“What’s useful about coming to an event like this is the overview that you get from different people from various sectors – what they’re doing and what’s happening in other areas of the industry. It’s always very interesting as an architect to hear the concerns of people operating venues, as well as those concerned with marketing and revenue generation. By attending this summit, I’ve really got to understand different people’s agendas, and what really matters to them and the way that they operate.”
Mark Foley, Principal, Burrell Foley Fischer LLP, UK

“The summit has been absolutely fantastic – it’s very good for us to meet with other people, to see what they are doing, to talk about their successes and to learn from their mistakes. The networking has also been superb and I just hope now you will consider holding the summit in our new conference centre in Reykjavik, Iceland when it opens in 5 years!”
Thorhallur Vilhjalmsson, Marketing/PR Manager, The Icelandic National Concert and Conference Centre

“As a representative of a major cultural centre in Lisbon, AES has been very useful to me, as it has given me the opportunity to discover the major trends in the management of entertainment facilities, including making the greatest use of the latest technologies to boost revenue. We’ve also made some contacts that can provide us with further help in this area.”
Ana Isabel Trigo Morais, general director, Cultural Centre Belem, Lisbon, Portugal

“I found the whole of AES to be exceptionally useful – coming from Australia, it’s a big effort to have to come all this distance, but as far as this conference is concerned, it was definitely worth it. The visit to the O2 was particularly inspirational –to see what can be done with this sort of facility and to discover so many similarities on the financial and technical side has been a real eye opener for me.
Rodney Phillips, General Manager, His Majesty’s Theatre

“I found it very useful: I run a cultural complex in Hungary with a concert hall, theatre and museum, and I have got some very fresh ideas as a result of attending, particularly with regard to how to attract people to come to your venue all through the year.”
Andras Csonka, deputy general manager, Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary

“I felt the mix of presenters and the whole concept overall was very good – it just offers so much in terms of ideas, innovations and creativity. The quality and variety of speakers is very good – we’ve heard from theatres smaller than ourselves, as well as the major performing arts centres.”
Fergal Keniry, Business Development Manager, Cork Opera House, Ireland

“I’ve found it extremely useful and really, really interesting. I don’t think we found that we wasted any time at any point – it was all high-quality speakers and relevant topics and I think the conference was very successful in finding common issues across this very diverse industry. Even though we run a contemporary music venue, we have issues in common with more traditional venues and we’ve suddenly found that we’re actually part of a larger family, which was great!
Malene Lei Raben, Managing Director, VEGA, Copenhagen, Denmark