Groningen ©Peter Wiersema For the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) and Groningen Conventions, ISAF 2028 is a strategic opportunity to showcase a wider Netherlands scientific and innovation ecosystem, aligning with a national narrative of solving global challenges together, in an open, inventive and inclusive way. Groningen will be the host city, offering a compact, walkable centre where distances are short, cycling is the default, and the destination is immediately easy to operate in, and easy to enjoy. Add a youthful, international population and a strong knowledge base, and it becomes a persuasive setting for global scientific exchange.
Why Groningen, and Why this Community?
ISAF rotates between Europe, Asia and North America, returning to Europe every three years. The symposium often opts for smaller European destinations with a clear connection to the field, rather than defaulting to the largest capitals. Groningen matches that tradition as a distinctive, manageable, and academically credible city.
Backed by his supervisor, Prof. Beatriz Noheda, and fellow co-organizer Dr. Ewout van der Veer, Dr Martin F. Sarott, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Groningen’s Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, describes the destination pitch: “If you think Netherlands, you wouldn’t go to Groningen, but it’s very much worth the additional effort.” For delegates, he points to the practical benefits – “short distances” and “extremely good cyclability” – alongside the charm of a historic city with a strong student energy.
Accessibility strengthens the case. International participants will typically fly into Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and continue by direct train to Groningen in roughly two hours, which makes for simple logistics that support the country’s “easy to attend” promise.
From a Word Template to a Professional Partnership
The bidding process is a useful pre–case study in itself. Sarott is clear that the bid did not begin as a polished destination project: “I’m a postdoctoral researcher, not a permanent researcher at the University.” His supervisor, one of the Netherlands’ most established names in the ferroelectrics field, was approached after the edition in Austria, then involved Sarott and another postdoc to prepare a submission.
They started with what they had: a previous host’s bid materials, “basically a 10-page Word document”. Then they hit the questions that sit outside most researchers’ experience: hotel capacity, venue options, and the practicalities of staging a mid-sized international symposium. “I came across some questions like what is the hotel capacity of Groningen? And then I just didn’t know.”
That knowledge gap led them to Groningen Conventions. “I didn’t know that existed,” Sarott admits (an admission many convention bureaux hear more often than they would like). The impact, however, was immediate. Groningen Conventions brought local venue knowledge and destination know-how, and helped connect the team with NBTC. From there, a clear three-way working rhythm emerged (university organisers, Groningen Conventions and NBTC in regular meetings) until the bid book was “more and more professional and more and more refined”, culminating in the presentation in Austria.
The Decisive Advantage: Affordability
Cost was central to the selection committee’s thinking. Registration fees had been rising, making participation harder for students, which was a critical concern for a specialist scientific community.
Groningen came up with a practical response to host the symposium on the University of Groningen campus. The university gave the green light and “don’t charge us anything for using the university building,” Sarott says. Those savings created a credible pathway to lower registration fees and a more inclusive conference.
Inevitably, there was a challenge as the university’s largest auditorium seats around 425–450, short of the expected 600 participants. The bid therefore proposed an “overflow concept” using a second lecture room with a live-streamed plenary feed, a practical solution, cost-aware, and aligned with expectations around flexible participation.
A Netherlands Ecosystem with Groningen at its Centre
Although all sessions will be in Groningen, the organisers framed the effort as a national collaboration involving the University of Twente, with Prof. Gertjan Koster, and Eindhoven University of Technology, with Prof. Bart Macco. Sarott calls it “a kind of United Dutch bid with Groningen as the centre.” That matters because ferroelectrics connects directly to advanced electronics and semiconductor applications, fields where the Netherlands has both research depth and a strong record of translating science into industry.
The team’s ambition is to showcase not only academic quality, but also the Netherlands’ innovation pipeline: the spin-off companies that are created from that and a very vibrant business culture. In destination terms, it is a strong match for Groningen’s profile as a knowledge economy with visible entrepreneurship support on campus and a broader regional focus on tech-enabled solutions through Groningen Conventions key industries.
Early Delivery Priorities
With the bid secured, NBTC’s acquisition role is largely complete, while Groningen Conventions remains involved as a practical local partner, helping with venue touchpoints, social programme thinking and on-the-ground advice. The organising team has already begun sponsor outreach, IEEE web processes, room bookings and catering planning, while gradually expanding responsibilities to colleagues across Groningen, Twente and Eindhoven.
They are also designing the “in-between” moments that increasingly define conference value. Excursion ideas – cycling routes, the northern islands, historic settings – were included in the bid. Sarott was told afterwards that the selection committee “very much appreciated” that extra mile.
For the Netherlands, ISAF 2028 is a visibility moment that creates value. A mid-sized global scientific event won through collaboration, delivered with cost discipline, and rooted in an academic and innovation ecosystem that the Netherlands is ready to present to the world.
To learn more about the Netherlands as your next conference destination, visit www.holland.com/meetings