Organisers of the 2020 American Physical Society March Meeting opted to cancel their event due to concerns about bringing COVID-19 into Denver. With more than 10,000 attending, some from risk countries, the “gut-wrenching” call was taken “out of an abundance of caution”. But the decision was made less than two days before opening. From PCMA…
Geneviève Leclerc is Chief Executive Officer of #MEET4IMPACT, and the best person to ask the difference between “legacy” and “impact”. This Iceberg partner is now working with Tourism New Zealand on the project “Enrich New Zealand – Conference Impact”. This will measure outcomes of three meetings held over two years. From PCMA…
Action to fight climate change is a growing part of CSR. But companies are starting to align activities around all the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Meetings contribute to quality education, or SDG 4. The industry’s engagement on SDGs has now been surveyed by Fiona Pelham, CEO of Iceberg partner Positive Impact. From PCMA…
Associations sit right at the heart of the legacy debate in business events. During the recent Dubai Association Conference, sessions focused on both the societal legacies they can leave and the strategies necessary to leave them. The emirate itself is a major hub for the sector, having set up the Dubai Association Centre in 2014….
The 15th Meetings Africa has just been hosted in Johannesburg at the Sandton Convention Centre. South Africa National Convention Bureau Chief Convention Bureau Officer, Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo (pictured), spoke at the opening address, and one keynote addressed Expo 2020 Dubai, at which all 54 of the African nations will be participating. From Exhibition World…
The Northern Territory (NT) Business Events Fund is offering AUS$200 per delegate before May 31st for events staged in the NT by the end of June 2021. Then it reverts to AUS$100. NT stole the show on the first day of Iceberg partner AIME in Melbourne with a tunnel light installation. From Association Meetings International…
Hong Kong is to pump HK$1 billion (US$130 million) into its faltering events industry as political unrest and the coronavirus outbreak take their toll. Where at least half of all attendees are coming from outside Hong Kong, the government will pay the full venue rental costs of large exhibitions and conventions. From Association Meetings International…
The Research Division of Iceberg partner the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) is monitoring the status of 1,065 meetings in the ICCA Association Database currently scheduled for Asia Pacific during 2020. Only 44 are affected by COVID-19 (4.1 percent). Of these, 34 are being postponed, five cancelled and five relocated. From UFI…
The Asia Pacific Incentives and Meetings Event (AIME), an Iceberg partner, opened in Melbourne with the Hosted Buyer Breakfast served by New Zealand celebrity chef Justin North. For each of the 140 present, Tourism New Zealand committed to the legacy of planting a native tree with conservation charity Trees That Count. From PCMA…
Figures show that Brisbane hosted over 940 business events delivering an estimated AU$351 million to the local economy during financial year 2018-19, with association events playing a major role. Queensland’s capital has already confirmed ten major national and international association congresses for 2020. From Association Meetings International…
The ambassador programme Club Liverpool has marked five years with an event held at Liverpool Town Hall attended by some of the members who have helped attract £70 million of meetings to the city. The network of influential figures from academia, medicine and business now boasts 230 ambassadors. From Association Meetings International…
A recent Twitter #Expochat devoted an entire session to the coronavirus outbreak and its impact on US and global exhibitions. Industry leaders including Kai Hattendorf, MD and CEO of Iceberg partner UFI, talked through the shows being cancelled or seeing major absences from their Chinese delegations. Far more are going ahead than not. From UFI…
Often legacies we leave behind are not as much under our control as we might like. Stylianos Filopoulos, Board Member of the European Society of Association Executives, argues that association leaders are not the sole drivers of association legacy, but caretakers who protect the vision that inspires and unites members and stakeholders. From Boardroom…
Profit and productivity rank high when buyers of incentive travel experiences list the objectives of their programmes. Except that isn’t the whole story. There’s a powerful narrative emerging around other objectives incentive travel sets out to achieve which has little to do with tangible metrics. From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…
Despite not sending food waste to landfill sites for over a decade now, Olympia London has introduced new measures to make sure excess isn’t created in the first place. The venue has also partnered with the sustainability advocacy group WRAP, which runs the “Guardians of Grub” campaign, to track food waste. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
As organisations consider how to address the impact of coronavirus on upcoming meetings and events, what about the legal and insurance issues that arise? Barbara Dunn is a Partner with the Associations and Foundations Practice Group within Barnes and Thornburg, practicing in association, meetings, travel and hospitality, law. From PCMA…
The Iceberg is now identifying and celebrating the greater mass of hard-to-see business events legacies that lie hidden beneath the surface in a new podcast “Below the Waterline”. In the fifth of a series featuring significant meetings industry players, Iceberg founder James Latham catches up with Talley Management Group President and CEO Gregg Talley. Gregg…
Meetings Africa 2020 is currently preparing to open up shop at the Sandton Convention Centre. The show is celebrating fifteen years as the continent’s premier industry event. The Iceberg has been hearing about South Africa’s own approach to its meetings business from the Chief Executive Officer of South African Tourism, Sisa Ntshona. As a young democracy…
Who helps an association to decide which destination should host its next conference? Who better to provide the personal element than the city’s own thought leaders? Prague’s Ambassador Program started back in 2008, shortly after the establishment of the Prague Convention Bureau. A collection of academics was assembled with immediate results. From Boardroom…
UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, has postponed its Macau Asia-Pacific Conference and Digital Innovation Forum, set to take place early next month. Over 300 delegates were expected at the Iceberg partner’s event, which due to the coronavirus crisis in China will now take place “later in the year”. From Association Meetings International…
On the occasion of the UFI Global CEO Summit in Rome, Pope Francis invited the meeting’s one hundred participants to a private audience in the Vatican’s Sala Clementina. His Holiness spoke and shook hands with every delegate, and told them their events would “contribute to a more just and humane global economy”. From UFI…
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