Royal Jaarbeurs: the friendly, sustainable and innovative host for all of the Netherlands. A place where you meet, inspire, learn and grow. We'd love to tell you what's going on at Jaarbeurs and how we do things. How? By getting to know our most valuable asset: our people. Mayen van Luttikhuizen kicks off.
Mayen van Luttikhuizen works in the Corporate Communications & PR department and is jointly responsible for Jaarbeurs's corporate brand marketing and content and campaign strategies. "Everything that touches the Jaarbeurs brand falls under our responsibility" she says. Her job is to ensure that organising Holland knows what is possible at Jaarbeurs. Among other things, she does this by setting up new campaigns and content strategies, sharing content, making business cases and measuring campaigns.
She is currently working on branding. Mayen: "We are concerned with how we position Jaarbeurs as a brand and how we want to be recognised. Jaarbeurs has three brand pillars: sustainable, friendly and innovative. But saying it and radiating it, those are two things. And that's what's so great about our brand pillars: they fit seamlessly with how we are as Jaarbeurs. We don't shout 'from above' that we should behave like this. You just feel it when you're with us. Everything we do and every choice we make is in line with our brand pillars."
"Our brand pillars align seamlessly with who we are."
Brand pillars are expressed in different ways. For example, Mayen recently travelled miles to analyse the signing around Jaarbeurs. "We are working a lot on the physical customer journey. How do our visitors find the right routes, how are they welcomed and what does it look like there? We used to call it hospitable, but it's more than that. That's why we changed it to friendly."
And while she appreciates the mile-long walks, it is also in her nature to think from an online perspective. "I am always looking for ways to improve the digital customer journey. You have to be where your customers are, and not the other way around. Since working here, I have built many dashboards and made sure everything runs smoothly online. You also have to realise that you have to move with your customers. What is really needed?"
That turned out to be being able to book a space easily. Mayen: "You shouldn't be tied to office hours. You should be able to book when and where you want." And with that in mind, an online booking tool for the MeetUp meeting centre was developed and launched last year. "Now you can literally book a room anywhere on the go from your mobile. You can see availability, costs, catering, audiovisual resources, etc. here. Everything you need for your meeting is booked directly in our system. And that is quite innovative in our market, because usually you get a call afterwards to find out whether the room is available or not. Not with us. You book your meeting directly in our agenda."
"The online booking tool is hugely innovative. You book directly in our calendar."
With the tool, she hopes to go a step further in putting Jaarbeurs 's conference and meeting centre on the map. It is a challenge because there are still event managers or marketers who do not know that Jaarbeurs has a conference and meeting centre. Mayen: "Everyone knows Jaarbeurs from the Vakantiebeurs, BouwBeurs, State of Trance, Dutch Comic Con and KreaDoe. It might also be in our name: JaarBEURS. After all, the big events that attract attention are often fairs or concerts. It is still a challenge to ensure that external visitors and organisers understand that you can also hold meetings or organise congresses and galas at Jaarbeurs. But it is a challenge that I will enjoy taking on in the coming years. Because if there is something I like, it is to see how refreshingly Jaarbeurs handles new ideas. We are a big organisation, and at the same time we are not. If you have a good plan, and you step up to our director, you also get a fair chance."
Photos: Michiel Ton
Read more stories from our employees at werkenbij.jaarbeurs.nl
