Organising an entire event for 10,000 employees in about three weeks. Impossible, you might say. And yet Rabobank did it. In honour of its 125th anniversary, everything was pulled out for an immense party at Royal Dutch Jaarbeurs. How they managed this in such a short time? Event manager at Rabobank, Hester Wilms reveals: 'Mutual trust in each other.'
'Twice before, we have organised an employee festival at Rabobank. In doing so, we have a set concept, which we develop together with our events agency HDVP Events,' says Hester Wilms, Event Manager. 'The festival takes place on our own campus with acts by our own employees. We will also be behind the bar ourselves. This year, we wanted to celebrate the 125th anniversary with the employee festival.'
With only a few weeks left on the clock, the festival was practically in the can. Until the moment of ticket sales. Paul van Stempvoort, owner of HDVP Events: 'Within half an hour, all four thousand tickets were sold out! There was so much enthusiasm for it, everyone wanted to celebrate Rabobank's 125th anniversary, we had to come up with an alternative.'
Lines were thrown out at Jaarbeurs and miraculously that date turned out to be free. From that moment on, the core team, consisting of Hester, Paul, Jan van den Elshout and several volunteer Rabobank colleagues on the one hand and parties Dutch Matters, Boozed, The Food line-up, AVEX and of course the Jaarbeurs on the other hand, worked working days of up to 13 hours a day. And even then, it was getting on. But despite the deadline weighing heavily on everyone's shoulders, no one hesitated. Not Jaarbeurs, not Rabobank, not HDVP Events and not the other parties.
Hester: 'We really trusted each other. There is no time to discuss everything or dwell on anything for a long time. Of course, we also got to the point where we looked at each other and thought: will this work? Yet everyone remained calm and confident.'
Paul gets a smile and says: "There was such a tremendous drive in the team to produce something great. And our contacts at Jaarbeurs, Jasper and Hidde, were very productive. We couldn't have done it without them. They organise so much behind the scenes, without us actually knowing about it, so that we can do what we want.
Hester looks back on the cooperation with Jaarbeurs: 'Their team thinks along nicely and knows when to help. For example, I was given a rental agreement with legal terms. Jasper took his time and guided me through it perfectly. At times like that, you notice that you are dealing with a skilled team.'
And then it's all over after three weeks of hard work. Anyone who was near Jaarbeurs on 14 December could not have failed to notice. Paul: 'For 45 minutes, a ribbon of 10,000 people walked from Rabobank to Jaarbeurs for the festival. That was so cool to see!'
When asked how they look back on the day, they start beaming. Paul: 'It was madness. Everyone from the organisation was as proud as a peacock. The atmosphere was tremendously good. Hester adds: 'This was really only possible with the right people. People who knew exactly what to do and dared to cut knots.'
Among other things, she refers to the only stress moment of the evening. Due to a glitch in the IT system of the locker supplier, they did not work. Paul adds: 'People couldn't get the locker open as a result. But there was an influx of 10,000 people. Jaarbeurs quickly identified the problem and set about finding a solution.
They have a tight communication schedule. The right puppet has a walkie-talkie and communication was smooth. A few cloakrooms turned out not to be in use, which we were able to deploy. And staff were pulled from everywhere to man them. Those were a few calls into the walkie-talkie. It was a stress moment, but how this was resolved was top-notch.'
Paul and Hester look back on the festival enthusiastically. Hester: 'It was fantastic to do this. I've been organising events for 20 years, but this was really by far the biggest. And apart from the lockers, everything went well. That was really due to mutual trust in each other. It really makes me realise: if you have trust that things will work out, why do we sometimes take 2 years to develop a product, when we can do something this big in three weeks?'
Number of visitors/participants: 10,000
Visitors/participants come from: all over the Netherlands
Location used + session rooms: Hall 7,8,9 and 10
Purpose of the event: 125th anniversary celebration
Special feature: organised within 3 weeks
Account and event manager Jannemarije
Do you have a cool idea for an event or trade fair? We have the space, knowledge and passion for your event. I would be happy to tell you more about all the possibilities at our event location in Utrecht.
ejaarbeursbeurs.nl +31(0)30 295 5023
