Posted on June 1, 2022
By Judith Powers
CEDA’s new GM Mieke van Loenen studied hotel management and has background and experience in association and event management. She worked for ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) for more than 20 years, heading d the events department and as part of the management team. During her time with ICCA, the association grew from 400 to over 1000 corporate members and attendance at the annual meeting increased from 500 to over 1200 attendees.
She started in November 2021 as assistant GM and took over as GM on 1st of January 2022.
“Since then, we have been working together, especially in the last 5 months, on WODCON XXIII, on the CEDA regular annual schedule, and on the WODCON planning schedule,” said Csiti. “Mieke joined me in all meetings, I briefed her before those, and we talked after. In addition when we could fit in, we addressed specific areas of work. The timing of the handover could not have been better! WODCON offered so many opportunities for Mieke to get to know CEDA and WODA and to meet many people,” she said.
Van Loenen is impressed with the energy in the CEDA organization.
“What I’ve noticed most since I started working for CEDA is the commitment and hard work of our members. Their willingness to work for CEDA and share their knowledge and expertise is outstanding,” she said.
“In order for CEDA to stay relevant in the future, I see it as my task to try and keep this member commitment on a high level. In order to do so it is especially important to engage with and involve the young professionals in the industry. There is a new generation who engage with association differently, and we need to make sure that we adapt to that,” she continued.
“I look forward to implementing and further improving the new plans for the CEDA Dredging Days. Apart from being financially viable, it is important that our events are valuable and attractive for all our CEDA member types and all generations. I will also continue to work with our Board of Directors, commissions and working groups on existing and new projects such as Financing Sustainable Marine and Freshwater Infrastructure,” she concluded.
This web page describing that process ishttps://www.financing-smafi.org/.
