In our brand new ‘Five Minutes With…’ series, Holly Patrick caught up with Mireille Swakhoven, senior congress manager at the International Pharmaceutical Federation.
They discussed how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the federation’s events, the challenges involved in shifting from offline to online with little prior experience, the importance of engaging your audience and what she most misses from the pre-Covid days.
“I realised that from an organisers point of view this year that I get the major part of work satisfaction and pride from the live meetings at the congress. It’s nice when you can do that over a chat or over a video call but it's so much nicer to do it in person. So I'm really looking forward to that aspect returning to my job.”
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
