The BE Sector’s foremost forum for political and policy engagement is the IMEX Policy Forum held annually in Frankfurt, hosted by IMEX Director for Impact & Industry Relations, Natasha Richards.
In this video insight from the Forum, Pádraic Gilligan – the CMO of the Society of Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) and latest recipient of the SITE Master Motivator Award – joins The Iceberg co-founder, Martin Sirk, in debating the finesse required to advocate the immediate hard dollar tourism and political capital gains derived from business events, with the medium to long term socio-economic and civil society gains to be derived across ALL ministerial strategies and goals.
In advocacy terms, argues Sirk, there need to be sub-titles of what Gilligan describes as these ‘soft power’ returns, and not just with the politicians but the bureaucrats and policymakers who transcend electoral cycles.
Gilligan: “The government that funded a new metro 15 years ago isn’t going to be the government that cuts the ribbon when it opens!”
This is where democracy fails to account for the medium to long term impact of business and professional events and the challenge, therefore, for industry is to gravitate up the value chain of ministerial support beyond the ministry responsible for tourism.
Inevitably the political classes are drawn towards legacies that fall within electoral cycles and for which they can claim credit, but one antidote, suggests Sirk, is that tourism ministers can gain power and influence by giving profile to other ministers and ministries benefitting from the impacts of business & professional events – in healthcare, scientific and medical advances, or education. Sirk cites the recent example of the EASL congress held in London where then Deputy Mayor for Business, Rajesh Agrawal, sought and gained political credit at the foremost meeting of European liver health specialists driving positive change within the community. (See The Iceberg interview with Agrawal here.)
Sirk sees this strategy of political king-making as an opportunity to leverage the political capital of events beyond their intended mission.
Save the date for the 2025 Policy Forum: Tuesday, May 20 at The Marriott Frankfurt Hotel
Further reading:
From Destinations International: Intentional Action: Impact from IMEX
