Webinar: Key Lessons from the Dutch User Needs First Conference

On April 1st, we will share some key lessons from the Gebruiker Centraal (The Dutch initiative our international community is a part of) annual conference from March 27, 2026. The conference is focused on creating a human-skilled government. Join us on April 1st from 11:00 to 12:00h (CET).

About the webinar

We’re organizing this webinar to share some of the key lessons from our Dutch conference with our international community, who, for the most part, don’t speak Dutch. We’ll soon share more details about this webinar. It will center around creating a human-skilled government. You can check out the whole programme and schedule of the conference on our Dutch website, which you can hopefully translate with your browser. If you’re not part of our international community, you’re still more than welcome to join!

View the details of the Dutch conference on March 27, 2026

The webinar will not be recorded.

Programme

“Service is what you give, hostmanship is how you make it feel.” In this webinar, Alexander de Vries will share his insights on hostmanship for government services. 

Victor will discuss the theme of Gebruiker Centraal’s annual conference in March: the relationship we, as the government, want to have with people. In the Netherlands, the government’s main focus used to be on efficiency. Now however, we’ve left the New Public Management philosophy behind us. But what role do we want to have now? Victor will highlight this central theme of the conference, and delve into how we want to find out what our role as public servants is or should be, what lessons we’ve learned in the past, and how we can build trust and learn to be empathic.

We’ll continue to update the programme.

Speakers

3 speakers will join us on April 1st to share some of the most important lessons from the Gebruiker Centraal Conference on March 27th. We’ll continue to update this page with more information about the speakers.

Alexander de Vries

Alexander de Vries is director of the House of Hostmanship and an inspiring speaker on human-centered service delivery. With a background in economics and consultancy, he discovered early on that efficiency alone is not enough. After being introduced to the philosophy of hostmanship — making people feel welcome and seen — he chose to focus entirely on the human side of service. Alexander demonstrates that humanity is not a “soft” add-on, but a crucial success factor, especially within government.

Victor Zuydweg

Victor Zuydweg is one of the initiators of the User Needs First initiative, originally Gebruiker Centraal. Gebruiker Centraal focuses on inclusive, usable and comprehensible digital government, providing inclusive services that everybody can and is willing to use, which have been developed for and with citizens. User Needs First is the international community of the programme.

The theme of Gebruiker Centraal’s annual conference in March is the relationship we, as the government, want to have with people. In the Netherlands, the government’s main focus used to be on efficiency. Now however, we’ve left the New Public Management philosophy behind us. But what role do we want to have now? Victor will highlight this central theme of the conference, and delve into how we want to find out what our role as public servants is or should be, what lessons we’ve learned in the past, and how we can build trust and learn to be empathic.

When and where

The event will take place online on April 1st from 11:00 to 12:00h (CET).