In retrospect: plaece meet-up autumn 2024
High time, then, for a catch-up moment: plaece the meet-up. On 31 October, the office in 's-Hertogenbosch was filled with city and regional marketers. Together, we looked back at 2024 and looked ahead to 2025. New features, innovations in cooperation with partners and practical examples were discussed. In this blog, we provide a recap of the day.
Retrospect on 2024
Last year, the online ecosystem was rebranded: from Citynavigator to plaece. The new brand also gave impetus to the technological advances shared today. We are off and running!
The average lifespan of a destination website is 3 to 5 years.
Simone Maas, Insiders
Time for a redesign project?
Did you know that the average lifespan of a destination website is 3 to 5 years? After this period, it is valuable to start working on a redesign. Each redesign process puts different emphases, but it always results in a distinct & annu nu website. Insider Simone showed great results from previous projects: from a new content strategy for Maastricht Marketing to a visual online transformation for Noordwijk Marketing.
Smart applications devised by DMOs
To make the Destination Intelligence Platform future-proof, we work year-round on new smart applications. The first seed is often planted by a partner's question or wish. Meanwhile, features like plaece.subsite, plaece.kiosk and plaece.events are available for every destination. This third example gets you a website specifically for event organisers, such as Evenementloket Almere. Dempsey Schijffelen of Almere City Marketing describes the added value: 'We were looking for a way to bundle all event information in one place and make use of everything that is already in plaece.base. We have now succeeded!'
View the presentations
AI applied in two new features
Teun van Hoof and Niels Arts of cooperation partner Clonable introduced plaece.translate. This powerful tool makes it possible to translate your entire website automatically and at top level using AI. We were able to experience live how fast this can be done with a test for Zaans.nl. In no time there was a Spanish-language demo version of the visitors' website. Not perfect, but 97% accurate and therefore time- and cost-efficient.
In the second break-out session, we were introduced to plaece.assist, an AI chatbot powered by Sleak. Tom Rijnen is convinced that an online visitor experience can be improved with the use of Artificlal Intelligence. Merk Fryslàn has been testing the tool for some time and with success: the chatbot carries out several dozen conversations a day. Marketers do not spend any time on these conversations; they only set aside 1 to 2 hours a week to train the chatbot. Remarkable: the Frisian chatbot received the most questions about a campaign image of a bubble bath. Visitors wanted to know: where can I book this myself?
Think of an AI chatbot as a child: you have to bring it up.
Tom Rijnen, Sleak
Design trends for destinations
Designer Mariska shared the 5 design trends for 2025 with inspiration from unexpected quarters. For example, are you familiar with the Bento box? Design trend Bento boxing, with clean and compartmentalised layouts, is derived from a popular lunch box. Mariska's vision of design for the coming year: go bold, boxed, intuitive, sustainable and human.
RegioRadar: the Netflix for regional cultural offers
A great example of a 'boxed' web design is RegioRadar Eindhoven. Not only this visual appearance, but also the concept of RegioRadar is innovative for the leisure sector. Insider Pascal gave a behind-the-scenes look at this unique region window: after all, how do you manage a tsunami of events on behalf of 21 municipalities? The high number of click-throughs (clik through rate of 50%) does not lie. This concept has the potential to connect and boost regional leisure offerings.
View the presentations
Design in 2025: Go BIG or go home.
Mariska Bors, Insiders
New features in 2025
Several new features and pageparts will be added to the ecosystem in early 2025. In the brochure, these are marked 'new in 2025'. For instance, with the new plaece.image reveal, it is your visitor's turn to reveal images. You will see the season or time image transform before your eyes.
Watch the presentation
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Would you like to receive the plaece brochure 2025?
During the plaece the meet-up, partners received the brochure with all the plaece.features, available in 2025.
