David Sand with Aoife Delaney on Panel at SITE Incentive Summit Europe

The excitement was childlike in enthusiasm and expectation as I went to the airport for my 1^st international flight in 24 months. I was invited by Swiss Tourism and SITE to attend the European Incentive Summit in Geneva and Montreux – Switzerland as both a hosted buyer and Speaker.

My “Why” for attending this were threefold – Share, Learn and Experience – let me share with you how those played out during the trip.

I am so honoured to still be the only African professional to have held the role of SITE global President. Actively involved in both the online incentive rewards and incentive travel world, whose business, designs and implements incentive travel together with global brands and companies. I was asked to share current realities and future trends from an agency perspective for our industry.

The summit was designed as an immersive experiential event that you can’t achieve online. The event construction itself was a learning point and great to experience as a delegate. Interspersed within the live experience stream were amazing speakers, educators and futurists that facilitated various topics.

Fernando Buscema, an Academic, Speaker, Author and Magician who also designs customer experiences for Ferrari – was also one of the incredible hosts and speakers that was completely unique in his approach to the philosophy of the human experience in design and incentive elements.

As a luxury watch enthusiast – Swiss watchmaking has always fascinated me, so one of the highlights was an Elysium watchmaking experience where participants got to understand the complex mechanics of the movements. Deconstruct and take a watch mechanism apart seeing every tiny piece through watchmaker lenses and then put it all together again. Fantastic experience that can be enhanced for incentives to the stage where winners can construct their very one Swiss watch that is unique to their design and take it home with them.