Florian Gerdes is Marketing Manager Conventions at HCB, the Hamburg Convention Bureau. He describes here HCB’s approach to subvention during low demand, the relationship Hamburg has with UK, what the city has to offer the planners organising within prioritised knowledge sectors, its competition with Berlin and its recent secured bid wins. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Every destination has a story to tell and specialist knowledge to attract international meetings. For the South Tyrollean capital Bolzano, with its significant existing tourism business as skiing destination, intellectual capital has also developed around local geography. Eurac is a private research cluster headquartered in the destination. It boasts eleven institutes of different disciplines, including one…
South Africa boasts the most advanced broad-based economy in the continent, and meetings business across Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban which includes the 5th BRICS Summit, COP17 and the recent World Economic Forum on Africa. Clusters include healthcare and ICT, the $233 million MeetKAT radio telescope also leading in astronomy. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Calgary has seen steady growth in life sciences and healthcare, with research clusters spread across the city and a vibrant ecosystem of over 200 companies in the sector, both start-up and mature. Association conferences in the field have seen the potential impact their meetings can have in Calgary, and have consequently been piling up. From Boardroom…
Melbourne is showing vision as a leader in eye health, partnering a significant international optometry congress win with existing events in the field. Some 2,000 eye healthcare professionals are expected to gather at the World Congress of Optometry in September 2021, after two recent sector events were merged and staged together. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
The new Paris Convention Centre helped make this year’s edition of the European Society of Cardiology Congress “an exceptional vintage”, according to one of the organisers. The event, which attracted 33,000 delegates, also featured the ESC’s first patient forum, and a joint public awareness campaign, a playful and informative “Heart Village”. From Association Meetings International…
Dubai Business Events, the emirate’s convention bureau, won 82 bids for international meetings, conferences and incentive travel groups in the third quarter of 2019. The events, all secured from July to September, are set to attract over 29,200 delegates from around the world, re-affirming Dubai’s status as a premier meetings destination. From Association Meetings International…
AIM Group International has published a white paper on why organisers should consider the integration of patients in scientific congresses, and how to do so with success. The real life example used is the organiser’s very own World Systemic Sclerosis Congress, run since 2010 and previously featured on The Iceberg. From Boardroom…
Brisbane’s brightest are again being offered grants to help them bring international meetings to the Queensland capital. The Lord Mayor’s Convention Trailblazer Grant will give young business leaders and academics a share of AU$30,000 to attend events specific to their field, and then help Brisbane bid to host the conference in future. From Association Meetings International…
Seoul has been spotlit as a leading knowledge hub in minimally invasive urological surgery through securing the 2022 40th World Congress of Endourology. The event will bring around 2,500 specialists from 90 countries to the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in Gangnam. Another Seoul sector event relayed live surgeries from local hospitals. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
The world’s top forensic toxicology scientists will meet in New Zealand for the first time in 2023 when the seaport of Auckland hosts the 61st Annual Meeting and Congress of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists. The five-day event is expected to attract 650 delegates and deliver NZ$1.28 million in visitor spend. From Association Meetings International…
Vilnius is hoping to energise its local physics community through hosting the 14th European Conference on Atoms, Molecules and Photons in 2022. The meeting, which Vilnius University academics are organising, should attract over 400 experts in atomic, molecular and optical physics to the Lithuanian capital, and have an economic impact of €800,000. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Can venues help bridge the divide that often lies between international associations and their local hosts or chapters in the event destination? Angeline van den Broecke, Director of Global Business Development and Marketing at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, believes they can, and in the process ensure the success of major congresses. From Boardroom…
While some destinations fail to invest in reaping the rewards of business and professional events (the current example being the Scottish capital and the public sector funding cuts devastating convention and visitors bureau Marketing Edinburgh), meetings are increasingly being acknowledged by city authorities across the board for the economic and social legacies they leave. Iceberg…
The 45th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation staged in Frankfurt, the world’s largest meeting for stem-cell therapy, was the result of close cooperation between the city, the venue and the scientific community. From Association Meetings International in collaboration with Conference & Incentive Management and Frankfurt Messe…
With a record-breaking 3,580 attendees registered, the recent World Sleep 2019 in Vancouver was the largest sleep meeting ever held. Organised by the World and the Canadian Sleep Societies, the event featured a learning and awareness stream free to attend for the general public, Sleep Expo 2019. Photo: Kristopher Grunert. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Business Events Sarawak is looking beyond the narrow limits of business tourism’s financial benefits. Malaysia’s biggest state and second-tier conference destination, with fast-increasing popularity, has recently expanded its focus towards the social impact and remote legacy that meetings can leave behind, like April’s Borneo Coffee Symposium. From Boardroom…
With successful sectors like life sciences, technology, agribusiness, aerospace, clean technology, natural resources and advanced manufacturing, Canada is becoming an increasingly “alluring” destination for global meetings and events. Planners can reach into local industry and academia to shape their meeting agendas, grow their attendances and create legacies. From Boardroom…
Meetings in Europe are increasing in number, but becoming shorter and smaller. So says the ninth edition of Iceberg partner European Cities Marketing’s Meetings Statistics Report, which reveals 2.9 percent growth in the number of meetings between 2017 and 2018. Delegate numbers and delegates days have however slightly decreased. 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…
With five different formats spread across two co-located meetings, Basel Life and Intelligent Health, a festival of life sciences events has just taken place at the same time in the Congress Center Basel. 2,000 delegates from 68 countries visited Intelligent Health, which focussed on the use of artificial intelligence to solve world health problems. From Boardroom…
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