In conversation with Conny Wenting: CEO of the Invictus Games, The Hague 2020
We spoke to Conny Wenting, CEO of the Invictus Games The Hague 2020 as a follow-up to the article 'Let the games begin! Invictus Games 2020'. We wanted to learn more about what it took to host the Invictus Games in The Hague.
What's the story behind the scenes of organising a global sporting event in the Netherlands? And where does Conny's drive to work for sports as an enabler for positive change, rehabilitation, and healing come from?
In our two part series, we're taking a deep dive in to the Invictus Games 2022 in The Hague. Let's change the game together!
Hi Conny! Could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your role at the Invictus games? And what inspired you to be part of this?
My name is Conny Wenting and I’m the CEO of the Invictus Games, The Hague 2020. And, if you didn’t already know, the Invictus Games is an international adaptive sporting event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veteran. The games use the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding and respect of all those who serve their country.
Sports has always been a part of my DNA since I was young and competing as a sportsperson during my student time. At 19 I was diagnosed with lung cancer and ended up losing half a lung. I went on to work in corporate settings since then, such as at Intel and Microsoft, but my own experience has meant that sports and especially adaptive sports have always been close to my heart. In 2016, when running a Sports leadership Program at Nyenrode, I worked along with the RVO (the Netherlands Enterprise Agency) on the Paralympic Games to be held in Tokyo in 2020. We travelled to Tokyo with a class alongside the Dutch delegation to share knowledge on our sport ecosystem and to position Dutch companies toward the overseas market.
I’ve always been passionate about sports and so my journey to Invictus started long before we thought about hosting the games in The Hague. When I wanted to make a career shift leaving the corporate space, the transition to a career in sport was the way to go. I was inspired because of my own experiences and understanding of the importance of sports as an enabler for positive change, rehabilitation, and healing.
We had the pleasure of attending the games ourselves. It was truly inspiring to see it in-person. What was the reason behind wanting to bring the Invictus Games to The Hague?
Everyone has lost someone in their life. For healing and personal development, I believe it's really important to talk about loss and have an outlet for it. A physical space and a community alongside friends and family is so important in the process of healing. I’ve hosted the Japanese Paralympic committee with RVO, to share knowledge around the adaptive sports-ecosystem in The Netherlands, but unlike the Paralympics the Invictus Games provides another avenue for the power of sports.
At the Invictus Games it's not all elite sports and the levels of competition vary. There are different levels that allow participation with a focus that extends beyond the competition itself. It’s about the power of sport in rehabilitation and bringing together a community that sparks this meaningful conversation, creates awareness, and continues to work on it long after the closing ceremony.
For competitors it's a significant step in their rehabilitation process. And for their families it's a chance to celebrate their loved ones and play a part in the healing process. Their role is also really important in this, which is why we focus on it. Since trauma is not just experienced by one person, we have to look holistically at how to assist someone affected by it. Often dynamics at home change, with partners playing the role of caretaker and children having to adapt to changes. And for the wider community, city, and country it's really important that we bring awareness and lasting change which will also help in the lives of those who have served us. Together, we all have a part to play!
Since The Hague is the international city of peace and justice and the Netherlands stands behind the value of hosting the Invictus Games, we were able to achieve this huge undertaking. It gave us the physical space needed to rally a community around this cause. When you visit the games, you get in and it immediately gets under your skin. You really feel the positive atmosphere and impact.
It all started with a question to my colleague of whether we could make this happen. We thought, why not? And with a lot of hard work and support from the ecosystem within the Netherlands, here we are today, having successfully hosted it!
Wow, it’s really amazing what’s possible with a can-do mindset. Did the Netherlands stand out in any way? What caused the Invictus Games to award us the winning bid for host city?
The Invictus committee were in a dilemma regarding the games at a certain point. Some felt it had gotten really large and that they would do a final edition in London and end the venture. The games started in London in 2014 and then subsequently went to the United States, Canada, and Australia. These are of course all related to the commonwealth and are large countries with stadiums and Olympic villages. The committee started to wonder if it were possible to host it in a place that’s different and still achieve the standards that such a global sporting event requires.
We are a small country, but we also have an extremely entrepreneurial spirit and a solution driven attitude. We stood out because our promise was that we are able to host these games to the standard required but do it in a very cost-effective way. We felt that this event is too important, and the community built around it helps so many people that we can’t let it end. We were determined to bring it here and show success with limited budget and working through the many challenges the COVID-19 pandemic presented us. If the athletes were ready to compete, it was our role to give them an event to compete in.
They also wanted to bring these games to mainland Europe and the Netherlands seemed like a natural landing point for this. Since we didn’t have a huge budget, we had to rely on partnerships and the strength of our quadruple helix approach: a collaborative effort between public, private, knowledge institutions, and citizens. To give a perspective, the size of the Invictus games is relative and comparable to the size of a winter Paralympics. The difference is that the Paralympics have a significantly larger budget. We were still able to do this with much less funds and still deliver an event which created global impact. It shows our ability as a host country to deal with all scales of events.
Could you tell us more about how the quadruple helix approach worked? What was the involvement of Dutch companies and the Government in it?
We don’t have an Olympic City or venue specifically for that purpose in the Netherlands or The Hague, so we had to start from scratch. We reached out to companies and began to build partnerships to support us. And we got a lot of help through value in kind, consultancy companies going out of their way to assist us in however they could. We had large organisations that already came with Invictus such as Jaguar and Land Rover, Fisherhouse, but Dutch companies were just as eager to be part of this. On the funding side, we raised about 40% in commercial money in the Netherlands, which I think is a fantastic result and shows that our private sector cares.
Many companies felt this was an important cause to position themselves in support of. From a corporate social responsibility perspective, it fits well. As a company you are supporting people who are differently abled physically and mentally. However, beyond this, companies used it as a platform to start conversations within their own workplace. So, it was not a PR move only, but a very meaningful way to facilitate conversations about mental health beyond the games in the private sector. Apart from Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex being involved which creates a lot of press awareness, Invictus is also a unique and feel-good event which warrants support.
On the public side as well, we had a lot of involvement from The Ministry of Defence, The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, The RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency), The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the City of The Hague and many other public institutions. We needed early government and city involvement to turn the blank slate of the Zuiderpark into a venue capable of hosting over 10 different kinds of sporting events. And beyond this, we needed support for logistics such as security and fire safety, since the games would be attended by well-known high-profile public figures. Without the support at a national and local level, we would not have been able to do it.
What’s also crucial is the many volunteers we had and the support of the people who attended the games as part of our audience. Many of them have lost someone or know someone who has lost someone in the defence services. Even if they have no connection to service persons, they feel the atmosphere and love shown by everyone. It comes from a “personal space” I believe for everyone who was part of this, not just myself. We have over 250 people globally working as volunteers using their own finances to be there and help us build and run it. I think that’s really a testament to what we can achieve together.
part two of this series explores:
The bottlenecks faced and the challenges they overcame when organising the Invictus Games.
The legacy of the Invictus Games for the community.
The 'Yellow Bench' as a symbol for change and meaningful conversations.
(All images courtesy of the Invictus Games, The Hague 2020 and Conny Wenting)