The European Society of Association Executives (ESAE) has announced the launch of the European Association Awards 2026, celebrating excellence, creativity, and purpose within Europe’s association sector. Open to all not-for-profit, membership-based associations active in Europe, the awards aim to recognise projects that demonstrate measurable impact and align with an organisation’s broader mission.
When international conferences take place in Sydney, their influence extends well beyond industry networking and economic return. Through a strategic partnership between BESydney and the NSW Department of Education, business events are being translated into real-world impact, inspiring students, equipping teachers, and preparing communities for the jobs of tomorrow. From Boardroom…
On this recent Boardroom Association Podcast, Alex Filicevas, Executive Director of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition, and Charley Stoney, CEO of the European Association of Communication Agencies, put forward key steps associations of all sizes can take with relation to both Board best practices and conference diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) implementation.
This excellent overview of the conference discussions and presentations by Boardroom’s Vicky Koffa highlights key concerns and opportunities facing organisers of medical meetings, and points the way towards the sector’s future evolution, where patients may have just as much of a voice as researchers and practitioners, and impact and outcomes are the most important metrics.
Hip replacements in Africa, domestic violence abatement in Mongolia, autism inclusivity, First People’s engagement, public health structural transformation – the wide-ranging case studies highlighted in this Boardroom article have one thing in common: a shift from “recognising” the impact of events, to partnerships between organisers and destinations that proactively plan for positive outcomes and long-term…
From Boardroom: The Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow hosted the IEEE CleanTech Summit 2025 last week, launching a milestone series of IEEE conferences set to take place at the venue through 2027. The inaugural CleanTech Summit convened international leaders in engineering, science, and technology to address critical sustainability challenges — from renewable energy integration and…
What if a conference could alter the trajectory of a student’s life? Influence public policy? Spark a regional movement for women’s safety or accelerate the next major scientific breakthrough? These possibilities are no longer hypothetical, they are the foundation of BESydney’s Social Impact Strategy, a pioneering framework that redefines the role of business events…
Vienna has a decades-long track-record of proactively harnessing its intellectual capital both to attract international meetings, and to ensure those meetings generate long-term legacies at both the local and global level. Here are some of the latest examples. From Boardroom…
This article provides an outline of the key steps cities need to take to create their own international events that can meet priority economic development goals: identify unique intellectual assets; coordinate disparate stakeholders; articulate a clear vision and event philosophy; bring in citizen voices; think about wider societal impact; use fresh meeting design-thinking. From Boardroom:…
From Boardroom: Sven Bossu, CEO of AIPC, unpacks the complexities and challenges of advocacy within the meetings industry. Drawing from first-hand experience and real-world examples, he explores why a structured, consistent approach is essential to making the industry’s voice heard—especially at the policy level.
From Boardroom: From 27 to 30 May 2025, Calgary played host to Innovate Canada – Life Sciences 2025, the latest edition of Destination Canada’s signature event series. Designed to rotate across the country’s top-performing sectors and innovation hubs, Innovate Canada connects international associations with the research, business, and policy leaders shaping Canada’s future. This year’s…
From Boardroom: This past March, Stuttgart played host to the European Robotics Forum (ERF) 2025, marking the first time in its fifteen-year history that Europe’s premier robotics and AI gathering took place in Germany. More than 1,500 participants from research, industry, and government convened at the Kultur- & Kongresszentrum Liederhalle, cementing the region’s reputation as…
From Boardroom: Long recognised for its hospitality, culture, and strategic position within Europe’s business events landscape, Barcelona is now working to embed long-term societal value into the very fabric of the events it attracts.
From Boardroom: As the European Green Deal is shaping various sectors in the continent, associations need to step up their game for advocacy and actively lead their sectors towards transformation. Few have risen to that challenge with the clarity and collaborative ambition of the European Boating Industry (EBI), which has just been awarded the 2025…
From Boardroom: Associations are under pressure. Technology moves fast, members want different things, politics are unstable, and the climate crisis is ever-growing. Association leaders must make difficult decisions about what relevance means and how to partner strategically for impact. In this context, Sydney’s Leadership Choices: Driving Societal Change into Associations event served as a hands-on…
From Boardroom: The 30th Annual Congress of the European Association for Osseointegration (EAO), one of the leading organisations within the field of implant dentistry, was a landmark event that underscored the city’s appeal as a world-class congress destination. With over 3,000 delegates and 140+ expert speakers, the meeting provided a dynamic platform for discussing cutting-edge…
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