organisation
I have organized several conferences, ranging from small one-day seminars to international conferences of up to 350 participants. In most cases these conferences were closely connected to the research I do and thus I also contributed to developing the theme of the seminars.
My basic principles for organizing these events: do not panic, something will always go wrong. Second and more important, trust that other people deliver on their promise.
European Social Weeks
A three yearly meeting of European christian social organizations. The idea for these conferences was a spin-off of the Christian Social Congress in The Netherlands. The organization is a cooperation of the Stichting CSC, The Netherlands, ACW and MOC in Belgium, SSF in France and EZA and KSI in Germany. Conferences were held in Oostende (2014), Bad Honnef (2010), Bratislava (2003), Bad Honnef (2000) and Brussels (1997). From 1995 to 2005 I was secretary of the organizing group. Now I am organizing the 6th ESW in 2016, on behalf fo CNV, Socires and the Foundation CSC.
foodFIRST
A programme run by Socires, which started with the Floriade in Venlo, 2012, where we organized 7 seminars, each attended by around 150 participants. The programme is about “how to feed 9 billion people in 2050?” Based on the results of the Floriade seminars, we now run a series of monthly expert meetings, “Vijverbergsessions,” where we analyze various issues relating to this question: cooperatives, water management, post-harvest losses, farmers as entrepreneurs, etc. My involvement ended in 2018.
Stichting Christelijk-Sociaal Congres
A platform of some thirty christian social organizations in the Netherlands. This organization has developed itself since 1991 into a more formalised organization and since 2000 it meets on a yearly basis. I co-organized the conferences of 2002 and 2003 and did the research and writing of the Congress document Getto’s en Pleinen (Ghetto’s and Squares) in 2000, together with mr. J.J.A.M. van Gennip, member of the Dutch Senate for the CDA and chairman of Socires.
ELE / Enquentro Latino Europeo
Part of my work at Socires was organizing Enquentro Latino Europeo, a yearly conference on the relation between Europe and The Netherlands, and Latin America. Speakers are politicians, business people, and academics from both Europe and Latin America. The last conference was held in 2014.