Wow, it’s back on: Embrace Growth 2024. And what a fantastic day it was! Over 250 leisure professionals gathered at Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem, where the day was kicked off by chairman Merlijn Pietersma and our COO, Maureen Ilboga.
Because what is Embrace Growth really about, and how is this vision expressed within Booking Experts?
At Booking Experts, we don’t believe in the status quo. Things can always be better, faster, and safer. That’s why it’s so important to keep developing and growing. Our knowledge event, Embrace Growth, embodies this vision and is the perfect place to look ahead with the entire leisure industry, share knowledge, and explore the possibilities for the future.
After Maureen and Merlijn were introduced, the stage was set for Richard van Hooijdonk. This futurist and trend watcher took us at breakneck speed into the future, where leisure will play an increasingly important role. He also highlighted the countless possibilities that AI brings and outlined how to prepare your team and company culture for what’s ahead. His advice? Keep investing and experimenting.
"Because of the 'chaining', a recreation company is forced to take risks financially."
The statement sparked an interesting discussion during the roundtable session. Rutger commented:
"The big chains have a lot more financial resources and can easily build a complete swimming paradise from scratch. As a smaller company, we don’t have to rely on that, but can distinguish ourselves in other areas, such as creative concepts, personal identity, and agility. There is a separate target audience for both types of businesses."
In addition, Richard adds "As a recreation business, you have to keep investing anyway; this isn’t necessarily because of the chains. You may be competing more with other small businesses than with the big chains – they really have a different target group."
Jochem van de Weg, Rutger van de Maat, Richard Otten, Iris Stolwijk and Wietze Bootsma each shared their views during the roundtable session.
Embrace attracts a wide audience, from Dutch holiday parks and international resorts to rental organisations, software developers, and journalists. To offer a programme suitable for every guest, we introduced subsessions this year. Divided over two rounds, attendees could choose from a variety of topics, including Dynamic Pricing, OTA Deployment, Process Optimisation, Branding, and Data-Driven Marketing.
One of Embrace’s main pillars is knowledge sharing and collaboration. That’s why a good networking reception, where guests can exchange ideas, is an essential part of the event. This year, we ended the day with a delicious culinary journey provided by Burgers’ Zoo.
We proudly look back on a successful day, where the leisure industry came together to inspire one another and share knowledge. What a fantastic industry to work in!
This was Embrace 2024 ⤵️
Melanie
