To challenge the status quo and to reimagine the conventional congress format, MeetDenmark hosted a workshop with seven association leaders and event managers. To walk the talk, MeetDenmark employed an innovative and playful meeting format: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. The facilitation method is widely acclaimed for increasing participants' creative thinking and problem solving. Furthermore, the method is designed to help participants unlock new knowledge and ideas, which is necessary if we want to break habitual thinking. In a fun and creative format, the participants went through all processes of designing an impactful congress. 

The result was the creation of a LEGO® model (the shared model of the events of the future) that includes the most essential elements that will make a congress impactful both before, during and after. The elements were defined by the workshop participants and include everything from engaging meeting formats to new technologies. Below you can see an image of the model and all the elements build in LEGO®.

Agents of change with the power to disrupt

The participants were also asked to identify important agents of change that can affect or disrupt a congress either in a positive or negative way. The agents of change were all placed next to the model and the element that is most likely to be affected by it. The agents can both be external factors e.g., political instability, climate change and inflation but also important internal stakeholders such as the association members and board and staff of the event organiser.

A central agent of change, that has a huge potential to disrupt the future of in-person events, is 'Sofia'. Sofia represents the people that challenges the need to meet in-person and hereby questioning the why and how of congresses.

You can learn more about the model and the identified agents of changes by clicking on one of the videos below.