Since the rebranding of the company in 2015, ENITED Business Events has been creating their own “Network of Excellence”. As a quite small operational firm, ENITED saw the need to extend our services, NOT by employing new staff, but by cooperating with people/companies with complementary skills and knowledge, and sometimes with another market reach.
It is essential to work with persons sharing the same “WHY”/purpose for business events, and at the same time with persons we like and trust. We thus assembled a pool of experts, each on her/his field, bringing all the expertise and knowledge whenever a project requires the skills they can provide. Through this collaboration, through having a common goal or project and the same view and interests, we have also built our own little community cross-borders.
Now, we know establishing strong networks is nothing new under the sun. Certainly not! We have many examples of different alliances in our line of business, both at a European (Best Cities Global Alliance, Energy Cities Alliance, Hybrid City Alliance, The Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe, etc.) and a global scale (ICCA, for instance, has formalized several strategic collaborations with other organisations, such as UFI, ECM, WTO and AIPC). For many years, also the Joint Meeting Industry Council has been working and trying to give the business events industry one voice.
Although cities (countries) quite frequently compete for the same international business events, there are obvious advantages of close cooperation, such as joint activities, sharing knowledge and experiences, concrete business insights and using resources in a time and cost-effective manner.
So now it is our turn. We have already talked in several of our blogs about our great network of partners at 27Names. But we just can’t get enough.
Ivo Franshitz, together with Nina Erneker (former director Bratislava Convention Bureau), Romana Kluková (with a background from the PCO Guarant) and Henrik von Arnold (former director of Gothenburg and Stockholm Convention Bureaux) have now taken collaboration one step further. We have created an association called ACF – Audite, Cogitate, Facite – with us four as founders and with our main seat in Bratislava, Slovakia. We aspire to advise and support public entities, private organizations and entire destinations to reach their full potential using Business Events as a powerful tool for economic growth and destination development at large.
As dedicated Business Events Industry professionals, we see huge potential of Business Events as a tool for economic recovery and transformation in Slovakia and mainly in the “new Europe” (home of our new community). We aspire to create an independent, impartial and inclusive expert network to drive the collaboration of all involved industry stakeholders within the public, academic and commercial sectors.
ACF´s main assets are the multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral, international viewpoint, a professional 360° perspective, extensive experience, and last but not least, the passion for the Business Events Industry. And now comes the explanation for the posh Latin name: Listen (Audite), Think (Cogitate) and Do (Facite) are the three essential steps comprising the advisory process, which will deliver strategic road maps, tangible actions and a commitment to guide organizations or entire destinations throughout the whole journey including education, business events industry networking sessions facilitation or strategic decisions support.
So, you see: we have the purpose, the people, the expertise, the entity and the geographical location. Result: a new born community has been built, again, around collaboration.
European Business Events are experiencing big challenges while having the option of turning them into opportunities. ACF believes we can help dealing with the Next Normal, so let´s begin with the collaboration of all involved industry stakeholders.
And creating new networks within destinations!!
