After working for the European Health Management Association, where she successfully developed a portfolio of sustainable events and other revenue generating activities, Nadia Rubtsova decided it was time to make a bigger impact. In 2020, she founded the “Business & Events Academy”, an online platform that provides continuous personal and professional education through training and coaching for the association professionals and the event business owners.
Email Nadia here
Juanita Vorster
Juanita Vorster’s experience working with associations in various disciplines stretches over almost a decade. She combines this experience with the lessons she continues to learn as successful entrepreneur and non-executive director to provide highly practical and jargon free advice to association directors, executives and senior managers.
Juanita is also the founder of a company that specialises in outsourced communication services for associations.
Email Juanita here.
Renata Lerch
Renata Lima Lerch, a hands-on leader with international experience in Fortune 500, consulting, advertising agency and not-for-profit associations. She has managed global marketing and market development teams for over 20 years, delivering programs in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. She has created transformational customer engagement initiatives using methodologies such as Design Thinking and Agile. Renata is the founder of Integrated Niche, a global and Agile Marketing think tank.
Email Renata here
IVO J. FRANSCHITZ
Since 1999, Ivo has been involved with a number of national and international educational institutions, and sharing his knowledge and experience through a variety of speaking engagements.
Currently he holds a Board member position with Event Marketing Board Austria (EMBA) and with LiveCom Alliance. He served as a Committee member of PCMA as well as being an active member of ICCA and 27 names.
He owns a Master degree in International Marketing and his early career includes Senior Marketing and Management positions in the business events industry.
Email Ivo here
Bade Kızılaslan
Bade Kızılaslan is a communication and public relations specialist with experience in associations and news media. She develops communication strategies for associations. These strategies include social media management, membership engagement, partnerships with peer organisations, managing press relations and organising promotional events. Driven by a passion for communication and storytelling, she founded Pera PR & Communication Consultancy to provide outsourced services to associations. She is currently in charge of communication and events of a Brussels based trade association.
Email Bade here.
Mike van der Vijver
Mike has almost 25 years’ experience in the meeting industry, initially as conference interpreter and subsequently as Meeting Designer through Mindmeeting, the company he co-founded. In addition, he is an executive consultant and coach on national and organisational culture. Mike regularly provides content at international conferences. Furthermore, Mike was also a former member of the board of the Italian Chapter of MPI, a former member of Itim, the Institute for Training in Intercultural Management and former Board member of Congrestolkensecretariaat (Conference Interpreters) of Amsterdam. He lives both in Italy and the Netherlands.
Contact Mike here.
Genevieve Leclerc
Geneviève has 23 years of experience in congress management and consultancy for associations. She works as a facilitator, speaker and trainer with the association meetings industry. She’s passionate about applying design thinking and lean startup practices to accompany organizations through innovation, and her most recent work focuses on achieving greater social impact. When off work, she’s an avid sailor who holds a Yachtmaster Offshore certification.
Email Genevieve here.
Eric de Groot
His pioneering work started in 1992; now he caters to the national (Dutch) market in De Wet van Thomas and internationally in MindMeeting. Thanks to his background in drama he takes a broad, human perspective to meetings and meeting processes. Eric regularly conducts workshops and learning sessions for professionals in the meeting industry as well as in other educational contexts. Eric was also a former member of the MPI task force: “The Future of Meetings”. He lives in the Netherlands.
Email Eric here.