GICEC: a global venue serving its local industry.

Since the last issue, my impending big birthday has come and gone. Brexit didn’t land on top of it, but got delayed until Halloween. Here’s to six months of further chaos! In the US, the redacted Mueller Report dropped. Like so many dramatic blockbusters, it turned out in the end to be much, much worse than the advance trailers had suggested. In Paris, citizens wept as an iconic medieval meeting venue was devastated by fire. Sic transit gloria mundi.

But some have spent the past fortnight trying to make the world a better place. Iceberg partner Positive Impact’s online #CSRshareDay event lit up twitter discussing corporate social responsibility. See for yourself here, and get the report here. To mark Earth Day, Positive Impact also launched a campaign to address the role of plastics in the events industry.

Just added to Features this issue of Business Events World and on The Iceberg, read about the architecturally extraordinary La Nuvola Convention Centre, also called The Cloud, lifting Rome’s appeal as a meetings destination. There’s more detail on the #MEET4IMPACT Project’s framework for generating and measuring association meeting legacies. Welcome also to #MEET4IMPACT as an Iceberg partner! Plus an Event case study, in partnership with The Iceberg, examines the Tanzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center (GICEC), which is serving its local industry while facilitating global trade.

In News, the meetings industry’s own events are making headlines. Several hundred association professionals gathered in Gothenburg for the 2019 Associations World Congress. During the event, José Zuniga of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care was named Executive Director of the Year at the International and European Association Awards. At the online 9th Global Eventex Awards, the legacy-focussed and Iceberg favourite SIAARTI Academy event (of the Italian Society for Anaesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care), won the corporate social responsibility trophy.

VisitBritain’s MeetGB has taken place in Windsor, and VisitScotland Expo’s staging in Glasgow was one of the biggest since the event began in 1980. World Travel Market Africa 2019 has been held in Cape Town, as has The Cannabis Expo, whose high (ahem) attendance shows how well a major meeting can serve, support and steer an emerging industry.

Also in News, Centaur Media Travel and Meetings, which runs the Business Travel Show and The Meetings Show in Britain, is to be sold to Northstar Travel Media UK. The 2019 Conference on Artificial Life will take place at Newcastle University from July into August. Organisers are using remote talks and presentation streaming to reduce travel and carbon footprint.

Over nine million guests have visited the Vancouver Convention Centre in its ten year history, generating more than $2.4 billion for British Columbia. Ottawa is to launch a conference ambassador programme. Destinations International and its Foundation have announced the 2019 “30 Under 30” class of rising stars. The Events Industry Council has announced Amy Calvert, previously of Visit Baltimore, as its new CEO.

In Opinions you’ll find The Iceberg‘s own James Latham on how events can have a positive impact on their destination. For negative impact – what I term and tag on Iceberg stories “reverse legacy” – meetings titans IAPCO and DRPG have joined wider tourism players in condemning the new anti-LGBT laws of Brunei.

Opinions also contains a global roundup of convention bureaux conference ambassador programmes. There are views from the Gothenburg Associations World Congress, and from the north of England in advance of a regional destination marketing conference in Leeds. Finally, Iceberg partner GainingEdge’s Jane Vong Holmes looks at a heartwarming schools ICT CSR programme being run across ten major meetings by the Sarawak Convention Bureau.

In Research, the exhibition industry’s global association UFI, another Iceberg partner, has for the first time published the Global Economic Impact of Exhibitions. Spoiler alert: the sector generates $325 billion in global business sales every year.

As before, The Iceberg reiterates its call for you to join our Global Ambassador Program. You can see Ambassadors listed on The Iceberg homepage, Ambassadors page, and in Business Events World below. Visit Call for Ambassadors 2019 & 2020 to find out more.

Until the next time…

Robert Coren, Curator of The Iceberg

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