By John Dunkelgrün
June is herring month in The Netherlands. The Dutch Fish Authority decides every year when the herring is just right for the catch. It has to be fatty enough, but not yet ready to spawn. The day the first herring catch comes in is a typical Scheveningen festival, “Vlaggetjesdag”, during which all the fishing boats are decorated with flags and a symbolic first barrel of herring is auctioned off for charity. Then come the herring parties.
Many people and organizations use the occasion to get their friends and relations together for herring and -often- ice-cold old Dutch gin (jenever).
The Leonardo Hotel is host to one of the memorable herring parties in The Hague. Only paused during Corona time, it has gone on for more than three decades.
It attracts diplomats, corporate clients, Leonardo partners, and the press. Having started simply with herring, some condiments, and jenever , it has developed into a culinary feast of finger foods.
This year was decidedly different in two ways. The manager of the hotel, Mr. Patrick Aarsman, used the occasion to introduce partners (suppliers), who follow the same sustainable development goals (SDGs) as the Leonardo group .
There were delicious vegan bitterballen made from oyster mushrooms that were grown on used coffee grinds by a company called “Ge-zwam”.
A large charitable organization called Ipse de Bruggen, which also operates the lunchroom in the Resident, the building of the ministries of VWS and SZW, served a very special herring tartare dish. This foundation, among many other things, employs people with a challenge, physical or mental, and endeavors to help them live a productive and social life.
A third partner of the Leonardo Group is the “Made Blue Foundation”, a non-profit that helps bring clean healthy water to developing countries and promotes the use of sustainable and reusable water bottles everywhere.
The second difference this year was the start of the new group’s meeting concept “Now we’re talking”. Chantalle Kaljee, Leonardo’s effervescent events manager, explained that long meetings with only a short pause for a coffee and a sneak outside for a puff, can be numbingly boring. If you cheer them up and make them more playful, people stay more alert, more inspired, and groups more productive.
That is why they have introduced games such as Super Yenga and big red balls to sit on to lighten the atmosphere. The staff is encouraged to interact with the guests during breaks, all with the intention to make boring business baa-blahs into creative and inspirational events.
In this spirit, the afternoon was livened up by the music of a wonderful saxophonist, Mr. Rafael Pereira Lima, whose superb playing warranted more attention than a busy garden party affords.
