We had the pleasure to organize our Annual General Meeting in Barcelona on June 15-18, 2022, and meet with our members and sponsors for an inspiring few days of meetings and social activities.
Our global network traditionally meets twice a year: for their Annual General Meeting and a more informal Get Together, each time in a different location around the world and hosted by a local member company. While early this year the pandemic still managed to – temporarily – thwart our original plans for the AGM to take place at a different location, we quickly pivoted the meeting to sunny Barcelona, Spain for early summer.
At this meeting we welcomed 70 of our members and partners for three days of meetings and leisure, including a fun-filled paella cooking challenge for team building. This time it was the freshly opened Nobu Hotel Barcelona that hosted our event and our guests for the duration of the Annual General Meeting.
The Board of the AV Alliance, 2022
From left to right: Peter Müller (Special Effects), Alexander Ostermaier (Neumann&Müller), Simon Ackermann (Habegger), Matt Emerson (AVFX & CEAVCO), Martin Blanchard (Expert’Ease)
The Annual General Meeting serves as the official evaluation of the previous year’s activities within the AV Alliance, as well as the presentation of the financial status and spendings of the organization, which is then formally approved by the members in accordance with Swiss law. The two meeting days also include presentations by our sponsoring partners, as well as updates from all the present members on their current activities, and inspiring keynotes centered around subjects like leadership and teamwork.
The first in-person AGM since 2019 was hosted by General Manager Artur Kovacs, and was also the first for new member companies that joined us since last year’s virtual meeting: Conference Services from Ireland, Iceland-based Luxor, and PSP representing Birmingham, UK. We also got to meet our newest Platinum Sponsor Let’s Get Digital, represented by Partnership Director Ruben Haring. Just like with our recent AV Alliance Academy, Let’s Get Digital once again provided their virtual platform for the AGM, allowing those of our members who were unable to join us in person to tune into the two meeting days remotely. Let’s Get Digital also provided us with their event app and badges. Technical support for the meeting was supplied by our local member company, Cymatic.
At last year’s AGM the network elected four members of the AV Alliance Board, namely Simon Ackermann (Habegger), Matt Emerson (AVFX & CEAVCO), Martin Blanchard (Expert’Ease) and Alexander Ostermaier (Neumann&Müller). This year the fifth position in the Board was up for Election as Chairman Peter Müller’s (Special Effects) term expired. Members of the AV Alliance have unanimously re-elected Peter Müller for yet another term, and the Board officially requested him to continue with his duties as Chairman of the organization.
AV Alliance 2022
The takeaway of the two meeting days was an overwhelmingly positive outlook on the near future in terms of business opportunities and events returning – and in cases surpassing – that of prior to the global pandemic. Besides sharing great stories and inspiring solutions to certain issues, e.g. labor shortage, our members and sponsoring partners have also attended a number of different workshops during the AGM to collectively brainstorm new and actionable ideas to tackle challenges they all face in organizational management and business development.
To promote different, and sometimes out-of-the-box ways of thinking in terms of leadership and teamwork, we invited two keynote speakers of very different backgrounds and styles: ICF Executive Coach Csaba Toth (ICQ Global) joined us on June 16 to deliver a fantastic presentation on future-proofing organizations in a fast-paced, multicultural world, while Corporate Mentalist & Master Coach Ramon Fauria closed the official meeting part of the AGM on June 17 with a highly interactive and thought-provoking session that explored the power of influence, communication, talent, performance and wellness in business and in everyday life.
Paella Challenge – courtesy of Zaki Mustapa, Cantuman Wawasan
Of course the meetings of the AV Alliance always place as much emphasis on networking and building connections in a light-hearted, class reunion-style setting as it does on discussing enhancing business opportunities. This year’s AGM kicked off on June 15 with a welcome dinner at the world-famous Nobu Restaurant, with a spectacular 360° view of Barcelona’s skyline at night as the backdrop to our long-awaited reunion. Whereas on the last day, June 18 our group took part in a fantastic Paella Challenge provided by ROC35, a local company that specializes in MICE events, gastronomic workshops and recreational and participatory culinary events. The group was divided into teams, each aiming to create the perfect, most delicious, and most attractive paella dish with great success.
Barcelona is a city with a lot of heart and soul, relaxed and hospitable Catalan mentality, sunshine, and exceptional cuisine, and proved to be the perfect host of a last-minute event that ended up an unforgettable experience for all of our members and partners.
Moltes gràcies per tot, Barcelona!