ISS invited its privileged customers to the “Facilities Services Seminar” on Thursday 16th May 2013, in order to put their range of services in the spotlight.

The company’s innovative services were introduced during this extraordinary event, held at the fantastic Event Lounge site.

The VRT journalist and The Seventh Day presenter Indra Dewitte talked her way through the two hour show and interviewed several ISS leaders.

The MEP Jean-Luc Dehaene also addressed the participants several times and spoke about the economic, social and cultural trends in society.

The evening was concluded with a fabulous buffet dinner in The Event Lounge’s cosy Lounge Bar.

ISS took charge of coordinating this high-key event itself and also organised the cocktails and buffet dinner.

Toyota Motor Europe & Manufacturing opted for the Event Lounge as this year’s location to offer an impressive 430 guests a suitable reception and welcome area.

The guests included the most important European suppliers of Toyota parts. They arrived at the event from over 20 different countries.

Toyota’s presentation started off with a brief explanation from Didier Leroy, Toyota Motor Europe’s President and CEO.  Toyota subsequently presented the European strategy and sketched out the forthcoming opportunities and naturally also the challenges where production is concerned.

The presentation was followed by a ceremony with the presentation of various awards for the most qualitative and flexible suppliers of original parts, which are required for the construction of Toyota’s European models.

Toyota also used the Annual Business Meeting to present a number of new models, including the brand new Toyota Yaris Hybrid, the new Verso and the new Auris and Auris Touring Sport models.

Given the multipurpose nature of the various different rooms, opting for The Event Lounge was a logical choice, but the building’s easy accessibility certainly also played an important role.

After all, The Event Lounge is a mere 5 minutes from Zaventem Airport and is perfectly suited to welcoming managerial figures from all over Europe.

Ann Vancoillie, Creaplan and Aluvision’s Business Manager, won the 2012 WOMED Award (Women in Enterprise and Development) and thereby became the female entrepreneur of the year.

The prize was presented to her by Princess Mathilde in the Brussels Event Lounge during the 14th WOMED Award ceremony, organised by Markant, the network for active and enterprising women, in collaboration with UNIZO.Aluvision offers solutions for stand construction, whereas Creaplan is active in stand construction and the interior design industry.

The WOMED Award puts the spotlight on an exceptional businesswoman, someone who has been running her own business for at least five years. The prize for most Promising Businesswoman of the year is awarded to a budding entrepreneur who has been independently involved with running her own business for less than five years.

Markant, in collaboration with Trias, has awarded the WOMEN Award South to a female entrepreneur who has made a difference both to herself and her environment in the South every other year.

The Event Lounge appeared to offer the perfect and glamorous decor for welcoming the Princess and numerous big names from the world of politics (Kris Peeters, Maggie de Block and Sabine de Béthune). Various channels from around the country made the most of the opportunity and reported on Princess Mathilde and the presentation of this WOMED Award.

Stagnation means decline. This is an unwritten law of nature which every manufacturer needs to take into account and something Sony most definitely takes into consideration. It was once again Sony’s turn to showcase its line-up for the forthcoming months to the press and wholesalers in February.

The Sony Dealer Days were mainly focussed on the Xperia™ Tablet Z, which managed to attract the most attention as a result of its water resistant construction and super strong glass display.

A jacuzzi was installed for one evening, in order to prove the Xperia Tablet is indeed water resistant, whereby the guests, together with their tablets, were invited to tweet whilst in the jacuzzi.

Another major show stealer was the Action Cam. Action Cam is light and sustainable and ready to capture all the excitement. Untouched powdery snow. Breaking waves. Busy streets. All details can be beautifully captured with the powerful Carl Zeiss lens.

Days like these are all about hard work, but there is always a fantastic atmosphere amongst the Sony colleagues.

The last day of the exhibition was concluded with a fabulous after-party, which also saw people taking to the floor to do the harlem shake, the popular hip-hop dance.

The Sony Dealer days at The Event Lounge were once again a big hit this year. The Sony standards and products were beautifully brought to life in The Event Lounge’s very versatile 1200m² studio. Sufficient room was also left over to create a cosy catering corner, where all the guests were spoilt with culinary delights prepared by the caterer Guillaume van Eeckhout.

In short, an overwhelming success!

The fact that the Brussels event location The Event Lounge would be able to use the Green Key label from now on was announced during an official ceremony held on 19th December 2012. The Green Key is a widely respected standard for environmentally friendly accommodation. “Anyone wishing to obtain the label must satisfy extremely stringent criteria where the environmentally friendly management of the location is concerned”, according to the proud manager Gilles Poot Baudier.

The internationally renowned Green Key eco label was introduced a number of years ago, for the purpose of assessing tourist accommodation on their environmental friendliness. Campsites, youth hostels, attractions, hotels and guesthouses are just some of the accommodation types which are now able to apply for a ‘Green Key’ label. Meeting locations have also been added to this list since 2012. They will also need to implement an ambitious environmental policy in order to acquire the eco label and introduce clear action plans in order to put as small a burden as possible on the environment.

An entire range of fixed criteria needs to be satisfied in order to acquire the prestigious label, including the introduction of water and energy saving measures, a minimum proportion of ecological lighting (75%), environmentally friendly cleaning materials, catering products need to be minimally 35% organic, Fairtrade or locally produced, etc. Plus there are also a number of other optional criteria, like the generation of sustainable energy or flushing toilets with rainwater.

The Green Key offers many advantages. The location won’t just become attractive to environmentally conscious visitors, but plenty of money savings can be realised too. Being environmentally conscious is becoming increasingly more important to people when making their choices in their daily lives and whilst at work. More and more often companies opt to organise their events at locations which make a conscious effort to save the environment. Being awarded with an internationally acknowledged eco label, which puts these values in the spotlight, is therefore a definite strong asset for attracting environmentally conscious customers.

Does this not affect the quality of what’s on offer? “Never” according to a very resolute Gilles Poot Baudier. “Satisfying all these criteria in no way affects our efficiency. Quite the contrary in fact, obtaining the eco label fits in with our aim of constantly improving. A Green Key is by no means easy to obtain. The label indicates sustainability and to us it means we are always focussing on our customers’ needs.”