From Conference News: VisitBritain, in partnership with MeetEngland, Meet in Wales, VisitScotland Business Events and the Association of British Professional Congress Organisers (ABPCO), explored the importance of ‘impact beyond the plenary’ at its first Association Conference at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC). The conference, which took place from 5-7 February 2024, brought together 80…
From Conference & Meetings World: National tourism agency VisitBritain has announced that its first ever Association Conference will take place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) in Scotland, 5-7 February 2024. The VisitBritain Association Conference 2024 will see invited association meeting planners connect in person with professional suppliers and decision-makers from the British nations…
A group of Edinburgh-based event professionals have launched a new tool to measure the societal impact conferences and meetings have in the city. The BEST (Business Events Shaping Tomorrow) tool has been developed to evaluate the positive outcomes from the business events hosted in the capital each year. From Conference News…
Last year Goodfellow Publishers released “Business Event Legacies: Global industry case studies”, from Carmel Foley, Deborah Edwards and Karin Weber. Previous work by Foley and Edwards includes the first JMIC Case Study published here on The Iceberg, and this book cites all of those studies. Here the volume’s content is outlined. From Meetings International…
Incredible Impacts, from Iceberg partners the International Congress and Conference Association (ICCA) and BestCities Global Alliance, has awarded three associations which have left legacies of social impact and public engagement with their meetings. This year these covered water, brain health and the health benefits of playing football. 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…
The Editorial Director Martin Fullard recently visited Scotland to find out how important business events are to the region. He talked to some of the country’s leading eventprofs, learning about VisitScotland’s new and improved “Policy Driven Model”, its “Journey to Change” project, and how universities are helping to bring in business events. From Conference News…
A new research report published by Cities Restart called The Importance of International Conferences and Business Events to Restarting City Economies has revealed that spending on international conferences and business events for the UK is estimated to have been worth £19.4 billion in 2019, but following the interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, by 2026 is forecast…
The EICC (Edinburgh International Conference Centre) was marking 25 years of operation in the same week as revealing that 2019 was its most successful ever year. The venue has made an economic impact of over £720 million since opening its doors in 1995, with £12.6 million achieved in 2019. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
EICC, the Edinburgh International Convention Centre, has launched a “hybrid virtual model” in advance of the “phased return to smaller-scale events” anticipated later this year. “Make It Edinburgh Live” will allow planners to run events either entirely online or instead via a combination of both online and onsite. From Association Meetings International…
Edinburgh International Conference Centre has created a sustainability programme called “Step Change”, which it claims as a “world-first” for the events industry. From now each meeting taking place at the venue will receive a detailed and tailored Event Impact Report, designed to focus on the environment, society and the economy. From Association Meetings International…
As a founding member of twenty years’ standing, the departure of Edinburgh from Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance came as quite a shock. BestCities’ new MD Lesley Williams felt the loss very keenly, having in the past spent seven years as Head of Business Tourism at Marketing Edinburgh’s Convention Bureau. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Homeless hackathons, like those being held this year in Edinburgh, Montreal, Barcelona, Dundee and London, are one way for meetings to tackle this pressing social issue. The MD of organiser Gallus Events recently had a personal experience of homelessness outside COP25, the UN Climate Change Conference, in Madrid. From Association Meetings International…
UK Universities hosting conferences can expect to boost annual sales by around £2 million. So says a recent survey by CUBO, an association of university business officers. The figures released at CUBO’s Winter Conference at Edinburgh University show average income levels up by eleven percent against 2018. Photo: Alljengi. From Association Meetings International…
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…
Edinburgh International Conference Centre is “on track” for “record sales and operating profits” in 2019 after hosting some of the world’s most high-profile conferences. EICC has also calculated that the economic impact the venue makes on the region lies at around £55 million. From Association Meetings International…
Marketing Edinburgh has moved closer to collapse with the entire board of the organisation resigning “with immediate effect” after city councillors rejected a funding plea to implement new strategy. The publicly-owned organisation is set to lose all funding as the authority tries to cut up to £40 million from next year’s budget. From Eventsbase…
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…
EICC, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, is partnering with the Edinburgh BioQuarter hub to raise the international profile of the Scottish life sciences sector. Their collaboration aims to bring more medicine and life sciences conferences to Scotland’s capital, while at the same time encouraging more entrepreneurs to start up innovative businesses. From Association Meetings International…
Edinburgh’s world leading position in medical research, life sciences and entrepreneurship is now being reinforced with many organisations in the sector selecting the city for events and meetings this autumn. In 2018-2019, Marketing Edinburgh supported 37 health conferences, bringing in 44 percent of business tourism revenue over that time. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Edinburgh will leave Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance at the end of the year after major public sector funding cuts that have devastated Marketing Edinburgh. The body is the destination’s convention and visitors bureau, and is responsible for promoting the city to the world. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
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