Respons is a specialized research and consultancy company in the fields of Events, tourism and city marketing. The company was founded 25 years ago and is renowned as an authority in events data in The Netherlands. In addition to our expertise in the event sector, we’re also experienced in the adjacent fields of tourism and city marketing. Clients range from municipalities, city- or destination marketing organisations, event organizers to private companies.
Our Service
Events
Respons has been researching the market of public events for over 25 years in The Netherlands. Examples of our publications which have become well known sector reports are the TOP100 Event Monitor, Festival Monitor and Trade & Public Fairs Monitor which are published annually. Via co-operation with various trade associations, event data produced by Respons has become the industry standard.
The information products, databases and services of Respons are available in fixed formats or can be tailored to your specific demands. Our services are available on a subscription basis or as a on demand query. Respons is also active in event consultancy such as writing event policies, finding organisation models for combining events in a city, advising in programming in line with the brand of municipalities.
Tourism & City Marketing
Tourism and city marketing are closely linked to Respons’ event products and consultancy services. With the annual publication of the Top 50 Attractions Monitor, a ranking of the most visited attractions including museums, amusement parks and zoos, Respons has established its leading position as a tourism and city marketing expert in The Netherlands. Popular and distinctive attractions like De Zaanse Schans, Keukenhof and Mauritshuis can play an important role in the touristic and marketing propositions of cities.
The same applies for the Respons G50 Event Monitor. This report, which is available as a hardcopy report and as an online database, provides valuable insights in the events portfolio of the 50 largest cities in The Netherlands. The G50 highlights the role of events in city marketing. With our Dutch Exhibition Monitor we analyse the market of exhibitions and conventions, the MICE market.
The detailed and unique information provided by our G50 Event Monitor and Top 50 Attractions contribute to our tourism and city marketing expertise. Our consultants, equipped with years of experience, can tap into extensive database and research information and consult with other Respons analysts. Thus creating a unique combination of theory and practise, facts & figures and applied knowledge, setting Respons apart as a suitable partner for your tourism and marketing projects.
The outcome can range from writing a policy that utilizes your cities or region event potential to transforming your destination marketing organisation (DMO) into a full service city marketing organisation.
As a consultancy agency Respons is also a partner in tourism projects like destination marketing and branding, city hospitality or product development. We advise on projects in place development and place management and also marketing and branding for the city marketing target groups inhabitants, companies and visitors. We compile consultancy reports, create new (public-private) organisation models and in addition to this we are available for interim management.
Team Specialists
Team Respons
Driving these activities in these specialised sectors are Lex Kruijver and Eduard Pieter Oud as senior partners and co-directors of Respons. In 2019 Milou Aarts joined our teams of specialist. Together with our specialized consultants and analysts we form a coherent and complementary team.
Lex Kruijver
Lex Kruijver is co-founder of Respons in 1993 and its current CEO. After completing his Economics degree at Haarlem Business School in 1989, Kruijver was hired as a producer for national television. TV-production led to TV-sponsorships which then led to event sponsorships. Kruijver started monitoring the event industry and established Respons, now the leading expert company in the field of public events in The Netherlands. Kruijver also established consultancy agency DNA in 2005 (events & city marketing) which was integrated into Respons advisory services in 2018. In 2008 Kruijver set up the National Conference for City Marketing and the National City Marketing Awards. After 11 successful editions as the largest Conference in the field of City Marketing, the platform (conference & award) was taken over by the National City Marketing Network (association of city marketing in Holland) in 2018. The National Event Conference, established in 2014, remains in the portfolio of Respons. The platform also hosts the National Event Awards, which was set up to contribute to the further professionalization of the events industry. At this moment Kruijver combines co-directing Respons. Till last year he combined this with managing Marketing Zaanstreek, the marketing organisation of the city of Zaanstad, part of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.
Contact
+31 (0)6 543 672 70
Lex.Kruijver@respons.nl
Eduard Pieter Oud
Eduard Pieter Oud started after his study tourism at the Alkmaar Tourist Board and developed himself as a creative marketer, showing a feeling for adapting city hospitality to the wishes of the visitors. He merged several local destination marketing organisations into one big regional player. After 15 years he made the move to Amsterdam where he became COO of the Amsterdam Tourism and Convention Board (ATCB), in a time that the city needed more visitors for economic reasons. In 2013 he became COO of Amsterdam Marketing, an integrated city marketing organisation for attracting visitors, companies, students and conventions to the city and taking care of the wellbeing of inhabitants. He created his international network as active board member and finally Vice President of European Cities Marketing and In the Netherlands as board member and president of VVV Nederland, the organisation of destination marketers and tourist information centres. In 2018 he joined Respons as a co-director . Recently he was interim COO at the Moco Museum in Amsterdam and interim CEO of Alkmaar Marketing, the citymarketing organisation for the city of Alkmaar with 100.000 inhabitants.
Contact
+31 (0)6 115 068 51
Eduard.Pieter.Oud@respons.nl
Clients & projects
Data clients
Approximately 150 organisations subscribe to the event data products (annual reports) & services (ie API, online dashboard) offered by Respons. Among our clients you can find household consumer brands like Albert Heijn, KPN and AB InBev (Jupiler, Corona & Hertog Jan). They use our information and analyses to remain up to date on market opportunities, trends and developments. Next to the private sector, Respons has many clients in the public sector. Customers ranging from cities, city marketing and destination marketing organisations to regions (provinces) and cities. The education sector (mainly universities) are also frequent users of our data. With special logins for students via digital media library connections, Respons’ data and analyses are available for research purposes. We also have close connections with the most important organisations voor the events, citymarketing and tourism industry.
Consultancy
Respons’ events, tourism & city marketing expertise is requested by city & destination marketing organisations. But mainly we serve cities and regions with customized projects and assignments. Mostly we develop our plans in co-creation with for example companies, cultural organisations and the local government. Some examples of our recent projects:
- For the city of Maastricht together with Maastricht Events Conference Center (MECC) we carried out an economic and media impact forecast for the European Song Contest 2020.
- Organisational advice for the City of Tilburg regarding the future of the tourist information / cityhospitality.
- Strategic advice for Tourist Information (VVV) in the future of the knowledge network destination The Netherlands (Destination NL)
- For the city of Súdwest Fryslận we are working on a new organisation model together with individual organisers, inhabitants, promotional and municipality organisations and the sailing club for the Sneekweek event, the biggest sailing event in Europe on inland water.
- For the Windmill Village De Zaanse Schans, Amsterdam Region, we made a marketing activity plan for more years in a row.
- Holland above Amsterdam asked us to make up a touristic profile for the Alkmaar (coastal) region and we made an inventarisation of all big events with the idea to choose some brand-events for marketing purposes.
- We helped Visit Brabant to renew the 5 years strategy.
- For the city of Haarlem we made a plan to change the focus of the local destination marketing organisation to a integrated citymarketing organisation.
- For the province of Zeeland we advised how to organise their integrated marketing for living, working and visiting.
- For the city of Zwolle we wrote their plan the strategic approach of choosing and positioning their events.
- For the city of Alkmaar we wrote their new policy for events and citymarketing.
- For the village Medemblik we developed a new tourism and marketing strategy/policy with special attention for cooperation between the municipality and the local businesses
Interim management
Our expertise is also interesting for mostly marketing organisations and municipalities for longer terms. Our specialist were active as (parttime) interim manager for:
- Alkmaar Marketing as CEO to run the citymarketing organisation of Alkmaar (100.000 inhabitants)
- Marketing Zaanstreek as CEO to run the citymarketing organisation for the Zaanstreek region (Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, 155.000 inhabitants).
- As organiser of the citymarketing for the municipality of Zoetermeer (125.000 inhabitants, The Hague/Rotterdam region) by creating a citymarketing department.
- Dissolving VVV Zeeland, the Tourist Marketing and Information organisation for the province of Zeeland, which made place for an integrated marketing organisation.