivalent to travelling to the moon and back, twice. So delegates wanting to go to their meeting on a bike are more than welcome!

+ CO2 neutral by 2025: Today Copenhagen’s

CO2 emissions are less than 2.5 million tons,

and the ambition is that in 2025 the city’s CO

2 emission should be 1,1 million tons. This

will be achieved thanks to a wind mill project reducing CO

2 emissions by 375.000 tons,

a grand electric and hydrogen car project reducing emissions by 50.000 plant woods and a number of other initiatives.

the capital of sustainable meetings

VM Building

For the rest of Denmark:+45 3288 [email protected]

For Copenhagen enquiries:+45 3325 [email protected]

Feel free to bring your next meeting to Copenhagen - the Capital of Sustainable Meetings

and the greenest major city in Europe. Copenhagen is a vibrant metropolis with a unique

art & design scene, plenty of cultural attractions and many Michelin-starred restaurants.

Denmark is easy to reach from anywhere in the world, offers high value for money and

has excellent hotels and ultra-modern meeting facilities. Copenhagen and Denmark is

open for great meetings.

Open for Great Meetings

Open for Great Meetings