Véronique De Hertogh, project coordinator, is involved in the day to day preparations for the Forum. Here’s her update.

Maison Vandenboer, the convention sentre caterer

Six months to go to the FERMA Forum. There’s a lot of planning involved to make an event this size successful. In late February, we went to the headquarters of Maison Vandenboer, the convention centre caterer, for a tasting. The selection we made was impressive, and I don’t remember eating so much! It was all in such small quantities.

We also took the time to review the different audio-visual proposals. This part of the Forum is hidden behind the curtains, but its role in making an event a success is critical. The website has been another of our challenges. We have worked on a completely new design which will provide some surprises.

The scientific committee, which is responsible for planning the working sessions of the Forum, is already well advanced with the programme. Over 15 workshops are more or less scheduled. It’s tricky but we try to arrange the timetable so that there aren’t obvious clashes in interest. We want as few disappointments as possible. I’m impressed with the range of subjects the national associations have come up with. Cyber risk and social media, for instance, are certainly topical. I would love to participate in the Ladies Lunch session: “Women in board rooms: a challenge for diversity?” Our goal is to have 40% women speaking in all our sessions. Will we reach those figures?

In the meantime, I need to wrap up the preliminary brochure before sending it to our printing house and preparing the distribution. I’m really excited to send out this first glance at the Forum.