The Copenhagen Convention Bureau marked the spring equinox in style earlier this month, welcoming around 40 UK event planners to a rather special London venue for an evening of Danish culture, good food and genuine conversation. The setting was the Shoreditch Treehouse, a cosy Charlotte Road apartment said to have once been home to actress Keira Knightley, and it was hard to imagine anywhere better suited to the occasion.
The event brought partner hotels, city venues, the convention centre and a local DMC to London for the evening, which opened with a grounding mindfulness and breathwork session. Longer than your typical icebreaker, it gave guests a real chance to arrive fully before the night got going. The group also explored pyt, described as Denmark’s favourite new word, a mental reset that encourages letting go of life’s small frustrations.
Lene Corgan, Head of Business Events at the Copenhagen Convention Bureau, welcomed attendees before dinner was served family-style around a shared table, in keeping with the Danish tradition of fællesspisning. Delegates also kept one ear on the evening’s bingo card, listening out for words woven into the presentation, hygge, sauna, mindfulness and immersive theatre among them. The CVB also screened their latest campaign, The Art of Hugging, which makes the case that hugging reduces stress hormones and is an excellent strategy for staying warm – and where better to do so than Copenhagen!
Conversation over dinner centred on wellness, mindfulness and sustainability in event design, where delegates shared their thoughts on how MICE events can better embrace host destination culture and whether delegate wellbeing gets enough consideration in the planning process. Copenhagen’s partners used the evening to highlight how these principles already shape the destination’s offer, from morning harbour dips, locally sourced menus, flexible scheduling and dedicated quiet spaces within programmes.