The Global Incentive Summit in Edinburgh just saw incentive travel buyers, plus representatives from hotels, destinations and destination management companies, gather together to hear the latest trends in the incentives market. The meeting discussed the rise in Asia Pacific business and the findings of the Incentive Travel Industry Index. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
On the very day Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised the UK would be leaving the European Union “do or die” (October 31st, and spoiler alert, it did not), the European Tourism Association gathered over 100 delegates from across leisure and business tourism to discuss Brexit’s impact on the sector. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Gothenburg has lead Iceberg partner GDS-Index, the Global Destination Sustainability Index, for the fourth year running. The listing ranks sustainability performance in 50 business event destinations. At 58th ICCA Congress in Houston the GDS-Index Awards were announced as well, with Sydney receiving the Innovation trophy. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is to host the 2022 International Congress on Obesity. The winning bid was secured by the Melbourne Convention Bureau, with input also from the Australia & New Zealand Obesity Society and support from Victoria’s State Government and Tourism Australia’s Business Events Bid Fund Programme. From Association Meetings International…
Ulrike von Arnold, Deputy Director of the Vienna Convention Bureau, has received one of the meeting industry’s highest honours, ICCA’s Moises Shuster Award. The award announcement was made at the 58th ICCA Congress in Houston. Past winners include Paul Flackett, Martin Lewis, Ray Bloom, Connie Cheng and Christian Mutschlechner. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
In what is claimed to be a first for the meetings and events industry, Business Events Montreal has just launched its Guaranteed Success Pledge. So confident is the city that planners will reach their attendance target numbers, that it will honour its financial commitment for the anticipated number if they don’t. From Boardroom…
A major fire at the New Zealand International Convention Centre construction site in Auckland’s central business district will not prevent the city hosting the APEC Leaders Week event in 2021, says the country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. But NZICC’s opening, set for 2020, will be significantly delayed by the blaze. From Association Meetings International…
With almost 1,000 senior meetings professionals and association event planners from 75 countries coming to Houston, Texas, the recent 58th Congress of Iceberg partner ICCA, the International Congress and Convention Association, was the largest ever held in North America. The event is one of the industry calendar’s most significant. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Weeks of anti-government protests in Chile have forced the embattled President Piñera to cancel both this month’s APEC trade summit and COP25 UN climate conference in December. The 2019 Cochrane Colloquium,a major healthcare meeting, was also due to be held in Santiago, but the growing death toll has forced its cancellation. From Association Meetings International…
“The majority of disabled people don’t travel to conferences because they expect their needs will not be met”. So says Alan Broadbent, an accessibility writer and consultant to the events industry. Three examples of inclusivity, a venue (ICC Wales), a meeting (Glasgow’s IASSIDD World Congress) and a city (Dubai), are analysed. From Association Meetings International…
Over 100 association executives from seven African countries have just gathered in the Kenyan capital Nairobi for the inaugural Africa Association Summit (AAS1). The two-day event was run by the African Society of Association Executives, in partnership with the Kenyatta International Convention Centre. AfSAE President Jeffers Miruka reports. From Boardroom…
Business Events Luxembourg was created at the end of 2018 by the Ministry of the Economy of the Grand Duchy and the City of Luxembourg. It is the convention bureau for a destination striving to attract meetings in the government defined key sectors for economic growth: automobility, ICT, space, cleantech and life sciences. From Boardroom…
The trend toward plant-based diets has made headlines recently, and this June the first Plant Based World Conference & Expo launched at the Javits Center in New York City. The inaugural event welcomed 3,737 attendees, including professionals from retail, specialty restaurant and food service, healthcare and distributors. From PCMA…
One of the biggest takeaways from the World Wildlife Fund’s research into ending food waste occurring in commercial kitchens was the need to clearly better communicate with meeting planners about the multiple ways in which they can reduce food waste. So says Monica McBride of WWF, who lists some approaches to follow. From PCMA…
It’s clear that food production and consumption needs to change, and radically, to safeguard the planet and feed a growing population. The best place to start for the business events industry is with food waste, and now the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been working on food conservation in convention centre kitchens and hotels. From PCMA…
Every year Iceberg partner UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, gives young and emerging sector talent the chance to advance via its Next Generation of Leaders Grant sponsored by Freeman. In the second of two-parts, the last two of the five 2019 awardees talk about what NGL mentoring means for them. From UFI…
Florian Gerdes is Marketing Manager Conventions at HCB, the Hamburg Convention Bureau. He describes here HCB’s approach to subvention during low demand, the relationship Hamburg has with UK, what the city has to offer the planners organising within prioritised knowledge sectors, its competition with Berlin and its recent secured bid wins. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Every destination has a story to tell and specialist knowledge to attract international meetings. For the South Tyrollean capital Bolzano, with its significant existing tourism business as skiing destination, intellectual capital has also developed around local geography. Eurac is a private research cluster headquartered in the destination. It boasts eleven institutes of different disciplines, including one…
South Africa boasts the most advanced broad-based economy in the continent, and meetings business across Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban which includes the 5th BRICS Summit, COP17 and the recent World Economic Forum on Africa. Clusters include healthcare and ICT, the $233 million MeetKAT radio telescope also leading in astronomy. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Calgary has seen steady growth in life sciences and healthcare, with research clusters spread across the city and a vibrant ecosystem of over 200 companies in the sector, both start-up and mature. Association conferences in the field have seen the potential impact their meetings can have in Calgary, and have consequently been piling up. From Boardroom…
RAI Amsterdam is a venue that considers itself more of a neighbour than a conventional conference centre. It works closely with organisers to limit noise and traffic congestion, and looks for opportunities to give back to its local community. These include encouraging donations to social initiatives, especially of the venue’s own surplus food. From Boardroom…
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