Far and away the most conferences at MECC Maastricht are initiated and organised by third parties. These third parties are highly diverse in nature. Why did they choose MECC Maastricht as a venue, or Maastricht as a destination? We’ll let them tell you themselves!
Professor Albert Twijnstra, European Association Neuro-Oncology
“If you have to decide where to hold a conference, you make a list of demands beforehand. We wanted:
1. the location to be easily accessible.
2. for conference rooms to be flexible and well designed.
3. The support services to be of excellent quality.
4. and last but not least, the people with whom we work have to be experts in their field, flexible, interested, friendly and reliable.
MECC Maastricht more than meets these requirements. And then there's the gorgeous city of Maastricht, with its variety of good hotels and excellent connection to the conference location.
We found the choice an easy one. We organised our first conference at MECC Maastricht in 1994. We've chosen MECC Maastricht once more in 2010."
Gerrit Jan Carsjens, International Study group on Multiple Uses of Land Wageningen, the Netherlands (ISOMUL)
“We look back to the conference we organised for landscape architects and planners at MECC Maastricht with a great deal of pleasure. We choose MECC Maastricht because of its interesting location and facilities, which include the MECC Maastricht halls hotels, as well the hotels, the city's cultural history and surrounds.”
Arian Meyer, Netherlands – South Africa Exchange (UNSA)“We chose MECC Maastricht because we wanted to grow in a professional sense, and so we wanted a professional location for our conference. Our previous conferences had been held at Maastricht University. MECC Maastricht's employees were so involved and service-oriented; they made it a positive experience. It was an enjoyable collaboration. Our questions were answered immediately and they worked flexibly alongside us.Choosing the city of Maastricht was naturally first determined by our collaboration with Maastricht University and the fact that Maastricht is also at the heart of Europe. After all, visitors from across the world come to our conference and Maastricht is easy to reach. We have also noticed that a city like Maastricht gives a conference a head start over other conferencing cities. It is an appealing, old city and it is an open, international city, where it's fun to go out. It has a lot to offer conference visitors that other cities do not.”
Peter Niesink, Director of the Dutch Association for Psychiatry (NVvP)
NVvP Annual Conference
"Our conference was a great success this year. We received 2,600 individual visitors, 95% of whom were estimated to be psychiatrists or psychiatrists in training. We therefore more than met our objective.
Our choice of venues was limited due to the content of our conference; MECC Maastricht was able to provide the space and facilities necessary to organise it. MECC employees inherently know what kind of assistance and support we needed to get the conference on the right track. We are not au fait with organising events and so they became our eyes and ears and provided advice when it was needed. MECC employees provided professional and pleasant cooperation right from the initial setting out our agreements in contracts to the last hour of the conference. For every challenge, they found a solution, which they provided quickly and with an eye for detail and our visitor’s needs. Subcontractors brought in by MECC, such as the caterers Maison van den Boer and audio-visual specialists Houben, also operated in the same pleasant manner.
I found the involvement of MECC's management particularly noteworthy. At other venues, management rarely shows up. But at MECC Maastricht, Rene Hanssen and Madeleine van der Heijden regularly came to ask how things were running and were clearly involved."
One final thing worth mentioning is the city of Maastricht itself. This wonderful city provides all the hospitality you could ever need. It has terrific restaurants, comfortable hotel accommodation, and has a charming character. We’ve noted that our visitors also enjoy this aspect of the conference and then often attend several days in a row. All in all, Maastricht, the MECC, and its employees are a breath of fresh air! We would be more than happy to return."
Tenth Anniversary Congress "I received rousing applause from the public in response to my acknowledgement speech when concluding our tenth anniversary conference. I mentioned you in my thanks. We are a small organisation, but received the same service, friendliness, expertise, and cooperative attitude, that we generally expect to only be given to larger organisations. This was made obvious during the orientation meetings, which were welcoming, expert, and collaborative, yet without being pushy. This quickly convinced us. It also appealed to us that many special events are held at MECC Maastricht at both the regional and international level. In our experience, Maastricht is a city that appeals to everyone and is closer that most people think. Maastricht is well-known as a city to be enjoyed. It has elegance, history, culture, and welcomes its visitors with open arms. We knew we were assured regional culinary delights at our anniversary celebration at Fort Sint Pieter; we were proffered all kinds of regional and international dishes, a wonderful ambiance, and a view of the beautiful city. We found it to be a particularly special evening and really appreciated it. Looking back, I have nothing but praise, not only as a representative of our organisation, but also for all the speakers, workshop leaders, information stand workers, and all congress participants. We look back at this congress with a great deal of pleasure and appreciation."