It has ancient academic powerhouses with adjacent knowledge clusters like Oxford and Cambridge. It has the meetings-friendly pairing of Newcastle and Gateshead in the North, not to mention Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and of course London. England’s expertise is making it a world-class meeting destination. Photo: VisitBritain / Guy Richardson. From Boardroom…
Athens boasts an event history that spans 5,000 years. Holding modern meetings across sectors like maritime, sports, architectural design and culture, This is Athens-Convention & Visitors Bureau is now launching its own destination ambassador programme to attract knowledge through international conferences and grow sectors like IT. From Boardroom…
Over 500 senior oil and gas executives will visit Nairobi in March with Kenya poised to become a hub of oil and gas exploration. The sixth edition East Africa Oil & Gas Summit & Exhibition will bring together government officials, national oil companies and investors to examine significant opportunities across the region. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
With the WHO declaring coronavirus a public health emergency, and with airlines suspending their flights to China, conference managers are having to cancel, delay or relocate their meetings in the country. One professional congress organiser said his clients were exercising “extreme caution” because of the crisis. From Association Meetings International…
Seven national and international organisations have already signed contracts to hold events in the $288 million Oklahoma City Convention Center, scheduled to open at the end of 2020. Together the bookings account for more than 37,000 room nights and an estimated $20 million of direct economic impact. From Meetings & Conventions…
Leaders of Australia’s convention bureaux have sought to dampen fears about the recent bushfires and quash what they call the spread of “misinformation”. The Association of Australian Convention Bureaux says organisers and managers of events should be contacting its members for destination-specific information and advice. Photo: Rob Russell. From Association Meetings International…
The Seoul Convention Bureau is partnering with other Korean cities to promote business events. In 2019 nearly 7,000 delegates made use of co-marketing support provided by Seoul and Gangwon for incentive group tours. Currently Gangwon and Gwangju have agreements with Seoul, with four more cities joining up later in 2020. From Meetings International…
The Iceberg does like an ice event. The synergy between academia and meetings was recently on show with the University of Leeds hosting a group of experts on the Great Ice Age. The meeting, which explored the pressing issues around climate change, worked closely together with the college’s convention bureau MEETinLEEDS. From Association Meetings International…
Malaysia is expecting to welcome more than 65,000 conference and exhibition goers in 2020, national convention bureau MyCEB having secured 42 business meetings over the next 12 months. Most delegates, expected to boost national coffers by RM654 million (€144 million), are employed in healthcare, telecoms, or science and technology. From Association Meetings International…
With a scientific consensus that we are already in a full-blown climate crisis, events are under widespread scrutiny for environmental impact. So are meetings now in a state of emergency? German Convention Bureau Director Matthias Schultze, UFI CEO Kai Hattendorf and Iceberg Founder James Latham are among the sector voices canvassed. From EventMB…
As Sherrif Karamat, President and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association explains, PCMA and the PCMA Foundation have set a goal of raising at least $250,000 to help those affected by the recent bushfires in Australia and earthquakes in Puerto Rico. The first $50,000 is already committed. 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 fourth of a series featuring significant meetings industry players, Iceberg founder James Latham catches up with BestCities Global Alliance Director of International Associations Jane Cunningham…
Destinations’ medical expertise wins them association meetings. This global checkup includes oncology in Copenhagen and Lyon, ENT medicine in Brisbane, child cardiology in Washington DC, pain management in Dublin, medical physics in Adelaide, women’s mental health in Maastricht, oesophageal disease in Tokyo and obesity in Glasgow. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Many cities powering ahead in renewable energy have appropriate geographic or climatic conditions. But traditional oil and gas-rich destinations are also attracting meetings in the sector. Here’s how Abu Dhabi, Calgary and Singapore, plus Costa Rica, Norway, Monaco, Australia and New Zealand, are all meeting the shifts in power. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Germany’s second city, Hamburg, is “Port to the World”, and attracts maritime events as well as the renewable energies sector. Venue CCH (Congress Center Hamburg) reopens in 2020 to become the country’s largest conference facility. But the UK Institute of Acoustics drew on musical heritage for its own event. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Sheffield is the birthplace of stainless steel. Today the South Yorkshire UK city has a modern knowledge economy “making solutions to some of the worlds toughest problems”. World-class research centres and Marketing Sheffield’s ambassador programme are combining to attract targeted UK and international events. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
The number of corporate travel buyers forecasting bigger budgets for 2020 is now at a five-year high, according to annual research from the Business Travel Show. 41 percent of buyers said they would have more money to spend on travel in 2020, a rise from 33 percent last year. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Industry mega-gathering Convening Leaders has just taken place in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. The organiser PCMA, the Professional Convention Management Association, gave details of its flagship event’s impact at a press conference, just after the signing of a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau. From PCMA…
Famous for its giant Buddha and historic temples, the ancient city of Nara will open a new venue this spring in a bid to become one of Japan’s leading event destinations. The Nara Prefectural Convention Center will allow the compact city to host conferences for up to 2,000 participants. From Association Meetings International…
The US Congress has just voted to renew funding and thus rescue the nation’s destination marketer Brand USA as part of a $1.4 trillion budget package. The reauthorisation comes with a changed funding structure, and a rise in the cost of America’s online visa waiver programme ESTA from $14 to $21. From Skift…
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