Breaking out of our habitual way of doing things is not easy; perhaps it's due to our aversion to risk, a lack of imagination, or simply a lack of resources. No matter what, change is hard and is even more challenging for complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships like the one formed to bring together an event. This is a story on how the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method (LSP) has been strategically leveraged to foster innovation and drive meaningful change within the events industry. The event industry is a substantial economic sector that encompasses from small meetings to massive congresses and is valued at billions of euros.

The Challenge: Reimagining Events Format – Pioneering Congresses of Tomorrow

The pandemic has severely disrupted the industry, and everyone was trying to understand what lies ahead. Just as soon as the confinements were over, I finally met in person with the brilliant Bettina Reventlow-Mourier, Deputy Convention Director and Head of Congress at Wonderful Copenhagen. Over good food and wine - the second-best way, after LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP), to generate new ideas - we discussed the future of congresses in the post-COVID era. It became clear that we needed to reimagine events, breaking away from traditional formats to make them more engaging, sustainable, and impactful. We set the challenge for making this happen, but with one catch: if we were to change event formats, we also had to break away from the habitual way of engaging in dialogue and driving change.

Now that we had the challenge, we needed an innovative method, a sponsor, a stage to share our vision and a lot of creativity.

·     The Method: We took a leap of faith in the LSP and reached out to the Association of Master Trainers to help us understand the method. It was clear to us that LSP, as a scientifically based facilitated thinking, communication and problem-solving technique , was a perfect fit for our purpose.

·     The Sponsor: Meet Denmark, the national business tourism organisation of Denmark, which took the leap of faith to invest in the quest of “Pioneering the Congresses of Tomorrow” with LSP and commissioned me to run the project.

·     The Stage: The Association Leaders Forum at the IBTM World 2022 edition, the annual expo of the events industry, provided the perfect stage to engage the industry in a meaningful conversation to reimagine congresses.

We trusted the method, and the method kept us in a state of flow, often taking us out of our comfort zone to overcome challenges and find creative solutions.

With a clear vision and method, our challenge was the limited time allocated for our session at the IBTM World Association Leaders Forum. While there is good material on how to use LSP in big events, we took a different angle. An event does not start or end on the day it is taking place. We organised a one-day LSP workshop a month before the Forum. Seven association and event leaders from all around the world gathered in Copenhagen with the challenge of creating the landscape of the events of the future. They presented their model on the day of the Forum, and we asked people to reflect on the landscape, completing it by building their models. 

Both the LSP workshop and the event were huge successes, and people experienced the change that was needed in the industry. So, now what? What can we do as an industry to make this happen? Meet Denmark decided to pursue the project and delve deeper into the elements of future landscape events. But which element mattered the most?

To address the challenge of selecting one key element, we considered utilising the model as a survey tool. We created the Meet Denmark Future Lab at the “PCMA Convening EMEA 2023” event, another major industry event, to showcase the landscape model, share its stories with attendees, and ask them what, in their opinion, is the most important aspect to explore further. Based on their answers, we organised a second LSP workshop with association and event leaders, focusing on the challenge of understanding what makes an event moment magical and identifying factors that can hinder or enhance it. We compiled and published the results in the report The Eight Building Blocks of Magic, outlining the key building blocks for creating truly magical and transformative congress experiences. 

We demonstrated that change is necessary and possible, and we created new knowledge on how to reimagine events format. But how could we streamline change and create even more value for the Sponsor MeetDenmark and its members' destinations?

There is a popular saying, “Give a fish, feed for a day. Teach to fish, feed for life. Help them start a fishery, and you transform the whole village.” 

We captured all the knowledge and practices into a toolbox and trained Meet Denmark and its members Convention and Visitors Bureau CVB i.e. Copenhagen Convention Bureau, Copenhagen Legacy Lab, Visit Aarhus, Destination Nord, and Destination Fyn) in a LSP Facilitator training and built their capacity to integrate LSP method in their business practices for product development, leads and sales generation, and optimising event experience within their destination.

The member destinations are now using this method to build a shared understanding with their local ecosystem about the region's event product. Helping reach and match with new clients and designing and delivering better congresses together. The Copenhagen Convention Bureau has already launched its first workshop in 2025 to redesign association and destination partnerships. Other Danish CVBs have also planned LSP with their local ecosystem and event organisers and we hope to have soon the first results of the impact of using the LSP in improving communication, understanding and business.

The story of change would not be complete without mentioning the changes within me. Since embarking on the original challenge, I discovered the magic of LSP; I became a certified facilitator, opening a whole new area of professional activity and engaged in intellectually stimulating and inspiring projects for diverse communities. I also discovered a wonderful country and its truly unique culture and people.

So yes, change is possible, and it starts with the way we choose to meet. For more information about the project send email to Stelios

Special thanks to Robert Rasmussen for his training, guidance and support throughout the project. Jesper Grenaa and Peter Dyhr Andreassen from Meet Denmark for their trust and work; without them, the project would not have been possible. To Kristiansen, Jesper Jensen, and Dominik Rinnhofer for their support with the LSP workshops, and to the esteemed experts who joined the workshops and events.