After having visited almost 10 venues the search has come to an end. A decision needs to be made by the end of the week.Today I visited 'Stuurboord' (english: starboard) in Antwerp. Three reason for expanding my search beyond Brussels. The first one is that there seems to be some kind of European political top meeting end of September and almost every meeting or conference room has been booked, typical! Second, I really did NOT like the venue I visited, they were old, corporate feeling, they were not what AGILEMinds is all about. Third, it's way closer to my own door :-)
Stuurboord seemed to have something special when I visited their website. Pictures were not too clear but I did know the area quiet well and I knew the view over the harbor/river would be amazing. Stuurboord is built in a renovated old ship hangar. It's actually one big volume which can be modulated very easily, just what we need for our event because of all the workshops and open spaces. Not unimportant their bar is like 48m2, that's BIG! So you will not have to stand in line getting one of our famous Belgian beers ;-)
It's always hard to describe the feeling you get when spotting a venue, especially because it's such a personal feeling. But man, that's one great venue, it what AGILEMinds is all about, openness, rough, pure, uncut, authentic, restful... I'm currently waiting for their offer, it's not cheap, but non of these things are when you aim for +150 people.
Hopefully the deal is done by the end of the week. Finding a venue was way too stressful this time.
But it's part of the job, and I love it! :-)
Lean & Kanban 2010 | Email Mania
Mails, mails and more mails. Big part of organizing these things is the never ending back and forward mailing between speakers and organizers :-)
All work and no play makes...
After having visited Stuurboord venue I went to lunch with Mathias Bogaert, old friend and fellow entrepreneur. We have the same background in IT, the same age, same mindset, so really fun to talk about startup stuff, sharing pain and glory is important. Knowing you're not alone in the world... so we went out for dinner and stayed for a couple of hours. The weather was just right to enjoy a couple of beers on the terrace while discussing next steps...
And before I knew it it was time to get the little one from day care and so another day passes...
Over and out
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