3 questions to... Wiz-Team Advisory Board Member Anna Hellman
Anna Hellman – Advisory Board member
Established events professional Anna Hellman has been a member of Wiz-Team’s Advisory Board since 2022. However, her path crossed with that of Wiz-Team’s founder and CEO Johann Woringer and COO Tim Goethals many years before the company’s creation. For over a decade, she has enjoyed a front-row seat to Wiz-Team’s foundation, growth journey and success story, and knows better than most how Johann and Tim “make a great team!”
Recently extending her mandate as an Advisory Board for another two years, Anna has been involved in the event management industry for most of her professional career, building an impressive network in the international sports movement. With her extensive organisational and event experience, her outstanding leadership skills, highly entrepreneurial spirit, and connections throughout the sports industry and beyond, there is no question that the native Swede adds great value to Wiz-Team.
We caught up with her to find out more about how she sees recent developments within the company, Wiz-Team’s future, its strengths and how it can remain relevant.
How has Wiz-Team developed over the last two years and what are your thoughts about the company’s future?
Anna Hellman: It is amazing to see how the company has grown from a tiny team to over 100 colleagues in such a short time. Rapid growth is never easy but they have managed to remain logical and down-to-earth in their planning. Moving forward, Wiz-Team needs to continue being visionary and keep an open mind to the evolving needs of the market.
What do you think sets Wiz-Team apart?
Anna Hellman: Wiz-Team’s leadership comes from the event industry and they truly understand the challenges ahead. Their staff is hands-on and provides support to clients on-site and as needed.
I really like that they don’t impose solutions : first, they listen to their clients, learn about their needs and then co-create solutions. And they don’t need to start from scratch. With Event-Works, they have a full suite of smart tools at hand which they can configurate to meet the requirements of each client, which also enables a time- and cost-efficient development process.
Having seen several other companies in that space, it’s special that a provider is so closely connected to its clients and it’s difficult to put a price tag on that relationship. Finally, while the team remains attentive to market needs, they are still humble and respectful.
What are industry trends or expectations which Wiz-Team should take note of?
Anna Hellman: There are many but I would like to highlight two important, more general trends that concern several industries.
First: I firmly believe it’s essential to go for a cross-sector approach. Different sectors often face similar challenges and can benefit from each others’ solutions. That’s definitely the case in event management where different organisers often face the same ‘pain points’. Wiz-Team provides solutions that all different kinds of sectors can benefit from and whilst their client base is very strong in sport, there is still huge potential to work more with other sectors. Aware of this opportunity, they have done great work already with the governmental sector and are now branching out into new fields like the entertainment and hospitality space and that’s the way to go.
Second: “experience” becomes more and more of a buzz word and rightly so. Event organisers need to pay attention to the entire visitor or participants experience. Wiz-Team offers the right tools to make this experience a pleasant and smooth journey throughout the different phases before and during an event – from registration, accreditation, transport to access control, seating plans, hospitality and so on. Wiz-Team also provides powerful data management functionalities, ensuring optimised data collection and sharing across an event’s lifecycle so that quick adjustments can be made ‘on-the-go’ to enhance the experience.
Background information
Anna Hellman started her career in the sports industry in 2000 as COO for The World Sports Forum, organising the annual event in St. Moritz, Lausanne, and Doha/Qatar. From 2004 to 2012, she served as Executive Director for the SportAccord Convention, an annual six-day gathering involving all the International Sports Federations, other key players from the Olympic Movement as well as the global sport industry, before joining Além International, an experienced marketing and event management agency specialised in sport and corporate events. In 2014, Anna launched ThinkSport, an association founded by the Canton de Vaud and the International Olympic Committee, working with sport organisations and partners to build bridges and accelerate sustainable innovation capabilities. She served as ThinkSport Director until her retirement in December 2023. Anna is still very active and serves on several Boards of international organisations and companies.
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