Last week I wrote a nice article about Nice, Hong Kong and about my very own home town - Antwerp. What do these cities have in common, you might wonder. Well, I’ll tell you. From the mid 80s till the late 90s, people were looking full of admiration to three convention bureaux that were doing well all over the world. Even better, they were top-class when it came to communication and promotion. Nice had the wonderful Acropolis convention centre, which opened in 1984, with ‘grande dame’ Jacqueline Pietri. Antwerp had the Antwerp Convention Bureau (founded in 1982) together with the GOM (Regional Development Company) and director Agnes Steenssens. Finally, Hong Kong had a wonderful convention centre at the harbour - HKCEC, which opened in 1988.
At the time, those cities were ‘hot’ because they were managed in a particular way. Afterwards, they rested on their laurels… Until now! But in Nice, a little new meeting flower is blossoming at the Boulevard des Anglais; in Hong Kong another saucer has started twirling on a little stick in the ‘Fragrant Harbour’ and Antwerp had almost found its diamond gloss again… Unfortunately, Inge Van Gaal (see photo), who’s the present director of the Antwerp Convention Bureau, has said goodbye to her ‘cake town’. That’s the reason why I’ve had to wipe away a tear on Leap Day, February 29. It’s a pity. The waiter she introduced (see photo) is still holding open his dish but Inge is no longer in it. Maybe she’s having another dish now?
When I interviewed her in August 2006, she gave me a nice metaphor of a city as a waiter: ‘Service should receive the full attention in a city. That’s why I like to use the image of the ‘waiter’. A man or woman who meets visitors with a natural smile and sets them at ease, and who serves them ‘friendliness’ above all. All the other things we already have in abundance anyway.’
At the time, those cities were ‘hot’ because they were managed in a particular way. Afterwards, they rested on their laurels… Until now! But in Nice, a little new meeting flower is blossoming at the Boulevard des Anglais; in Hong Kong another saucer has started twirling on a little stick in the ‘Fragrant Harbour’ and Antwerp had almost found its diamond gloss again… Unfortunately, Inge Van Gaal (see photo), who’s the present director of the Antwerp Convention Bureau, has said goodbye to her ‘cake town’. That’s the reason why I’ve had to wipe away a tear on Leap Day, February 29. It’s a pity. The waiter she introduced (see photo) is still holding open his dish but Inge is no longer in it. Maybe she’s having another dish now?
When I interviewed her in August 2006, she gave me a nice metaphor of a city as a waiter: ‘Service should receive the full attention in a city. That’s why I like to use the image of the ‘waiter’. A man or woman who meets visitors with a natural smile and sets them at ease, and who serves them ‘friendliness’ above all. All the other things we already have in abundance anyway.’Inge, I hope that your successors can live up to this image in the future, because Antwerp deserves its spot on the international meetings globe. You leave behind a waiter who could only open his dish for 65 degrees, but when will I be able to see Antwerp like it was in the 90s: open at 90 degrees, in all its splendour? I will look out of my window every day to see if a wind of change is blowing, even if I have to turn my neck 180 degrees for it.
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