Brussels, 10 September 2018: Easyfairs, the Brussels-based event organiser and venue manager, has been nominated as one of five «Enterprise of the year® » finalists for 2018. Since 1996, this has been the most prestigious award “reserved exclusively for the absolute elite” of Belgian companies. On October 15, 2018 an independent jury of specialists will crown an enterprise that is distinguished by its will to create and innovate, but also by its sense of strategy and competition, its openness to the world and, of course, its exemplary management. The Award is sponsored by Ernst & Young in association with Belgium’s leading business newspaper, L’Echo, and BNP Paribas Fortis.
“With our mission to enable communities to “Visit the Future” and our “Real Life Social Media” approach, Easyfairs stands out as the reference exhibitions organiser and venues manager in Belgium and beyond,” commented Easyfairs Founder and Group CEO, Eric Everard. “We are all thrilled and delighted to have been selected as a finalist for this hugely prestigious award and look forward to taking part at the award ceremony.”
Since its creation 20 years ago, Easyfairs has been a veritable model of creative growth: 13% per annum, through the successful launch of new event brands, the development and geo-cloning of existing brands, and the acquisition of brands from other organisers. Easyfairs currently organises 218 events in 17 countries and manages exhibition halls in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. It now has 750 employees.
Easyfairs events give professional, industrial and consumer communities, as well as communities of interest such as collectors of modern art or comic fans a vision of their future; they facilitate direct contacts between members of the same community and offer them a truly transformative experience.
As is the case with many great entrepreneurial success stories, Easyfairs has identified and capitalised on an interesting trend that few expected. “The concept of Real Life Social Media has enabled us to push the live events business in new directions, and explore opportunities in a contemporary context,” explains Everard. “The need for direct, real life contact between economic actors has actually increased in line with the multiplication and globalisation of data and the rise of social media. But of course, the way in which people interact through these live events is constantly evolving.”
Easyfairs stands out through its culture of innovation, both in terms of the events it organises and the technological innovations that support its events and venues. Easyfairs has also developed a highly customer-centric approach, with communities driving its product development. The Easyfairs Academy supports talent development among its teams, through a number of innovative live event programmes and e-learning. And last but not least, Easyfairs has achieved stand-out organisational agility through the geo-cloning of event concepts, and the industrialisation of core processes across the Easyfairs network of offices.
“Events that bring communities together have, more than ever, a great future ahead of them, but only on condition that they put the customer at the centre of each decision and maximise the customer experience, which must be easy, sociable, innovative and transformative. And the use of new technologies must, more than ever, serve to facilitate this experience,” concludes Everard.
