FORTNIGHTLY ROUNDUP


IMEX Frankfurt 2019: busy week, busy fortnight.

It never rains but it pours, and at IMEX occasionally it thunders as well. Despite the flight delays, the industry did make its annual pilgrimage to Frankfurt, and a deluge of content is the happy result.

But first… added to Features this issue of Business Events World and on The Iceberg are two videos on meetings enabling economic transformation. The second part of The Iceberg and partner Boardroom’s recent trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, covers two sectors earmarked for growth and the role events will play in shaping that legacy. At the recent CEO Summit held in London by Iceberg partner UFI, Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism Saif Saeed Ghobash explains how events are diversifying the emirate’s economy away from oil.

News this issue is bursting at the seams. Paris stormed back to the top of ICCA’s City Rankings, hosting 40 meetings more than second place Vienna and knocking Barcelona off the lead. ICCA’s new CEO Senthil Gopinath was honoured at the PCMA Visionary Awards in Washington DC. Another Iceberg partner, Gregg Talley of the Talley Management Group, was part of a team creating a training legacy for the African Society of Association Executives. Birmingham’s strengths in medicine saw the city’s ICC win five sector association congresses in three weeks. Stunning imagery from the Event Photography Awards 2019 was celebrated in London. Do click through the article’s gallery link!

In research News, Ashfield Meetings & Events’ new report The Science of Healthcare Congresses reveals lack of time as the main reason healthcare professionals are not attending events. An independent report from EY calculates that Expo 2020 Dubai will boost the United Arab Emirates’ economy by AED122.6 billion ($33.4 billion).

In industry News, the thunderstorm delaying flights failed to deter thousands from gathering at IMEX in Frankfurt. The event generated a news cycle all of its own. Corne Koch, the head of the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau, made her first public appearance as Board Chair of the BestCities Global Alliance at the latter’s media breakfast. Martin Sirk, former ICCA CEO, was announced as new leader of Iceberg partner the Global Association Hubs Partnership. There is disagreement over what legacy means and how associations and destinations approach it, says a study released at IMEX by Danish convention bureaux and consultancy and Iceberg partner GainingEdge. A major public health legacy project was announced by Glasgow Convention Bureau around its medical meetings.

There’s still more on The Iceberg itself (click View all News). Hangzhou has just hosted the largest ever China International Tea Expo. The Hague’s ethos of “doing good and doing business” helped it secure the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in June. The International Glaciological Society’s British branch will be holding its annual meeting this September in NewcastleGateshead. The University of Warwick is organising and hosting the International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists in 2020. ESTRO, the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, has chosen Copenhagen for its 2022 Annual Meeting, and Glasgow for 2023. Making meetings sustainable is a top priority in Germany, says the country’s latest Meeting & Event Barometer. Back at IMEX, the Alliance of Brain Cities, a group of four Scandinavian destinations, held a breakfast for twenty international associations.

In Opinions, Matthias Schultze, MD of the German Convention Bureau, talks meetings sustainability. The same issue was a major focus at IMEX in Frankfurt. Also at IMEX, Iceberg ambassador Geoff Donaghy, CEO of ICC Sydney CEO, and Director Convention Centres at AEG Ogden, was talking event precinct “placemaking”. Welcome to Yorkshire’s Peter Dodd offers a north of England events perspective, after ExploreGB at the Harrogate Convention Centre.

Also in Opinions, industry demand for female keynote speakers has more than trebled in five years, according to bureau Speakers Corner. There’s video from female professional mentoring programme Fast Forward 15’s river graduation ceremony. Astra Zeneca Project Lead Catherine Boissier discusses the multinational’s approach to meetings. Startup pitchfest Collision 2019 has been trying to “fix the world” in Toronto.

In Research you’ll find added two reports mentioned above: Ashfield Meetings & Events’ The Science of Healthcare Congresses, and EY’s The Economic Impact of Expo 2020 Dubai.

Finally, and as always, The Iceberg reiterates its call for you to join our Global Ambassador Program. You can see Ambassadors listed on The Iceberg homepage, Ambassadors page, and in Business Events World below. Visit Call for Ambassadors 2019 & 2020 to find out more.

Until the next downpour…

Robert Coren, Curator of The Iceberg

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