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You are regarded as a leadership expert but you describe yourself as an "information contextualiser". What do you mean by that term?
We live in a time when there is plenty of information available - just go to Google. It is not a shortage of information that people struggle with, but rather with accessing the right and relevant information they need. I find relevant information for clients and deliver it to them in a format that they can use to develop their business.

What path led you to this line of work? What is your working life like?
23 years ago I started researching effective organisations and the people that lead them and I still spend about twenty percent of my year doing research. People ask me to share my research and what I see as the trends in the world at the moment. So I speak, write, advise, sit on boards of organisations and assist where I can, based on what I study and what I know.
 

How many meetings do you attend a year?
I spend a great deal of my life in meetings, at conferences and events... too much to add up.

What have been the biggest challenges for the meetings industry in the past ten years?
There have been a number of things that have changed all at once in the last ten years. Probably the biggest is the need to prove return on investment for meetings, but also technology has had a big impact and of course sustainability has been a big pressure on this industry.

Do you think that further changes in technology, like better internet applications, will ultimately make traditional, face to face meetings obsolete?
Technology adds a new dimension to the meetings industry and allows our meetings to reach a wider audience. People will still attend [traditional] meetings because people want and like to meet face to face. So meetings have to embrace technology but at the same time organisers have to recognise the importance of adapting their meeting to make it relevant to those that attend. This means changing some of our approaches and it probably also means that there have to be fewer presentations and more discussions.

You attended the Conventa event in Ljubljana in January. Have you been to Slovenia before?
No, I had never been to Slovenia before. My stay was very short but I enjoyed it and I plan to return later in the year.

What impression did the country leave on you?
My impression was mixed. There is obviously an older population and some of them seem very set in their ways and are probably struggling with the changes that are happening. Then there is a young dynamic group of people desperate to learn and grow, hungry for knowledge and wanting to do something in a changing world. Most people were exceptionally friendly and welcoming.

What's your first impression of Slovenia's meetings industry?
Hungry to learn and desperate to grow. Probably trying too hard to catch up with the world instead of reinventing themselves in some way.
 

Can you explain that a bit more?
It's difficult to answer because I was only in Slovenia for 36 hours and wasn't able to stay for the whole show. But I was struck by the way the people I met were really willing to learn and obviously focused on growing their market and their business. I got the feeling they were trying to learn what everyone else was doing, what other countries are doing and looking for best practice ideas. The trouble with that is that copying others is like playing catch-up; it means you are always behind. If you are defining who you are and discovering the best of who you can be, then you are reinventing yourself and you have the potential to be amazing.

In your speech at Conventa you mentioned that the meetings industry is too segmented. Did you also notice this in Slovenia?
I was not there long enough to comment on this, but the fact that politicians, venues, planners, tourism, media, airlines and so on are not working in synchronisation and are not creating a joint plan for Slovenia probably means that it is segmented. A visitor to Slovenia should have a seamless experience from arriving at the airport to fly to Slovenia, to the hotel, the venue, the shopping, the restaurant and the flight home. That would be amazing.