Having met at the recent ICCA Annual Congress, I had the privilege of catching up with Gerda-Marie Rist, head of the Legacy Lab at Wonderful Copenhagen, as she discussed how connecting people, purpose, and policy is reshaping the business events landscape in Denmark and beyond.
Iain Stirling: Gerda-Marie, you spent 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry working with LEO Pharma, specialising in medicinal chemistry. What inspired your transition from developing medicines to creating lasting impacts through business events? And how does your scientific background influence the work you do in legacy building today?
Gerda-Marie Rist: That’s a great question, and one I hear quite a lot. My career path hasn’t been the most traditional, but I’ve always been fascinated by people, projects, and the way the right connections can make things happen. I started in the lab as a scientist for about seven years before moving into project management.
Later, I became executive assistant to the management team at LEO Pharma, which gave me a much broader understanding of how strategic decisions are made and how different parts of an organisation interlink. That really shaped my professional mindset – seeing things from a systemic, interconnected perspective.
Before joining Healthcare Denmark, a public-private partnership that promotes Danish life science and healthcare globally, I spent three years at Novozymes and later worked independently as a consultant for two years. During that period, I collaborated closely with public and private entities across Denmark, as well as with Danish embassies worldwide, helping to host international delegations visiting Copenhagen.
That experience gave me valuable insight into how ministries, industry stakeholders, and NGOs work together toward shared goals. The same coordination, communication, and stakeholder alignment skills are exactly what we apply in legacy planning today.
IS: So that background made the move into the business events world feel like a natural next step?
GMR: Absolutely. When you think about it, legacy work is all about building bridges – connecting people, sectors, and ideas to create something meaningful that lasts beyond the congress itself. That’s exactly what motivated me to make the switch.
IS: How did the opportunity to work with the Legacy Lab at Wonderful Copenhagen come about?
GMR: It actually happened quite organically through my network. While I was with Healthcare Denmark, I met Bettina Rewentlow-Mourier, Deputy Convention Director at Wonderful Copenhagen, who leads the Life Science Alliance – a group that connects different stakeholders across the life science ecosystem. I represented Healthcare Denmark in that forum, and it was a great meeting place for collaboration.
When I later became an independent consultant, Bettina reached out to ask whether I could contribute a few hours to the Legacy Lab, which was still a developing initiative. I started working part-time on consultancy projects for a year, and then when the Lab became a strategic pillar within Wonderful Copenhagen’s overall destination strategy, they offered me a permanent position to lead it. Honestly, I couldn’t say no – it was too exciting to turn down.
IS: Clearly the right move – and they found the right person for the job!
GMR: Thank you! I think so too. My pharma and life science background adds real value because roughly half of the international congresses we host in Copenhagen are within the life science sector – it’s one of Denmark’s national priorities.
In fact, four of five legacy projects planned for next year are within this field. Having that subject knowledge allows me to have deeper, more relevant conversations with associations and local stakeholders. I “speak their language,” so to speak, which helps immensely when identifying areas of collaboration or potential impact.
For other sectors, my project management experience and cross-sector understanding come into play. Legacy work is, after all, about aligning visions and ensuring momentum – no matter the field.
IS: That makes complete sense. Let’s talk about the Legacy Lab’s role within Wonderful Copenhagen’s 2030 strategy. Convention bureaux are under pressure to prove the wider value of business events, especially when destinations face questions around overtourism. How can you make that case effectively – to authorities and to the general public?
GMR: That’s one of our biggest tasks right now. Even before working here, I didn’t fully appreciate the full scale of what business events contribute. Once you understand it, it’s almost impossible not to be inspired. But the reality is: most people still don’t know. We need to communicate our impact clearly and repeatedly.
The key is identifying the right stakeholders and tailoring the message to their priorities. Some policymakers care most about healthcare advancement, others about sustainability, education, or workforce development. You can’t send a single message to everyone – you need to show them examples that match their world.
That’s where data and real cases come in. Demonstrating that an event helped, for instance, establish a foundation or advance research creates credibility. It becomes tangible.
IS: So, case studies are both storytelling and proof?
GMR: Exactly. We recently had a wonderful example here in Copenhagen following the ESPGHAN congress from three years ago. There was a small surplus after the conference, and the organisers wanted to use it to create a foundation supporting research into children’s gastrointestinal diseases.
They had the passion but needed guidance to formalize it – so our team helped connect them with relevant Danish foundations and shape the initiative. Now the foundation is becoming a reality and will be officially announced early next year. That’s a perfect illustration of long-term impact – three years after the congress, new research opportunities are beginning because of it.
IS: That’s a brilliant story – and proof of what legacy work really means.
GMR: Yes, and the key insight is that communication doesn’t stop once you’ve shared it once. When we have strong cases like that, we should keep telling them – over and over again – to different audiences, through different platforms. Consistency matters.
IS: I completely agree. These stories need to get outside the trade press, into mainstream channels – so the public and policymakers can recognise the value of business events.
GMR: Exactly. We’re actually launching an internal communication project focused on that. We’ve been exchanging ideas with colleagues from other destinations. For example, the CVB team in Barcelona published an article in their local newspaper about legacies from congresses held there.
It’s such a brilliant concept – educating the general public about the tangible benefits. That’s definitely something we’d like to explore for Copenhagen as well.
IS: It’s really about education, isn’t it? Getting the public and government to see beyond hotel nights and delegate spending.
GMR: That’s right. The economic benefits are important, but we need also to show the broader value creation. When we can show that an event helped change a policy, improved patient care, or fostered new educational pathways, that changes everything. Those examples justify why hosting major congresses matters – not just for tourism, but for society.
IS: Speaking of broader recognition, it’s still surprising how hidden our industry remains, given its scale. People often don’t realise how large an economic force it really is.
GMR: Yes, exactly! The business events industry drives enormous value – for innovation, job creation, and knowledge exchange – but remains largely invisible to the general public. We sometimes joke that even our friends and families don’t really know what we do. But it’s true – our sector is one of the world’s quiet powerhouses.
IS: In the UK, for example, the events sector is estimated to be the sixth largest industry – yet it flies under the radar.
GMR: And it’s the same story here in Denmark. That’s why we see communication and education as central to our mission. The more we can show tangible examples of societal benefit, the more recognition the sector will gain.
It also helps inspire new talent to join the industry, because the more people understand our purpose, the stronger and more innovative we become.
IS: Couldn’t agree more. It really is about drawing that line between science, society, and events – and making those connections visible to everyone.
GMR: That’s what truly inspires me about this work. Legacy isn’t just a concept, it’s the commitment to create something that endures, something that matters to the communities we touch. It’s where collaboration, creativity, and purpose converge, and that’s an extraordinary space to operate in.
For Copenhagen, and for our industry, it’s about shaping stories with intention, so the world we leave behind is stronger, more connected, and more meaningful than the one we’re currently in.
