- CX Fest 2024 will take place 5-7 September, at Wake & Camp in Ruhlsdorf near Berlin
- The event is an opportunity for CX professionals to learn and meet each other in a natural setting
- Work and play go hand-in-hand, with panel discussions and waterskiing on the agenda
All was not as it seemed in Ruhlsdorf. Laughter mingled with the birdsong as it drifted across the lake. People in flip-flops chatted amicably on the warm sands, and a few ventured into the water to cool off. Here’s the thing. Many of them had never met before, and this wasn’t actually a vacation. It was a convention. Sort of.
The first ever real-life festival for customer experience professionals took place in 2023 at a lake 45 minutes outside Berlin. It had everything you’d expect: food stands, a DJ, activities. But the headline acts performing on the beachside stage weren’t bands. They were Heads of Customer Service, Call Center Managers and CX Leaders. This September, it’s coming back.
“We wanted to take all that knowledge, all those experts, and do something totally different, Something that wouldn’t feel like work.”
Robert Cwicinski, CEO at Leafworks and one of the organizers of CX Fest.
Business education experts haven’t always recognized the potential of outdoor learning for adults, but that’s changing. There’s a growing body of research suggesting that adult learners benefit from a natural setting. Office productivity improves by 15% if the space is filled with plants, and there’s even a stress reduction effect associated with the colour green. Dr Sandris Zeivots at the University of Sydney found that “nature profoundly affected the experiences of participants” in outdoor learning, and even made them open to new ways of thinking.
“In our industry we’re always thinking about how to give people the best possible experience. So why shouldn’t we do the same thing for each other when we get together?”
Pierce Buckley, CEO at babelforce and another of the festival’s organizers.
CX Fest, with its blend of panel discussions and waterskiing, is breaking a 172 year tradition. In 1851 the first world’s fair took place in a purpose-built venue resembling a great vaulted greenhouse. 14,000 exhibitors from around the world displayed steam engines, hydraulic presses and other marvels in the ‘crystal palace’. It was one of the world’s first convention centers.
Unlike the exhibition centers of the 1800s, modern convention spaces usually resemble windowless aircraft hangars. They’re spacious, they’re available in most major cities, but they’re an ironically soulless venue for an industry that values the experience above all else.
To understand how profoundly an event’s location changes the experience, you only have to ask last year’s CX Fest attendees, who described it as ‘monumental’, ‘refreshing’ and ‘the best business event [they’d] ever attended.’
