About us

Partnership by design

Growth and development start with an idea. Research takes it further and sharing knowledge creates mutual exchange and co-creation. You want to unlock the latest professional insights, and we help you to share and multiply that knowledge.

Our vision

We believe in the strength of sharing knowledge to shape a better future. We do this by bringing people and science together in a way that suits the needs and goals of your organisation. Whether live, online or hybrid: we make sure that it is designed and arranged in such a way as to create a rich environment for new insights, cross-links, and scientific and social progress.

Reliable congress consultants

With over 20 years of experience and more than 350 national and international congresses in our portfolio, we are a reliable Professional Congress Organiser (PCO) that is committed to working for and with you, with a keen eye for detail. We work mainly for scientific associations, corporates and governments and often have long-term partnerships with our clients.

IAPCO certified
We have a great affinity with medical, agricultural and knowledge-intensive subjects and work for various universities and university medical centres. And with offices in Alphen aan den Rijn and Groningen, we connect seamlessly to regional networks and issues. We also have city alliances with the congress bureaus of Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leiden and Groningen and are IAPCO certified.

Part of GMI

Since 1 September 2021, Congress by design is part of GMI, a creative communication collective in the Netherlands, which also includes event agency Obsession and virtual event platform Squares. Together, the companies have more than fifty years of knowledge and experience in developing and organising live, online and hybrid events.

Find out more about GMI

Local team in Groningen

Our office in Groningen is located on the university grounds, in the heart of the scientific world. This puts us close to important clients such as RUG and the UMCG, but also close to start-ups in the digital world. The local team members come from Groningen and are familiar with the regional network and issues. We are also working on making the city of Groningen more attractive, in part by bringing in more congresses that tie in with the city's five core sectors.

Professional conference organisers (PCO)