As the new Regional Director for the South Region, VDVO invited Jürgen Mayer for an interview to answer questions about the association future strategies and other topics.
Appointing Regional Directors is part of the initiative of the new VDVO Managing Director Torsten Schwartz. With the division of Germany into five regions, each region has its own Regional Director, who in his own way fosters the activities of the association and is the direct contact person.
VDVO Interview with Jürgen Mayer
In 1994, Jürgen Mayer moved to Munich for professional reasons after completing his studies. After initial years with the Kirch Group / ProSieben, he moved to T-Online / Telekom. This was followed by ten years of Yahoo! In the fall of 2010, he joined plazz AG as CEO and co-owner
He dedicates his time for hobbies to sports: “Without yoga and my daily meditation routine, I couldn’t play golf nearly as well and wouldn’t be as fit,” says Mayer. And slim, we may add appreciatively.
CEO of plazz AG &
VDVO Regional Director South
Da seine Frau Yvonne ebenfalls Golf spielt, plant er seine Urlaube immer rund um den kleinen weißen Ball und organisiert seit 13 Jahren den CEO Golf Cup im Münchner Golfclub. Golf is probably a preferred networking platform for him, so it’s clear: “Anyone who is an entrepreneur, business owner, event planner or entrepreneur and golfer, please contact me!”
What motivated you to become active for VDVO as Regional Director South?
Associations generally have an important function and have always been a good networking platform. One thing I have learned in life is that you always have to be close to the customer when developing new products. Our new Polario App supports associations in their work. So it was natural for me to get involved in the association, so that I could also be part of an association. Potential is always expandable. We want to contribute to this as plazz AG. We have been very successful in the event tech business for the last ten years. We have a lot of know-how, contacts and resources in this segment, which we would like to contribute to the VDVO.
What measures do you have in mind to better connect existing members in the greater Munich area, and even southern Germany in the broadest sense, and to attract new members?
Currently, the southern region seems too passive to me. At the VDVO Congress, I was able to speak personally with just two people from the Southern Region. First of all we want to realize a virtual regulars’ table as a kickoff after the summer months. Until then, I will try to make personal contact with one or the other member. Everything else will then emerge in the course of the fall.
Currently, one of the most spectacular conference hotels in the event industry is being built in Munich-Westend, which should have opened by the end of the year. Maybe we will soon plan a VDVO event there for early 2023?
Effective association work requires some time investment on the side. Why do you think that this work (and especially for the VDVO) is important?
With around 600 members, the VDVO is still a relatively small player – our first app customer in the association sector, for example, has over 7,000 members. If you compare this with the size of the event industry and the market volume, it becomes clear that there is still room for improvement.
A short subjective assessment about the future of the event business after Corona and in “uncertain times” (Ukraine war, climate change, migration, inflation, etc.)
But to answer your question about war, climate change, migration and inflation, I’ll say it briefly in the words of Thomas Huxley: ‘The great goal of life is not knowledge, but action’. You can grow together out of crises – I have never been a doomsayer!
But the fact is that the event sector has been expanded by many new facets through Corona. The bandwidth has become more versatile, the technology more important and the mix of live, virtual, hybrid multimedia.
Please briefly describe a few personal impressions of the first VDVO Congress in Leipzig. What did you particularly like?
In terms of content, there were many exciting presentations that generated a lot of positive feedback. The topic of event technology seemed to me to be open to improvement. If I invest a day for such an event, then I want to use it optimally. I think that much more added value could have been created with a list of participants in advance or during the VA. I really liked the interactive sessions, which were well attended across the board.
