The German Convention Bureau has published a new white paper on collaboration in business events. The paper follows the third edition of ebx.lab, a strategic workshop run with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO.
The sessions took place in Frankfurt in September 2025. The workshop brought together decision-makers from marketing, communications, and events teams at companies and associations.
The aim was practical – how organisations work together to deliver complex events in a volatile operating environment. The findings are now published in a free white paper. It sets out what the group calls “collaboration keys”, alongside real-world use cases.
What the paper covers
The ebx.lab focused on shared problems across the business events sector. Although organisations operate differently, the challenges they face are often similar. The workshop tested whether working across teams, partners, and organisations could produce better outcomes.
Matthias Schultze, managing director at the GCB, said collaboration was now essential. “Collaboration is one of the central keys to successfully navigating transformation,” he said.
“Working across organisational boundaries provides access to diverse perspectives, resources, and expertise that are hardly ever available within a single organisation.” He added that collective approaches help organisations respond faster to change.
Practical use cases
The 2025 edition of ebx.lab aimed to connect early-stage ideas with practical use cases that participants could apply inside their own organisations. The intention was to shorten the gap between experimentation and delivery, particularly for teams responsible for complex events and multi-stakeholder projects.
Two external experts contributed – Peter Baeck, founder of the Centre for Collective Intelligence Design at Nesta, and Dr Marie Heidingsfelder from Fraunhofer IAO’s Centre for Responsible Research and Innovation.
What happens next
The white paper summarises eight projects developed during the lab. These are intended as starting points, not finished models.
The GCB said the projects are designed to prompt further collaboration across the business events ecosystem. Stakeholders are invited to take part and develop the ideas further.
The ebx.lab 2025 white paper is available to download in German and English here.
