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Exclusive Aviation Posts by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert

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Institutional narcissism - EBACE died and EBAA is drifting

EBAA’s ego failure mode forms a system of self-importance, where the association confuses administration with leadership, ritual with relevance, and legacy with legitimacy. Those modes ultimately hollowed out EBACE and now threatens the organization’s future. EBAA clung to EBACE as a symbol of identity rather than a product requiring reinvention. Legacy became the anchor that drowned it. The meta-reason for the failure of institutional narcissism is that an association becomes more invested...

EBACE - Move Or Be Forgotten

The uncomfortable truth is that in the last 5+ years EBACE has lost altitude and this year it has crashed. Not because the industry is shrinking. Not because Europe lacks ambition. If EBACE were a commercial brand, it would have been killed years ago. It has no story, no soul. A brand cannot be built like a policy paper. It should have been re‑launched years ago. Based on 2024–2025 reporting and leadership statements, EBAA over-relied on a single event that lost strategic purpose. Suggested...

EBAA-EBACE silence may be interpreted as incompetence

Movement is the message. If EBAA fails to produce a credible, future‑proof EBACE concept within the next months, it signals to the membership that EBAA has lost strategic direction, industry leadership, and possibly relevance. The membership’s reaction would not be mild—they would fragment, defect, or begin building alternatives.A failure to reinvent EBACE with a new concept would communicate damaging messages.  Members would interpret the silence as proof that EBAA cannot articulate a...

European business aviation conference on steroids

The phrase “on steroids” is shorthand for exactly that: amplified beyond what is natural, necessary, or strategically useful. A reality phenomenon in the event world is when a conference becomes so oversized, overproduced, or overstuffed that its scale stops being a strength and starts being a signal of bloat, overcompensation, or misaligned ambition.  It’s not a summit — it’s a bloat parade. All volume, no voltage. A maximalist event with a minimalist outcome. Bigger than necessary, smaller tha...

What the European Business Aviation community now needs most

A feasibility study!  It is the discipline that turns vision into victory. A feasibility study, that is the moment of brutal honesty before the romance of execution. It is the disciplined act of asking, “Should we do this?” before anyone wastes a euro or dollar proving that we shouldn’t. A feasibility study takes a concept and strips it of wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy, and enthusiasm is not a business model. EBACE as well as EBAA may have to be reinvented. EBACE once m...

The European business aviation conference revolution

This is about redefining what a top aviation event can be without competing with other aviation events. Creating a summit worthy of its orbit and positioning itself as the "State of Business Aviation" where attendance is exclusive. A must-participate attend event that is intimate yet global, curated for select participants, and designed to make a lasting impact.  One will never become an eagle by thinking like a chicken. Controversy frequently fosters advancement. Provocative approache...