ebx.lab

As an innovation workshop, it provides an agile and creative field of experimentation, enabling marketing and communication managers from different sectors to share ideas on strategic challenges in a protected setting and to jointly develop new solutions. The first ebx.lab 2023 will focus on all things process innovation.

Every successful business event depends on a multitude of complex background processes, involving a wide range of stakeholders and influencing factors. From strategic decisions about meeting concepts and design to managing destinations, service providers and the individual attendee experience, today more than ever, events are complex structures of interlocking processes and procedures that need to be orchestrated effectively.

Globally, business events are about to take yet another enormous development leap. Driven by new event technologies, big data, AI, blockchain or cloud computing, we are currently experiencing a transformation of processes and a rapid development of tools with which business events can be strategically aligned, planned and implemented.

• How are forward-thinking organisations and strategists using tools and technologies to redesign processes?
• Which ground-breaking applications are already showing us what the next generation of business events will look like?
• What future scenarios emerge when looking at new developments overall and which strategies do they suggest for organisations today?

• By enabling knowledge exchange among like-minded people, the ebx.lab supports attendees and their teams in their work and better prepares them for future challenges.

• Participating organisations are enabled to boost the position of events as part of their communication mix, to leverage unused potential and, ultimately, to make a valuable contribution to achieving management goals and the positioning of their brands.

• Innovation is based on collaboration and solutions that make a difference require more joint action than we currently see. The ebx.lab wants to be an independent platform for collective solutions and collective intelligence, to enable new ideas and a new way of thinking.

The ebx.lab is made up of several modules:

• An annual, innovative in-person event which, in addition to co-creating solutions, will focus on personal contact and informal exchange.

• A series of digital meet-ups to enable on-going discussions and co-learning in the peer group.

• A stable growing community that will become increasingly networked and is dedicated to the strategic development of business events.

• 14 September 2023, 3 to 4 pm CET
  Online meetup: getting to know each other and content speed dating
• 5 to 6 October 2023, start day 1 at 2 pm CET, end day 2 at 3 pm CET
  ebx.lab live, taking place near Frankfurt: joint development of testable solutions, discussions and know-how sharing in highly qualified peer groups
• 9 November 2023, 3 pm to 4 pm CET
  Online meetup: presentation and discussion of results

The ebx.lab will bring together a diverse mix of professionals who handle strategic issues around events, brands and brand experiences. Among them are decision-makers and thought leaders from the event, marketing and communication departments of leading companies, associations and other organisations that use events as effective instruments in their communication and brand management.

They will meet with strategy experts and executives from the service provider side, such as leading experts from destinations management organisations, event agencies, venues and hotels. More key expertise will be provided by research and development professionals from event technology, gaming, big data, human resources, education and start-ups contribute.

• Co-learning in a curated, highly qualified peer group in a safe space will open up new perspectives, promote inspiration and provide actionable know-how for you and your team.

• You will develop new solutions for the strategic challenges of your organisation in a networked and growing community.

• Equipped with a new mindset, you will be able to shape the future of business events, using synergies and collective intelligence.

• Step 1: We get to know each other and analyse current challenges in a highly skilled group of experts from various fields.
• Step 2: We work on understanding and classifying trends and future developments in new, cross-sector groups.
• Step 3: We develop solutions and different options for measures that can be applied in practice, considering a range of different perspectives and skills.
• Step 4: We apply our learnings individually in our own professional context to then discuss and evaluate the results and refine the solutions.

Meetings, conferences and congresses are platforms for the exchange of knowledge. They promote innovation and set essential impulses in business, science, politics and society. As one of the world's leading destinations for business events, Germany stands for innovative strength, sustainability and comprehensive expertise in key sectors of business and science. Strengthening this top position is one of the GCB's core tasks.

In 2015, the GCB founded the Future Meeting Space (FMS) innovation together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, with the aim of strengthening the role of business events as a driver of innovation and a key corporate communication tool. The ebx.lab builds on the FMS research findings and, through systematic co-creative processes, wants to provide a space for bold transformations and customised solutions in the changing ecosystem of business events.

Cost: EUR 599 € plus VAT (2-day event incl. travel with Deutsche Bahn and attending the online meetings).

Interested in taking part? Just contact our ebx.lab concierges Vanessa Sahler and Cindy Schöffmann!
Please note, the event language is German.