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Fast Forward 15 Holds Graduation Party on River Thames

Back in 2014, meetings and events industry veteran Fay Sharpe began Fast Forward 15, a mentoring programme to give 15 female professionals a voice in the industry. The scheme includes one-to-one sessions, group workshops and a graduation ceremony, held this year on board the Silver Sturgeon on the River Thames. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…

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Breaking Taboos to Create a Legacy in Global Sanitation

Jack Sim founded the World Toilet Organisation in 2001 as the global voice of toilets and the sanitation agenda. Its aim is to break taboos over a hard-to-discuss subject and also to engineer a massive legacy: addressing the crisis of 2.6 billion people living without clean toilets and hygienic sewage treatment. From BestCities Global Alliance…

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Attracting Top Talent: Learning Lessons from Silicon Valley

Lyn Lewis-Smith, CEO of Business Events Sydney, recently joined a Trans-Tasman Business Circle’s #womenintechontour visiting San Francisco and Silicon Valley to gather intelligence on the skills and talent attraction strategies of US multinational corporations. Global meeting attendees present a ripe opportunity that is currently being overlooked. From Lyn Lewis-Smith via LinkedIn…

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SITE Incentive Summit Europe: An Inaugural View from Verbier

Recently almost sixty incentive travel professionals took planes, trains and automobiles from sixteen countries to Verbier, Switzerland, to attend the inaugural Society of Incentive Travel Excellence’s SITE Incentive Summit Europe. SITE’s Chief Marketing Officer now reports on the four day alpine excursion of connections, education and destination discovery. From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…

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WCPT’s Tracy Bury: Building Communities, and Creating Legacies

How do you create a cohesive community right across a global profession? Tracy Bury is Deputy Chief Executive of the World Confederation for Physical Therapy. Her portfolio includes the WCPT Congress, which in 2017 won the association an inaugural “Incredible Impacts” grant for its commitment to creating legacy. From BestCities Global Alliance…

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Growing Pains: Making a Case for Convention Centre Expansion

As event organisers attract bigger audiences, they can outgrow the centres that once hosted them. But expansion of those venues is a tall order since most involve public funding. Getting buy-in for major investment may mean navigating a complex political maze, wrangling support, and explaining why a centre matters to a city’s economy. From PCMA…

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Walking the Talk: The ICT CSR Legacies of Sarawak CB

School computer labs across rural Sarawak, Malaysia, will be benefitting after convention organisers and their delegates complete surveys from the Sarawak Convention Bureau. Sarawak CB will be making a donation for each returned form to the Chumbaka Junior Innovate Fund. By Jane Vong Holmes, Senior Manager Asia, at Iceberg Partner GainingEdge (second left). Many of the world’s…

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The Iceberg’s James Latham: Creating Positive Impact

How can events have a “positive impact” on their destination? James Latham of The Iceberg discusses key trends in legacy and how meetings can create them, legacies being those outcomes relating to the purpose of an event in trade, innovation, education, healthcare, conflict resolution etc. which grow over time. From BestCities Global Alliuance…

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Mutschlechner: My “Soft” Retirement at Congrex Switzerland

You just can’t keep a good man down! Christian Mutschlechner, former Director of the Vienna Convention Bureau, will enjoy a “soft” retirement after taking an unsalaried position on the board of Congrex Switzerland. Here he answers questions about his new position, his retirement and his other goals. From Association Meetings International…

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GMID 2019: Legacies Created by the Global Meetings Industry

From campaigns in Atlanta and New York combating  human trafficking, to a visit to Washington DC and Capitol Hill sharing the sector’s economic value with members of Congress, the global meetings industry came together on April 4th at events all around the world to create legacies for Global Meetings Industry Day. From PCMA…

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Don Welsh: Serving the Core Communities of Convention Bureaux

Don Welsh, CEO of Destinations International, once headed up individual convention bureaux in Seattle, Indianapolis and Chicago. Now he’s the leader of the entire CVB community. Here he describes how the roles differ, and also how the function of a convention bureau has evolved in recent years. From PCMA…

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Meetings Africa 2019: Sowing the Seeds of Food Security

Meetings Africa 2019, recently held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, featured both South Africa Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom (pictured left) and Iceberg friend Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo of the South Africa National Convention Bureau. Now the continent will be looking to farming technology event Agritech Africa to shape and secure its future. From Boardroom…

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Abstract Expressionism: Flipping the Scientific Meeting Model

Many healthcare and STEM meeting participants can justify attendance because an abstract of theirs has been accepted. But rather than holding conferences of speakers speaking to speakers, perhaps there is space for a “flipped” model, where the event environment is a place for peer review and improvement of works in progress. From PCMA…

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Medical Meetings: Correctly Diagnosing Return on Investment

The financial health of a medical association convention can depend on whether its exhibition floor is or isn’t sold out. Attending doctors though aren’t usually buying drugs directly but prescribing them. So measuring the return on investment of exhibiting at medical meetings has become a science in its own right. From PCMA…

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Associations Growing Global VII: IASP’s Painless Growth

The Iceberg is publishing a series of interviews about the globalisation of large associations. These are jointly produced by partners Boardroom and the Global Association Hubs Partnership. Matthew D’Uva, CEO of the Washington DC-headquartered International Association for the Study of Pain, describes reaching 100 chapters around the world. From Global Association Hubs Partnership…

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SACEOS: Turning 40, New Leadership, New Generational Vision

This year marks a milestone for SACEOS, the Singapore Association for Conventions Exhibitions Organisers and Suppliers. It is both celebrating its 40th year, and a new President, industry heavyweight Aloysius Arlando, took over the reigns in February. Here he shares his vision for the future and explains why associations must be “future-ready”. From Boardroom…

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