Gary Grimmer, the Executive Chairman of Iceberg partner GainingEdge, has been revisiting both his own career path through four convention bureaux, plus the journey of his consultancy from its early days through to navigating the COVID-19 crisis. In this interview he also talks through the GainingEdge report “Leveraging Intellectual Capitals”. From Conference & Meetings World…
The Edinburgh International Convention Centre has given hundreds of Edinburgh Festival Fringe tickets to the venue’s local community. EICC worked with the Pleasance Theatre Trust to provide tickets for the famous arts event through a number of charities and social enterprises. The initiative has been supported by EICC’s catering partner Leith’s. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Australia is a hotbed of business event excellence, the country’s cities and states both competing and collaborating to win events for the destination. In this high-powered video double bill, The Iceberg hears once again from BESydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith, and also from Tourism Australia’s Robin Mack, about the role of meetings in diversifying destinations’ economies….
Located in the Beijing Olympic Green Area, the China National Convention Center, Phase 2 is on track to open in 2025. CNCC-II will host conferences, forums, and banquets for up to 20,000, as well as exhibition events for over 50,000. Rod Kamleshwaran, pre-opening international consultant of CNCC-II and partner at Iceberg partner GainingEdge, explains. From GainingEdge…
ICCA has released its annual analysis of association meetings worldwide. The latest ICCA Ranking Report examines 8,000 meetings scheduled for the year 2021 and categorises them based on how the meetings were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also compares last year’s affected meetings with ICCA’s analysis of meetings in 2020. After a hiatus in…
Over 35 policy makers from nineteen countries gathered at the IMEX Policy Forum 2022, held on May 31st as part of IMEX in Frankfurt. The meeting takes place annually and provides a collaborative, global discussion platform to encourage policy creation that directly benefits the global meetings and business events industry. The aim of this year’s…
The association of the German trade fair industry AUMA has announced the sector will be fully supplied by green power by 2025 and climate neutral by 2040. AUMA has just declared that sustainability is to be required in agreements with industry partners from 2023 onwards. These goals were set at AUMA’s annual conference in Berlin. From Exhibition World…
The USA performed better than any other country in hosting events of international associations last year, according to the ICCA Rankings 2021. Spain came second, then Germany, France and Italy. The country listings were released after the city results already posted, along with the publication of the report’s public abstract. From Association Meetings International…
There is still a compelling need to meet in person, but post-pandemic travel has to be business critical to justify the financial and carbon cost. So says a new report from Accor. It claims twenty percent of business meetings “may have gone forever”. But virtual meeting technology is one silver lining. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, has released the latest edition of its flagship research Global Exhibition Barometer. This shows the sector bouncing back quickly, with revenue for the first half of 2023 expected to reach 87 percent of comparable 2019 levels (2019 being the industry’s strongest year to date). Fom Exhibition World…
Over 40 percent of associations will hold their largest meeting in person this year, according to a survey by ICCA (the International Congress and Convention Association). But only 35.6 percent told the Iceberg partner that it was “very important” to “reduce the environmental impact of their event”. From Association Meetings International…
There is nothing like a face-to-face gathering to conduct business, says an RX global study. Face-to-face remains a key priority for survey respondents, with 78 percent of businesses stating trade shows offer them something unique that cannot be created elsewhere. This number is up from 68 percent in 2021. From Trade Show Executive…
Hopin has laid off 29 percent of employees, merely four months after the virtual events startup let another twelve percent of staff go. Once valued at $7.8 billion, Hopin is one of several online platforms that thrived over the pandemic but that has since seen a slowdown in its growth. From Conference News…
Over 440,000 conferences and meetings worth £4.9 billion took place across the UK in 2021, after just 195,000 in 2020, new research has revealed. The direct expenditure in venues and destinations was £1.7 billion in 2020 and £17.6 billion in 2019. 45 percent of venues expect business to recover by 2023. From Conference News…
The US Supreme Court ruling that lifted constitutional protections for access to abortion services has now prompted calls for scientific events to boycott states that have banned or severely restricted services. At least one organisation has already moved a meeting out of Louisiana over the issue of abortion rights. Photo: Ted Eytan. From Nature…
Event technology platform Bizzabo has laid off 120 employees, or thirty percent of its 400-strong workforce, reacting to what it called the “swift economic downturn”. Meanwhile, AI and transcription unicorn Verbit laid off sixty members of staff, about ten percent of total, following a period of rapid growth. From Association Meetings International…
ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) rankings just posted saw destination Vienna reclaim the top spot worldwide for the first time since 2012. The 2021 Iceberg partner survey attributed 92 congresses to Vienna, with Lisbon second (91) and Athens third (66). Barcelona and Singapore are next, then Madrid, Prague, Paris, Berlin and Brussels. From Meetings International…
Iceberg partner ICCA (the International Congress and Convention Association) has formalised a collaboration with BESarawak. The venture will see both working jointly on the new International Journal of Business Events and Legacies. GainingEdge, another Iceberg partner, and The Iceberg itself will also lend support to the publication. From Association Meetings International…
Over a hundred parties made a pledge at COP26 to reduce the carbon emissions created by the events industry. The coalition has doubled in size since that time. Kai Hattendorf, the President of Iceberg partner UFI and former Chair of the Joint Meetings Industry Council (which presents The Iceberg), helped make it happen. From PCMA…
International conferences are the most carbon-intensive activity for associations. Here five sustainability experts answer twenty fundamental questions to let organisations begin their journey towards net zero and assess their progress along the way. Included are views from Iceberg partners GDS-Index and Positive Impact. From Association Meetings International…
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