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IMEX 2018: Five Themes for the Meetings Industry

IMEX 2018 is currently underway in Frankfurt. One of the greatest meetings industry exhibitions, the event also showcases key trends and advancements in the sector. The Iceberg’s favourite topic, legacy, is the main theme this year, but also making headlines are: event tech, wellness, live and experiential, and CSR and sustainability. From tmf dialogue marketing…

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The Gender Agenda: An End to All-Male Panels?

Despite a recent report that men give more than twice as many talks than women at scientific conferences, there are signs that female-to-male ratios are improving at some events. One of the best strategies for tackling the gender agenda is to include women as part of the team that selects speakers. From PCMA Convene…

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Fam Trips: The Case for Upper and Lower

While The Iceberg prefers to write “familiarisation trips”, the rest of the industry seems to stick with the shorter “fam trips”, or sometimes the capital “FAM trips”. Which should be considered correct? One of our more particular partners places the use of that shift key under the microscope. From editor’s blog at Meetpie.com…

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Scheduling: Better Late Than Early?

As meeting marketers try to turn prospective participants into registered attendees, it might seem that publishing a complete schedule early would be more than helpful. But in a fast moving knowledge sector, like that of the American Association of Cancer Research’s Annual Meeting, this can become a game of juggling crystal balls. From PCMA…

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Three Key Questions: The USPs of PCOs

At the recent International Association of Professional Congress Organisers Annual Meeting in Tokyo, an Iceberg partner asked four distinguished industry voices – including IAPCO’s new president – what value a PCO brings to the table for associations, what sector trends they were seeing, and how they saw the importance of IAPCO certification. From Boardroom…

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A Practitioner’s Guide: The Decoupling of Associations in China

Two years ago the authorities in China began the long process of decoupling an astonishing 700,000 associations or scientific societies from government sponsorship and control. International conferences also must have local partners. Olivia Jia, Senior Manager of consultants IME and publisher of the China Social Organisation, reflects on working with associations in China. From Boardroom…

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GMID: Four Industry Tipping Points

This Global Meetings Industry Day IMEX Group CEO Carina Bauer has been reflecting on how the events and meetings industry has been evolving. In a press release marking GMID, Bauer shared four major tipping points that have transformed the sector over the last decade: globalisation, the emergence of innovation hubs, technology, and the TED factor. From BizBash…

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The US Events Industry Gender Pay Gap

In the US April 10th is Equal Pay Day. The date chosen reinforces a point. It takes women nearly four months longer to catch up to a man’s annual salary. Last year Convene’s Annual Salary Survey reported that female respondents earned 22 percent less than male respondents. This year’s survey has now closed. From PCMA Convene…

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TED: Funding Audacious Legacies

TED has just announced The Audacious Project, which will apply a startup funding model to bold, new philanthropic legacy projects every year. According to the press release, it is a “joint endeavor housed at TED, to surface and fund critical ideas that have the potential to impact millions of lives”. From PCMA Convene…

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Are Men the Solution to the Gender Pay Gap?

As UK firms must now submit gender pay gap data, it is clear that women working at large event agencies are on average paid less than men. But gender pay gaps and staffing makeup are separate issues. If there are still more men at the top, is this for men to address? From editor’s blog at Meetpie.com…

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Medical Meetings: Patients are a Virtue

Medical conferences that invite patients onto their stages and into their planning committees are finding out that patients are a virtue. Over the last decade there has been a slow-moving revolution in leveraging the legacies that can accrue to both healthcare professionals and to patients when the latter play a meaningful role. From PCMA Convene…

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Meetings and Events Associations: An Insider’s Guide

The events and meetings industry is hardly short of its own professional associations. A good many of them are even Iceberg partners! You join for the networking, education and advocacy, then get much more. But which are right for each of the different tribes within our overall sector? From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…

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US Independent Planners React to Hilton Commission Cut

The decision of Marriott International to reduce group-intermediary commission rates has already made a major impact on the North American independent planners, many of whom have business models built entirely around commission. Now Hilton is doing the same. What will this mean for both the planners and the wider industry? Photo: Daderot. From Meetings & Conventions…

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Largest Ever European Association Summit Held in Brussels

For the sixth year in a row, visit.brussels has just staged the European Association Summit 2018 at the newly-rebranded SQUARE Brussels Convention Centre. This year’s EAS was the biggest to date, with over 200 participants, twenty themed workshops and three plenary sessions. For the first time industry associations ICCA and PCMA also participated. From Boardroom…

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Engaging with the Start-Up Sector at Events

With advances in technology and the rise of crowdfunding platforms, the start-up scene is booming. This has seen many events emerge for those that play in the sector, like 4 Years from Now (4YFN), an initiative from the GSM Association which takes place alongside its flagship Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. From Freeman XP…

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Medical Conferences in the Modern Age

National medical associations hold conventions yearly, while international ones are held every two to four years. But educational timeframes have utterly changed in the digital age. So what will happen to the traditional convention model, and its role in medical professional education? Neurosurgery Professor Antonio A.F. De Salles asks whether conventions will become digital. From Boardroom…

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