Around the table at the yearly SME Congress!
3/10/2019
On October 1st, the yearly SME Congress was organized by the largest entrepreneurs’ association in The Netherlands: MKB-Nederland. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was presented with the Entrepreneurs’ Agenda. Before the PM’s eyes, Secret View’s story was highlighted during one of the two sessions.
Together with a small group of other small and medium businesses (SME’s), Secret View is part of the Council of Entrepreneurs of MKB-Nederland association (SME-the Netherlands). For this event, the entrepreneurs behind these companies were invited to speak about the challenges, opportunities and future of SME’s. A special day for Secret View that we love to share with you.
Horror, science fiction and romcoms
Jacco Vonhof, head of the association, started the event with a summary and explanation of the Entrepreneurs’ Agenda. He described, very vividly we should say, the possibly horrific scenario’s and hopefully romantic future of entrepreneurs everywhere (we were seated in a cinema, after all!).
Above all, Vonhof emphasized the importance of guidance and reliability in the government’s policy towards entrepreneurs. The event was held at the same time as a massive farmers’ protest in The Hague, so the current environmental regulations and their effects on SME’s inevitably had to be discussed.
Team and Market
Marieke Blom, head economist of ING bank, gave striking factual insights into economic and social developments influencing SME’s. A major development, and also main theme of the first session, was the challenge of gathering and maintaining a team of qualified personnel.
During the second session, the main theme was ‘Market’. Niek Koning, founder of Secret View, joined the table to speak about the importance of distinguishing your company and the successes that flow from it. 2019 is an exciting year for Secret View, and we love to tell our story. “By attracting and keeping talented people, from software developers to multilingual project managers, we are able to increase our scale of operations relatively easily”, Niek told the audience about Secret View’s (international) growth. “Because our technology is continuously improving, we’re able to take on the whole world from our hometown Arnhem!”. Other entrepreneurs confirmed the importance of online platforms in their respective branches, as well as investments in digitization.
Speech by the Prime Minister
Prime Minister Mark Rutte watched, along with a large audience, how Niek and the other entrepreneurs shared their experiences. Afterwards, the PM received the Entrepreneurs’ Agenda and spoke about the importance of SME’s. He gave us an idea about the governments’ plan to support what he dubbed ‘the Netherlands’ jobs engine”, The Entrepreneurs’ Agenda serves as guidance and inspiration for their national policymaking.
During the drinks afterwards (with popcorn!), Secret View’s positive message was received very well. We’d like to thank the organization for this amazing stage!
Photo's: @rolfvankoppenfotografie
