EVELYNE BARDYN

Evelyne started working at the Convention Bureau for Flanders & Brussels in 2003, where she was actively involved in promoting Flanders as a ‘Meeting Destination’, through B2B initiatives all over the world, from London to Beijing.

She was voted ‘Young professional of the Year’ by Meetings Professional International in 2006, which encouraged her to pursue her career in congress tourism. After obtaining a Master’s degree in Tourism Management from the Catholic University of Leuven in 2010, she took over leadership of the Convention Bureau in 2013 and developed a new strategy to attract more Association Conferences, linked to the region’s economic growth sectors and tourism assets. To execute this strategy, she set up a new co-creation partnership with local convention agencies in the region, expanded the team with Association Experts and developed it into a Global MICE team, with MICE representatives in 10 markets around the world.

Since 2021, Evelyne has been head of Congresses & Events at VISITFLANDERS Convention Bureau and EventFlanders. In addition to developing and achieving the objectives of association vision 2.0 that focuses on impactful conferences and added value creation through legacy, she is responsible for the event vision of EventFlanders that attracts events with international potential (think of the World Cycling Championships, the World Choir Games, Flanders Food Festival,…), develops or offers a growth path through cross-policy cooperation. Together with team coach Sylvie Lejour and a team of experts, she makes daily efforts to realise a positive long-term impact for the destination, visitors, residents and entrepreneurs through sustainable conferences and events.