When you’ve been working together for several years running, you know what the other person expects from you and what they need. That can work to your great advantage in the run-up to an event. That’s certainly the case between PBIG and Koninklijke Jaarbeurs. Earlier this year, PBIG organised the PowerBI User Days for the seventh time at the Jaarbeurs Supernova and Media Plaza conference venues. And once again, it was a success: the event attracts more visitors every year.
Jaarbeurs knows exactly what we want and need – and is able to deliver on that.Albert van Dok, Co-organiser of the Power BI User Days
The Power BI User Days is an annual three-day event where volunteers, dozens of speakers, partners and visitors come together to share knowledge and network. It has now grown into a community where people help, learn and inspire each other in the field of Power BI.
Unexpectedly many more entries
Precisely because the event grows so much every year, it seemed to get tense with the catering last edition. Organiser Jaap van den Brandhof found out that they would probably not have enough lunches during the busiest day. Indeed, just under 24 hours before the final day of the event, 200 more tickets turned out to have been sold. 'A few weeks in advance we pass on the lunch numbers so Jaarbeurs can take them into account. But now we had sold a lot of tickets last minute. Fortunately, we were able to increase this number without any problems. I can imagine that not every event venue offers that flexibility.'
Volunteers take on organisation
And it is precisely this flexibility and helpfulness of Jaarbeurs that PBIG is so pleased with. After all, the organising team of the PowerBi User Days is quite busy. Not only does organising a 3-day event of this magnitude require a lot of time, it is also organised entirely by a team of seven volunteers with full-time jobs. Thus Jaap says: "We are not an official event agency, we are a foundation. In other words, we don't organise events on a daily basis. It's nice that we can rely on the venue's expertise.'
Relying on someone else's expertise
Co-organiser Albert van Dok agrees and adds: 'We initially chose Jaarbeurs because of its central location. This is also nice for our international speakers, who come from more than 10 different countries. In addition, there are good rooms and facilities here. Actually, Jaarbeurs meets all our requirements. Yet it is their knowledge and expertise that make the difference. Jaarbeurs knows very well what we want and need - and can meet it.'
Facts & Figures
- Number of visitors/participants: over 900 unique visitors
- Visitors/participants come from: more than 10 different countries (the Netherlands, the US, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Germany, the UK and Italy)
- Venue and session rooms used: Media Plaza and Supernova (10 rooms in total)
- Aim of the meeting: sharing knowledge
- Special feature:
- The whole event runs on volunteers
- Growing in numbers every year
- Last ticket was sold at a little past 9am on Saturday (event started at 9am).
Connected with each other
‘Taking the pressure off’ is what the lads call it. As Jaap says: ‘Our account manager, Bas, has had the PowerBI User Days in his portfolio right from the start. It feels like his baby to him. We can easily liaise with him; he’s approachable and easy to get hold of. On the day itself, there’s a phone number you can call for all sorts of things. For example, if there’s an issue with the catering or technical matters regarding audiovisual aspects. And Bas always pops in to say hello. Even on a Saturday, which is probably his day off too. In fact, I seem to recall that last year he’d just had a baby boy just before the PowerBI User Days. He even popped in briefly with his little one. That really shows how committed he is.’
See you next year!
The Power BI User Group Foundation is delighted with its partnership with Jaarbeurs. If it were up to them, they would continue this collaboration for years to come. In fact, they’ve already secured a date for the next edition, in 2025. Do they ever consider moving to a different venue? Not really. As Jaap says: ‘There’s so much understanding here of what we want and expect. If we were to move to another venue, we’d be back to square one. Then we’d really be in for a struggle.’
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