The promising agenda:

- a reception: I was impressed by the number of participants, including several people from non-member organisation. It has been a while ago that I've seen such a successful event. The organisers must have done a great job to get all these people into a single place.

- a speech of honour for Herman Smedts, the president of MediaNet Vlaanderen who passed away recently, by Jozef Mertens (VMMa). A moment to look back at the 15 years and how the organisation has grown over time.

Belga Photo by Dirk Waem

- a debate with Rik De Nolf (Roularta), Duco Sickinghe (Telenet), Marc Vangeel (Concentra), Dirk Wauters (VRT), and Ingrid Lieten (vice minister president fo the Flanders government). I though this would have been the most interesting part of the agenda, but somehow I personally missed the debate. All questions were kindly asked and then bravely answered. All speakers agreed ... to kindly for a debate. More a cosy and friendly chat on how innovative they were in the past, on the previous successes of each of them, on the terrible market situation and need for help. I missed an in depth discussion on what the long-term vision on the future of the media industry is, and on what is the strategy of the government is.

- the walking dinner with life music was probably the best part of the evening. Although I was totally exhausted, it was time for networking and seeing back old friends.