{"id":223203,"date":"2026-05-19T12:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=223203"},"modified":"2026-05-19T12:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:17:12","slug":"brussels-convention-street-interview-deguelle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/brussels-convention-street-interview-deguelle","title":{"rendered":"Brussels Convention Street: interview with Ariane Deguelle (SQUARE)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Brussels, a new approach to professional events is emerging: Brussels Convention Street. This initiative aims to make the Mont des Arts a unified congress district by connecting the SQUARE convention centre with four emblematic institutions: BOZAR, KBR \u2013 Royal Library of Belgium, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, and the BELvue Museum.<\/strong> An update on this launch with Ariane Deguelle, Managing Director of SQUARE \u2013 Brussels Convention Centre, managed by GL Events. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before going any further, for those who might not know Brussels very well, could you remind us what the Mont des Arts district represents?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ariane Deguelle \u2013 <\/strong>This is a very beautiful area, its main advantage being its location right in the heart of Brussels. The Grand Place, the Royal Palace, the Royal Park, the Central Station: everything is just a few minutes' walk away. Another advantage is having 7,000 hotel rooms at the foot of the district. Each of the sites can be reached in less than a five-minute walk. Even at Disneyland Paris, it takes longer to get from one attraction to another! This proximity, this accessibility, make the offering different from what other destinations provide. And that's what's interesting: you're not in a large site outside the city, but right in the middle of the action. You become a \"Bruxellois\" when you come to our place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that the introductions are done, can you go back to the genesis of this project?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A. D. - <\/strong>Each of the partner venues, some of which have existed almost since the Belgian Revolution in 1830, managed their activities separately. A non-profit association (Editor's note: the equivalent of a 'loi de 1901' association in France) had indeed existed since the 1980s, but it was essentially just a neighbourhood committee. Gradually, I realised that, without congress hosting being their main activity, these museums and cultural venues also had meeting spaces, auditoriums, and prestigious halls. It's a bit embarrassing to say, but since the reopening of the SQUARE \u2013 Brussels Convention Centre in 2010, we didn't really know our neighbours. Then in 2024, I proposed that we pool our halls and spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they opened their arms to me, and rightly so. It\u2019s an experience to understand how public service companies work compared to a company like ours, GL Events, which is part of the private sector world. But the dialogue and this collaborative process went very well. We first took stock of the available spaces and their capacities, before defining how we would work together to get to the officialisation of this combination of venues today. Which we describe with the motto: \"When the city becomes a single venue\".<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The Mont des Arts district<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Was it customer demand that led you to come together?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A. D. - <\/strong>No, we have done the opposite. Not having the capacity to host congresses of more than 3,000 participants, we excluded these requests. Now, we can aim for capacities of 5,000 participants, or even more. Together, we offer more than 25,000 m\u00b2 of event space \u2013 compared to 13,000 m\u00b2 at SQUARE \u2013 over 9,000 seats and 42 meeting rooms. In addition to this, in order to simplify organisers' lives, the objective of this project, led by SQUARE and Visit.Brussels, is to combine our commercial and operational strengths. They will no longer have to go from one body to another, but will have a single point of contact with a team that manages their event across the different sites. This is both a time and efficiency saving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n