For those who do not yet know Alex; he has been working as an event manager at The Event Company for a year and a half now, can be recognized by his upbeat personality, and has been in the industry since he was young as a presenter, show director and producer.

Once started organizing and presenting tournaments within his sport, badminton, he rolled into a great career as an event manager. After completing the Entrepreneurship College in Haarlem, he started working in the logistics department of an acquaintance. At this time, military service was still a fact of life in the Netherlands and Alex was also in the last two official drafts. After the abolition of conscription, he started working at a collection agency. In the meantime, Alex continued to present events in sports; from premier league matches to European Championships, World Cups and Olympic Games. The step from sports events to business events was a small one and soon he was producing special events in both worlds.

"I didn't go into the events industry but rolled into it."

His portfolio is now one that includes creative concepts of brand activations during public events, corporate openings, sales events, full realization of trade show booths to anniversaries corporate parties.

And that diversity of clients, events, venues is what Alex loves most about organizing events. No two days are the same; one day you are presenting and the next day you are producing. Every day you are busy in a different way as an event manager, also with clients; some want to organize an event with a sales focus, others want to bring out the best in their guests and others have the goal of putting a smile on their guest's face.

"One day I was presenting on a stage, the next I was producing an event, or doing show direction."

Alex gets a smile on his face when he and an entire team are ready to receive guests for the event; this is the moment we have put all the time and energy into so far. Of course, during an event, he pays attention to how a client and his guests react. He watches body language during an event, for example, because even during an event things can be corrected or refined. But the very nicest thing is when the client calls him after the event and says, "we are going to do something different again, would you like to support us in this?"

In return, of course, you have to know how to make the right translation of the assignment your client has given you. So how do you, during all the conversations you have with each other, turn the idea into a catchy concept with all the materials and services available in our events industry. While producing, he always tries to sit in the guest's chair. "How would I prefer this to look, what do I want to give to my guest". In doing so, every moment of event production is a learning moment, because no two assignments or clients are the same. It is impossible to organize an event and set up exactly the same in a different location. This is because you always have outside influences, and you have to learn and improve from every event. This will improve yourself but also your services and your products.

"You really have to experience this profession."

Starting in this profession is putting in the hours Alex says. To gain experience and learn the trade by doing. Sure you learn part of the trade while studying but you really need to experience this trade by doing, seeing and undertaking. Invest your time in gaining experience at your local sports club, for example, or doing volunteer work. This will also help you build a network, something that is very important to be successful in this profession. It is also important to be creative, be patient and, above all, be very flexible. That flexibility is of course in private life because sometimes you don't know today what tomorrow will bring. That's the nice thing about the profession, otherwise you shouldn't be in this business Alex thinks, but that can also be difficult at times. But as long as you have passion for this profession and want to take on challenges, you're on the right track.

A lot has changed in the world of events. Where we thought we would be fully up and running by the end of 2022, we now see that it is harder work to achieve your goals. Achieving success today is more about long-term, or working out a plan with the client that spans a year or even longer. Also, not every industry is the same; in fact, within the same industry there can be significant differences. Reading the client's needs and understanding the brand must be done even more intensely and accurately to achieve the best results.

"I would like to produce Princess Amalia's wedding," he said.

Alex has had the opportunity to organize a wide variety of events but is still brimming with energy to add many to this list. When we ask him what he would still like to organize, he has to think for a long time. "This would have to be an event that has not yet been organized. For example, the wedding of Princess Amalia. Grand, creative, protocols and what the whole country is already looking forward to."