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During a busy European Cities Marketing Spring Meeting 2019 in Edinburgh, meetings professionals debated the successes and failures of city event organisations from all over the continent. Contributors included Iceberg partner ECM’s President, Dieter Hardt-Stremayr. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
London’s 15Hatfields was set up as a sustainable venue in 2008, avoiding single-use plastics from day one. The venue needed to find a general manager who could embody this environmentally-minded ethos. Warren Campbell has been helping clients embrace sustainability in Central London ever since. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
The legacy of events is best pictured as an iceberg, as this website should certainly know! Design Indaba, held annually in Cape Town, is extending the legacy it creates for participating SMMEs through four simulcasts of its conference. Natasha Skoryk looks at the impact of business events on destinations and the meetings industry itself. From the Event…
Iceberg partners BestCities Global Alliance and GainingEdge recently published a report on accessibility in meetings (see Research). It featured real-life examples of events, hosted in BestCities’ destinations, that make inclusivity for those with disabilities a key focus. The True Colours Festival held in Singapore last March was one such case study. From PCMA…
Last year the Aotea Centre (above) in Auckland hosted over 1,400 leading scientists and researchers for the 11th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production. Auckland Advocate Alliance member and Massey University Professor of Animal Science Hugh Blair was the local committee chair, and integral to winning the conference. From Boardroom…
The branded plane that flew the foolhardy to the Fyre Festival in 2017 was just one footnote in the event disaster to end them all. After Fyre’s calamitous collapse, and the organiser’s imprisonment for fraud and $26 million fine, two new TV documentaries dissect every event planner’s worst nightmare. Photo: John Klos. From editor’s blog at Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Matthias Schultze, MD of the German Convention Bureau, has been discussing the future of meetings on the back of GCB’s research project, Future Meeting Space, recently launched at PCMA Convening Leaders in Pittsburgh. Diversity, disruption, format innovation, knowledge transfer, networking, and accommodating the shy and less tech-savvy are all covered. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Five Convene editors have been examining meeting trends for 2019. Big data now needs data ethics. We will pay more attention to attention itself and our use of technology in groups. New kinds of benchmarks are emerging to measure diversity and inclusivity. Sleep is now very much part of any focus on wellbeing. From PCMA Convene…
After conducting research for the recent “Gender Diversity & Inclusion in Events” report, reviewing over 60,000 speakers at business events in 23 countries between 2013 and 2018, event software company Bizzabo found that on average more than two thirds (69 percent) of speakers were male, with less than one third female. From PCMA…
As well as attending the 57th ICCA Congress, SoolNua’s Mary Martin has been at IBTM World in Barcelona. Her roundup includes the ICCA World Forum for young professionals. representing the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence with a social media clinic, the 2018 Tech Watch Awards, and IBTM World’s impressive closing statistics. From SoolNua blog and news…
The President of the Association for Women in Events has spoken about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the industry. Kiki J Fox (pictured top right) discussed career advancement resources, what women have to offer the industry, the #MeToo movement, AWE’s goals, and the recurring subject of gender diverse panels. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Accessibility is a concept buzzing around the business events industry, but what do planners need to know to ensure awareness at congresses? According to new research from Iceberg partners BestCities Global Alliance and GainingEdge, working with Rehabilitation International, universal accessibility is now key to business growth, knowledge sharing and increased competitiveness for destinations. From PCMA…
The second round of grants from the International Congress and Convention Association and BestCities Global Alliance’s “Incredible Impacts” awards have just been awarded to associations whose meetings create longterm legacies. Jane Cunningham, Director of International Associations at BestCities, breaks down this year’s winning entries and discusses what the judges are looking out for. From BestCities Global Alliance…
The recent Incentive Travel Industry Index has detected changes in the sector’s rationale. While the top reasons remain sales, revenue and overall profitability, some “softer” objectives have climbed up the rankings and are impacting event design and desired outcomes. In particular, improving relationships between workers and management now holds second place. From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…
Designed for an industry that never sleeps, IMEX America 2018 was brimming with opportunity and learning right down to its last moments. From hearing hosted buyer experiences and exhibitor perspectives, to education content like C2’s session on connecting with audiences and The Events Industry Council’s on cybersecurity, it was a packed final day. From the Event…
Along with bookings panels and not manels, gender inclusivity should also extend to working mothers attending business meetings and conferences. At In Good Company, an event for women entrepreneurs at Fort Mason in San Francisco, the sessions were emphatically BYOB: not “bring your own bottle” but “bring your own baby”. From Forbes…
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