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By David McMillin, PCMA Staff Writer

As another year of sending, ‘replyingall’ and forwarding begins, it’s time tore-evaluate your approach to yourinbox. Here are some simple stepstowards improving your electroniccommunication habits…

1. Avoid urgencyEveryone with an inbox is accustomedto receiving ‘OMG-I-need-this-ASAP’messages – and everyone is tired ofthem. If it’s urgent, it’s worth a phonecall. If it’s not, be sure to include thosemagical words in your message:There’s no huge rush on this.

3. Be upfrontWhile a lengthy introduction might winyou some literary recognition, the workinbox is no place for a full paragraphlead-in on how you’re feeling that day.Be sure to clearly state why you’re writ-ing near the opening of the message.

4. ProofreadSure, the ‘sent from my iPhone’ mighthelp excuse your typos, but it still isn’tdoing you any favours in the eyes of arecipient. Be your own editor, and dou-ble-check your spelling and punctua-tion. It’s a simple step that will makeyou look more organised.

5. Never let frustration out through your fingertipsOnce it’s in writing, it’s never goingaway. If you’re faced with a tough situa-tion, email is not the channel for vent-ing. Be respectful. Use email as a plat-form for introducing the need to dis-cuss the issue, and suggest a time for aface-to-face meeting.

6. One email, one ideaBullet-point lists can feel effective, butthe human brain can only remember somuch. Rather than listing five ideas andasking everyone on the email chain forfeedback, focus on one piece of crucialinformation you want to communicate.

Looking for help outside of writing toyour own colleagues and clients?Check out ‘3 tips to improve yourmeeting email marketing commun-ications’ at the PCMA website(www.pcma.com) to make sure yourattendee messaging is on point.

The Alfandega Porto Congress Centrehas won IAPCO’s 2014 NationalSupplier Award, having been nominat-ed by AIM Group Lisbon for its out-standing service, co-operation andflexibility. Carlos de Brito, President ofthe Associação para o Museu dosTransportes e Comunicações (AMTC),received the award on behalf of theCentre, which becomes the firstPortuguese winner of one of IAPCO’sawards, of which more than 60 havebeen presented in the past 20 years. “Iam gratified to present this award to theAlfandega Porto Congress Centre,”said Michel Neijmann, IAPCOPresident, “and their delight in receiv-ing it is proof of the honour we are

happy to bestow on them.” The IAPCOaward was just one of three in 2014 forthe Alfandega Porto Congress Centre,which was also recognised as the BestEuropean Congress Centre in theBusiness Destinations TravelAwards, and received the BestCongress award from Publituris,a prestigious national tourismsector magazine. “It is one of thelargest and most versatile con-gress centres in Portugal,” com-mented Monica Freire of AIMLisbon. “It is also located in oneof the city’s most emblematic andhistorical buildings,which makesit very special. The services provided by the Centre are of the

highest standards, ensuring the mostmodern equipment and the most effective and competitive solutions. I was proud to nominate them and evenmore delighted to see them win.”

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE –Michel Neijmann

NEWS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATIONOF PROFESSIONAL CONGRESS ORGANISERS

Issue No. 71 Q1 2015

EVENTS’ CALENDARYear Month Date Event Location

2015 May 13 – 17 IAPCO Council & Task Force Meetings Malaga, Spain

19 – 21 IMEX Frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany

Jun 1 – 3 FIEXPO Lima, Peru

4 – 6 World Meetings Forum Cancun, Mexico

9 – 11 AIBTM America Chicago, IL, USA

14 – 17 PCMA Education Conference Fort Lauderdale, USA

20 – 23 HCEA Annual Meeting Denver, CO, USA

July 1 – 3 IAPCO Regional Seminar with TCEB Bangkok, Thailand

7 – 9 The Meetings Show London, UK

Aug 5 – 7 CIBTM Beijing, China

8 – 11 ASAE Annual Meeting & Exposition Detroit, MI, USA

22 – 26 ECM Summer School Vienna, Austria

Aug/Sept 31 – 3 PCMA Global Professionals Conference (APAC) Melbourne, Australia

Sept /Oct 29 – 1 IT&CMA Bangkok, Thailand

Oct 13 – 15 IMEX America Las Vegas, USA

19 – 24 IAPCO Council & Task Force Meetings Dubai, UAE

21 – 23 ITB Asia Singapore

Oct/Nov 31 – 4 54th ICCA Congress Buenos Aires, Argentina

Nov 17 – 19 IBTM World Barcelona, Spain

2016 Jan 10 – 13 PCMA Convening Leaders Vancouver, Canada

Feb 19 – 21 IAPCO Annual Meeting & General Assembly Cape Town, South Africa

23 – 24 Meetings Africa Cape Town, South Africa

April 19 – 21 IMEX Frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany

Nov 12 – 16 55th ICCA Congress Kuching, Malaysia

The PCMAColumn

meetings per year with a combinedannual economic impact of more thanUS$5 billion. The winning bid wasspearheaded by Dubai Business Events(DBE), a division of Dubai Tourism,which serves as the city’s official con-vention bureau, in close partnershipwith local IAPCO members MeetingMinds and MCI Dubai. Key tourism

industry stakeholders Emirates andMadinat Jumeirah also played theirpart in securing the IAPCO meeting for Dubai.

“Part of our strategy to increase thenumber of visitors and business eventshosted in Dubai every year centres onengaging with meeting planners andindustry bodies from around the world,to raise awareness about Dubai as aleading destination for internationalbusiness events,” commented SteenJakobsen, Director of Dubai BusinessEvents. “By hosting the members ofIAPCO, we are excited to be able toshow what the city has to offer to agroup of people who are highly influ-ential in determining where majorinternational meetings and associationcongresses take place every year.”

“IAPCO offers a unique quality assur-ance platform, recognised by associa-tion, corporate and government clients,

through the application of a strict quality control process for its mem-bers,” added Medhat Nassar, CEO ofthe Dubai-headquartered IAPCOmember Meeting Minds Experts.“Winning the bid to host IAPCO 2017is excellent recognition for the Dubaimeetings industry and a vote of confi-dence by highly influential PCOsworldwide. We are truly delighted bythe outstanding support extended byour bidding partners Dubai BusinessEvents, MCI Dubai, Emirates andMadinat Jumeirah, which has beeninstrumental in putting together thissuccessful bid.”

6 simple tips for writingbetter emailsin 2015

Our future in good handsBack in the office after an invigorat-ing and inspiring GeneralAssembly, I cannot help but sharesome reflections with you. Themembers attending the IAPCOAnnual Meeting and GeneralAssembly in Lisbon showed such a high level of interest and engage-ment that, although back behind my desk, I am still excited about our achievements together. OurPortuguese colleagues from

Leading and AIM Group hosted us with lots of positive energyand showed how collaboration can create excellence. Theygenerated an atmosphere in which the attendees were able toconfront the future together, discussing the most effectivestrategies to further improve our strong commitment to quality.The buzz in the room and during the breaks was exhilaratingand, figuratively speaking, some tough nuts were cracked. As aresult, more members are taking on tasks through workshopsand/or becoming IAPCO Ambassadors – and because of this,the future looks better for all of us!

But to be frank, despite my enthusiasm for the excellentexchange of knowledge and opinion during our AnnualMeeting, it was something else that caused me to conclude thatthe future of PCOs is looking bright…

Last year, IAPCO introduced a new award that honours ourFounding Fathers and recognises the innovative ways in whichthe younger generation of IAPCO members deal with the chal-lenges of international PCOs. IMEX has also embraced the

opportunity to support this initiative. The IAPCO InnovationAward for PCOs attracted a number of applications this year,and Council presented three short-listed nominees to the audi-ence in Lisbon. The nominees had prepared 3-minute videosexplaining their innovative ideas, their implementation, andtheir successful contributions to their companies. Everyoneexcept those who had nominated a candidate then had the diffi-cult task of selecting the best innovation, and thus contributed50% towards the final vote for the winner. The three candidates

showed very high levels ofunderstanding of our businessand with this a great capacityto integrate innovative solu-tions. The areas of innovationwere social media, virtualmeetings, and public relationsstrategies, with the nomineeshailing from Bulgaria, Canada

and Korea. Council members voted separately and confiden-tially on the basis of the full descriptive applications, whichwere received in advance of the Annual Meeting presentations.The winner of the IAPCO Innovation Award for PCOs will beannounced during the IMEX Gala Evening in May and willreceive the opportunity to attend anIAPCO seminar of their choice.

Considering the innovations ofthese applicants, it is clear to seethat the future of PCOs is ingood hands… which makesour industry the real winner!

Michel Neijmann, IAPCO President

Triple honours for Porto!

It was announced at the recent IAPCOAnnual Meeting in Lisbon that the2017 Annual Meeting & GeneralAssembly will be held in Dubai.IAPCO’s annual gathering bringstogether approximately 100 of theworld’s most influential conferenceorganisers from 40 countries, who col-lectively manage approximately 7000

[email protected] www.iapco.org

2. Send complimentsAll too often, we look at email as a wayto accomplish one thing: sendingrequests. Rather than filling everyone’sinboxes with notes on what you needand when you need it, set a goal to sendpeople something they’ll actually likeon a regular basis. If a team memberdid an outstanding job at the weeklymeeting, send them a two-sentencenote on how impressed you were withthe performance. If a client’s organisa-tion just made a big announcement onlaunching a new product, write a quickemail offering congratulations. Useemail as a chance to spread some cheer.

An ecstatic bid team learn that Dubai has won the 2017 IAPCO Annual Meeting.

Carlos de Brito, Michel Neijmann and Monica Freire of AIMGroup Lisbon who put forward the nomination.

World’s mostinfluential tomeet in Dubai

FORTHCOMINGIAPCO

EDUCATIONSave the dates:

Bangkok: 1-3 July 2015Auckland:

24 -26 August 2015Copenhagen:

18-21 January 2016Whistler: 25-27 May 2016

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight” – Phyllis Diller


P C OTHEInternational Association of Professional Congress Organisers

With the anticipated growth of European economies as well as growing interest inAsian meetings markets, it is essential that PCOs are kept up to date with the latestdevelopments from the destination branded as ‘Asia’s World City’ – Hong Kong. The

ongoing partnership between IAPCO and Meetings and ExhibitionsHong Kong (MEHK) ensures that IAPCO members are provided withfirst-hand information on Hong Kong and enables them to raise the profile of Asia as a global meetings destination.

As part of this collaboration,MEHK hosted its inauguralIAPCO Study Mission toHong Kong on 2–6 Decemberlast year, an event that pro-vided PCOs the opportunityto inspect the city’s infra-structure, meeting facilitiesand hotels. In addition, theyhad the chance to experienceHong Kong’s visitor attractions, shopping and dining options, with theAqua Luna Harbour Cruise and the helicopter tour of Victoria Harbourproviding particular highlights.

Delegates were given the opportunity to reach out to local clients andpartners in Hong Kong, and a highlight of the Study Mission was theHong Kong Business Forum, at which the PCOs received the latestupdates on the convention industry in the city. Industry insights were presented by Sabrina Chan, Executive Director of The Hong KongAssociation of the Pharmaceutical Industry, and Irene Law, BusinessDevelopment, MEHK. Following the success of this first event, the nextStudy Mission to Hong Kong is scheduled for 2–7 December 2015.

“A sincere note of thanks to you and the team for the wonderful hospitali-ty shown to us in Hong Kong over the last few days,” said Jean Evans ofMCI Dublin. “I got a real flavour for what the city has to offer, what typeof client the destination would be suitable for, and how we could sell itwell in the future. And I look forward to identifying future opportunitiesfor business and collaboration. Thanks again for your support, your dedication to making our trip seamless, and for facilitating a thoughtfuland educational programme for the IAPCO members.”

The role of associations is to create,manage and evolve communities; as a result they play a fundamental role as platforms for the exchange of content, knowledge and opportunities.Moreover, with relevant exceptions,their mission, vision and purpose hasbeen stable for a long period of time.However, all of that is changing – andfast…

Associations are now having to dealwith various ‘pain points’ due to cur-rent economic, technological and gen-erational macro trends. To ensure a sus-tainable future, they must developadaptable strategic and tactical plansand address specific questions associ-ated with these pain points, including:

• How should associations managemulticultural and multigenerationalcommunities with different needs,different expectations and differentobjectives?

• What strategy should associationsadopt in terms of sponsorship plans,taking into account that sponsors areapplying increasing pressure when itcomes to return on investment?

• How best can associations ensuretheir future sustainability – e.g. viarevenue channel diversification,innovation, new markets, new ven-tures, maturity, efficiency, outsourc-ing, etc?

• What can associations do in terms ofthe right positioning, reach andbrand awareness to ensure theybecome the content curators andthought leaders in their specificfields, given growing direct andgeneric competition?

• How should associations maximisetheir profits and delegate experienceof their conferences?

• Finally, what should be measured,and how should success be tracked –e.g. number of members, engagedaudiences, finances, etc?

With all associations, regardless ofgeography (e.g. an Asian association ora European), size (big or small), andspeciality (e.g. medical or technical),needing to address these pain points,the role of PCOs is becoming increas-ingly crucial. In the past, PCO valuepropositions were transactional – i.e. itwas all about the outsourcing of con-gress organisation. However, today –because of the trends mentioned aboveand the pain points being dealt with bythe associations – PCO value proposi-tions are all about business solutions.These are not only anchored in con-gress organisation, but also incorporatethe whole outsourcing model – forexample, contracting the right PCOshould provide an association with sup-port and benefit in the following ways:

• The Association can retain its focuson the core services to its stake-holders

• The PCO will represent a better pro-portion of variable versus fixedcosts

• The PCO will bring innovation tothe Association in terms of tech-nology, products and services

• The Association and the PCO willbecome true partners – and througha higher-level partnership model,new business models may appear.

Through such benefits, a new era ofpartnerships awaits for Associationsand PCOs.

By Mathias Posch, International Conference Services, Vancouver

By Oscar Cerezales, MCI Group, Asia

The Pharmaceutical Partnership:Educate, Communicate, Innovate

FEATURE ARTICLE

PCOs: easingthe pain forAssociations

‘Compliance’… it’s a wordthat makes professionals inthe world of medical meet-ings cringe these days. Therelationships between med-ical associations and pharma-ceutical companies havenever been more complicat-ed. For quite some time, itseemed that it was easier foran association or a congresswith the right following to get moneyout of companies than it was to stealcandy from a child. In many cases,these relationships were uneven and theassociations were clearly in a positionof power, just like many of their mem-bers themselves.

First-class tickets, boutique meetingsin resort destinations and lavish hospi-tality were the tip of the iceberg, andunfortunately made for much betterheadlines than the millions of dollarsthat went towards education, researchand development. As a way of illustrat-ing the point a little better, picture therelationship as a pendulum. For a longtime, it swung further and further inone direction, until it basically flungitself back to the other side as a resultof tighter scrutiny, bad press and billions of dollars in fines. This iswhere we find ourselves today – withthe pendulum stuck on the other side.Pharmaceutical compliance was pri-marily self-imposed by companies to

regulate the market before itwas done for them by the law-makers. As almost all compa-nies were faced with the samechallenges, but came up withvery different solutions, theirrepresentative bodies such asthe European Federation ofPharmaceutical Industriesand Associations (EFPIA)have tried to formulate an

industry code. In itself, that is fantastic;however, in general these codes are nomore than an overview on compliance,as specific compliance guidelines canvary immensely among differentEFPIA member companies. In addi-tion, the issue of cultural differencescomes into play – what works well inNorth America might not work at all inAsia.

As if self-imposed regulation wasn’tenough, governments have imposed astring of new regulations relating to thefunding of physicians’ activities. Oneof the most significant changes was the“Physicians’ Sunshine Act”, which waspassed first in the United States but hasquickly been copied within theEuropean Union. Its purpose is to pro-tect patients’ interests by assuring themthat physicians are acting in their bestinterests rather than on behalf of apharmaceutical company that has paidthem. Nobody could disagree with thataim; however, the details into which the

Sunshine Act goes, and the difficultiesof its practical implementation, make itincreasingly problematic to obtainfunding for educational activities suchas medical conferences.

Regulations differ from country tocountry, from company to company (aswell as between company locations),and from year to year. It is up to us tokeep the lines of communication openand active with our key sponsors inorder to get the best possible benefit forour conferences and our delegates…which in turn will create the greatestbenefit for our sponsors. The key toimproving understanding in this area isconstant dialogue.

Not all changes that have come our wayin the past few years are bad. Bringingsome transparency, and the focus oneducation and science, back to medicalmeetings is actually a good thing.However, it remains desirable that atti-tudes change regarding funding of

physicians to attend meetings, as wellas the perception of needing to excludethe social element of meetings.

Networking is important – anybodywho has attended a meeting in theirfield will admit that many of the best‘take-aways’ come from dinner conver-sations with like-minded people fromthe same area of expertise… The valueof such interactions will hopefully willbe rediscovered.

Until then, the keys to success whenseeking pharmaceutical partnershipsfor an association’s activities are as fol-lows: Educate – educate yourself andyour team about the latest changes interms of compliance regulations;Communicate – keep an open line ofcommunication with your sponsors andcorporate partners; and Innovate – beready to change your approach to com-ply with all regulations and to fit theneeds of your stakeholders.

In Memoriam: Annick DebelsIt is with sadness that IAPCO acknowledges the recentdeath of industry friend and colleague Annick Debels on2 January. An elegant and very professional lady, Annickwas the face of the meetings industry in Belgium formany years. She started her career in the industry work-ing for a Belgian PCO. She subsequently becameAssistant Manager and then Manager of the Belgian Convention &Incentive Bureau. In 2005 Annick became the Director of GhentCongress, where she remained until her retirement in March 2014.

DESTINATIONPARTNER2015

On a mission toHong Kong

IAPCO EDUCATIONAL SEMINARS AUCKLAND: 24 -26 AUGUST 2015

Madinat Jumeirah recently welcomed a host of famous actors and actresses forthe 11th annual Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), which took place on10–17 December 2014. Hollywood stars Emily Blunt, Eva Longoria, PaulBettany and director Lee Daniels were among the big names attending theevent. Emily Blunt was there to enjoy the widespread acclaim for the film ‘IntoThe Woods’, in which she stars with James Corden, which was screened at the

closing of this year’s event to a packedaudience in the Madinat Arena. And totop things off, she was enjoying theluxurious Talise Spa at Madinat Jumeirah when she learned that the she hadbeen nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Actress in aMotion Picture, Musical or Comedy! Since its inception in 2004, the DIFF hasserved as an influential platform from which Arab filmmakers and new cine-matic talent have been able to launch themselves onto the international stage.Each year DIFF presents innovative and exciting cinema from the Arab worldand beyond by introducing audiences to fresh local talent and original filmmak-ing. Madinat Jumeirah has hosted DIFF since the event’s launch and is a keysponsor. It was proudly represented by a variety of colleagues from Al Qasr, DarAl Masyaf and Mina A’Salam, with members of the resort’s sales and marketingteam and Talise Spa actingas hostesses on the redcarpet each evening.Congratulations toMadinat Jumeirah onanother successful DIFF!

By Sumaira Isaacs, MCI Dubai



Never mind the sizeThe theme of the IAPCO/EuropeanCities Marketing (ECM) seminar enti-tled ‘It’s not all about size: passionwins!’, which was held at EIBTM inBarcelona last November, was thatthere are real benefits of working indestinations that are not necessarily thebiggest or most well-known in a coun-try. The presenters Barbara Schwaiger,from Salzburg Convention Centre,Austria, and Nicola McGrane, fromConference Partners Ltd, Ireland,explored how local partner commit-ment and dedication in so-called ‘sec-ond-tier’ destinations can create a veryattractive alternative for PCOs and theirclients. Their partnership emerged froma relationship begun when SalzburgConvention Centre hosted an IAPCOCouncil meeting in May last year.“There is no doubt that ‘passion wins’,and this is the key to the potential suc-cess of the so-called second-tier cities,”stated Barbara. So what is the secret forthe second-tier cities – how can they

‘play in the big league’? The answer isthrough increased brand awareness, notonly within the destination but alsowithin other cities in the country and,indeed, comparable cities throughoutthe continent. “There must be profes-sionalism within the destination, andthe ability to convince clients of thatprofessionalism,” Barbara continued.“This means continuous investment inIT and congress technology, employeeprofessionalism, and the ability to iden-tify and respond to trends within theindustry. But perhaps most of all, itrequires the courage to be different – tonot be overcome and overwhelmed byrestrictive standards, and to think ‘out-side of the box’ for the benefit of theclient.” Additionally, enthusiasm isinfectious and such passion shinesthrough when everyone works togetherwithin a city. Often, it is only in smallerdestinations that this can be achieved,because the city itself becomes theevent.

“A unified city brings into play not onlythe industry partners but also the gov-ernment, the city, and the universities; itis essential that this unification is evi-dent from the outset, even at pre-bidstage,” commented Nicola. “Makeyourself visible as a team – show yourpassion.” But how can this be achieved?The answer is by attending conferencesin advance of the bidding and gainingan understanding of what the client’spriorities are when selecting a city;meeting the decision makers also helps.“[And at the site inspection] use everytool in the tool box: involve all partners,not just by having welcome banners atthe airport but also by having peoplethere as well,” Nicola continued. “At thehotel, have the whole team there togreet the visiting client – even dressthem in client corporate t-shirts; makethe city an exclusive place [for theclient] to hire. This is something onlythe smaller cities can achieve. The siteinspection is yours to lose, but believeme, passion trumps all.”

In summing up the discussions, Nicolaasked: “Would you plan to build ahouse without the builder? No – so whybuild a conference without the PCO.The formula for success is to involvethe city stakeholders, the talent networkand the PCO – combine the passion.”Collaboration creates a sense of pur-pose, she said, noting that shared lead-ership is fundamental to the success ofattracting international meetings to adestination. Nicola concluded with herfavourite quote, from Maya Angelou:“People will forget what you said…People will forget what you did… Butpeople will never forget how you madethem feel.”

Over the past 15 years, emerging markets have becomethe key drivers of the world’s economic engine. Not onlyare companies fiercely competing for market share, butalso professional and trade associations are seeking toexpand in these rapidly growing economies through thedevelopment of local chapters offering value of rele-vance to local members. For example, India, the MiddleEast and Africa (IMEA), a region in which hyper-growthand huge local investment exist alongside well-docu-mented social and political challenges, is currentlybounding ahead in terms of business and innovation,particularly in the countries of the Gulf Co-operationCouncil (GCC).

Although the IMEA region has a relatively short historyin terms of the association industry, continued economicinvestment and expanding education is creating a grow-ing desire for professional learning and development. Asgovernments come to acknowledge the full potential ofassociations to support the flourishing business environ-ment, political will – coupled with the sheer size of thepopulation – is providing the perfect environment forassociations to thrive.

Some statistics help put into context the potential of theIMEA region for associations:

• With 78 countries in the region, IMEA has the highestnumber of emerging nations in any region of theworld, as well as the world’s fastest annual economicgrowth rate, of between 7% and 20%

• IMEA has a population of 2.7 billion (~37% of theworld’s population live there) and a total GDP of $8trillion

• IMEA is a region of extremes, containing the secondmost populated country in the world (India), and both

the richest (Qatar) and poorest (South Sudan) coun-tries in the world by GDP per person

• The region enjoys annual foreign direct investmentsto the tune of more than $50 billion

• The region is collectively the world’s largest producerof oil and gas, providing 40% of supplies

• The region also boasts the world’s biggest fleet ofA380s and Dreamliners, as well as the world’s largestairport and tallest towers

• IMEA has one of the world’s highest rates for the pen-etration of mobile technology and social media, andalso pioneered the concept of ‘Mobile-Money’ for therest of the world

• With an average median age of 25 years (lower thanChina), the population is young, dynamic, and veryambitious.

IMEA represents a region with enormous potentialtoday – but what about tomorrow? Which could be thenext region to offer such potential in the future? In 2007,Goldman Sachs identified the so-called ‘Next 11 (N-11)’ countries that could potentially rival the G7 overtime. Comprising Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran,South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, thePhilippines, Turkey and Vietnam, the N-11 is an eclecticgroup of countries that share common potential in termsof energy, infrastructure, urbanisation, human capitaland technology – similar to the themes that helpeddefine the so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia,India, China, and South Africa). Despite their differ-ences, there are many examples of these countriesalready working together economically. With mostalready offering strong institutional and associationframeworks, the opportunities for associations in the N-11 are clear.

New Association Frontiers:From IMEA to the N-11

Moscow continues to invest in the future of congresses, andis on the IAPCO radar. Last year saw the Association’s firstIAPCO member, CTO Congress led by SergeyChernyschevskiy, CEO, followed in quick succession bythe recent IAPCO National Seminar, another first. Interestat EIBTM for further applications for membership indicat-ed a definite shift in the professionalism and expansion ofthe Russian meetings market. The recent creation of theMoscow Convention Bureau is a further indication of thegovernmental support for creating international interest inbringing meetings to the city.

Not only did Sarah Storie-Pugh, Executive Director ofIAPCO, and Patrizia Semprebene Buongiorno, VicePresident, AIM Group International and IAPCO Council member, have the privilegeto present to the eager participants at the national seminar, they were also able tolearn of the many facilities and architectural treasures that abound in Moscow for thediscerning international client. This insight was provided by the seminar participantsthemselves as they presented their Bid to win an international meeting

“But what about visa applications?” quizzed the IAPCO faculty, who were subse-quently greatly reassured by the PCOs that fast track applications were being put inplace for international meetings. Public transport via the architecturally amazingmetro is fast, clean, safe and efficient. It carries 11 million people a day, but youwould never know it from the ease with which you can travel around. New hotels arerapidly rising, including the recently opened Four Seasons Hotel, a magnificentvenue under the walls of the Kremlin.

Yes, Moscow is innovative, available and enthusiastic with welcoming and friendlypeople only to keen to advance in the business of international congresses.

Moscow- Innovation in time

HOTELPARTNER2015

Madinat Jumeirahis a Hotel Partnerof IAPCO

Rolling out the red carpet for DIFF

COPENHAGEN: 18-21 JANUARY 2016 WHISTLER: 25-27 MAY 2016


IAPCO CouncilPresident:Michel Neijmann,K2 Conference & Event Management Co.Vice-President: Jan Tonkin,The Conference Company

Treasurer: Peder Andersen,DIS Congress ServiceMembers:Nicky McGrane, Conference Partners

Patrizia Semprebene Buongiorno, AIM GroupKayo Nomura, Congress CorporationMathias Posch, International Conference ServicesSumaira Isaacs, MCI Group (IMEA)

Co-opted:André Vietor, Barceló CongresosKeith Burton, African Agenda

Annual Meeting & General Assembly:Cape Town Host:Keith Burton

OFFICERS


Meetings will never die, delegates atIAPCO’s 2014 Annual Meeting inLisbon were assured. The need forhuman beings to interact, to stimulateeach other’s thinking, to generate newideas and to learn from each other willstill be important in the future – in, say,2030. However, much else may wellhave changed by then, such as how weengage with each other, invite dele-gates, personalise experiences, managelogistics, and stay in touch with eachother. With such a hectic pace of devel-opment, innovation and change is con-tinuously occurring all around us.

Adrian Bridge, CEO of Taylors/Yeatman, suggested to IAPCO mem-bers that, rather than try to find a ‘silverbullet’ solution to innovation, theyshould look to make simple 1% incre-mental improvements to each processin the delivery chain. In addition,bringing new ideas and perspectivesfrom people outside of the meetingsindustry might help with maintainingfresh approaches to business. PCOemployees should not just deliver greatservice – that is a given, Bridge said,they should turn every participant at ameeting into an ambassador.

For IAPCO delegates uncomfortablewith too much innovation and change,Dr José Alves provided some reassur-ing thoughts. He noted that the medicalprofession attends meetings for twomajor reasons: the first is to network

and socialise at such large gatherings;the second is to enable them to focus onscientific breakthroughs and develop-ments at smaller meetings.

Steen Jakobsen, Director of DubaiConvention Bureau, provided food forthought regarding personalisation andmeeting design and innovation, notingthat new technologies are available tohelp meet these aims while retainingmargins in the meeting business. ‘Bigdata’ is here to help, he stated, and it isnot going away! Meanwhile, ChitraStern of Martinhal Resort spoke aboutlife balance: celebrate the milestones,however small they may seem to be,and to take five minutes to appreciatethe steps that have been taken. As PedroNorton de Matos of Greenfest com-mented, “When people smile your

heart gets bigger – ‘listen’ has the sameletters as ‘silent’.”

“Members have very different learningneeds and business challenges, whichthey are sometimes reluctant to sharewith others – but once the conversationon the challenges and possible solu-tions begins, it’s refreshing and veryuseful,” highlighted Hazel Jackson, ofBiz-Group FZ, who facilitated discus-sions at the Annual Meeting.Summarising her views of IAPCOmembers and their participation in themeeting, she stated: “Lisbon providedthe opportunity to share best practice,to discuss trends and to explore solu-tions through a programme thatstretched thinking, inspired change andgave new insights. Members all liveand breathe the IAPCO core values,and there is an amazing ‘family feel’,but as with any association one gets outwhat one puts in.

Members who attended the AnnualMeeting in Lisbon might or might nothave got their ‘number 1’ breakthroughidea, but what has certainly beenachieved in this environment is theopportunity to reconnect with oldfriends, to make new ones and onceagain to believe you are not alone inthis vibrant, challenging and competi-tive industry.” She concluded by tellingmembers: “You have all earned theright to be proud and to belong toIAPCO.”

Hosted by the Porto Convention Bureau,the IAPCO Council relished the culturalhighlights of Porto, Portugal, during itsrecent meeting, experiencing, among oth-ers, the delights of a visit to the Casa da Música, the major concert hall space in thecity, which proved a highlight of the meeting.

Designed by Remment Lucas ‘Rem’ Koolhaas, a Dutch professor in the Practice ofArchitecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at HarvardUniversity, Porto’s Casa da Música is home to the cultural institution of the samename, with its three orchestras – the Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Orquestra Barrocaand Remix Ensemble. The past 30 years have seen frantic attempts by architects toescape the domination of the ‘shoe-box’ concert hall, and rather than struggle with

the inescapable acoustic superiori-ty of this traditional shape, theCasa da Música attempts to rein-vigorate the traditional concerthall in another way: by redefiningthe relationship between the hal-lowed interior and the general pub-lic outside. It has a distinctivefaceted form made of white con-crete, while inside, the elevated1300-seat Grand Auditorium hascorrugated glass facades at eitherend that open the hall up to the cityand offer Porto itself as a dramaticbackdrop for performances.

A particular highlight for the IAPCO Council was dining in one of the iconic smallerspaces of the Casa da Música, overlooking the magical skyline of the so-called sec-ond-tier city of Porto. Expressing his admiration, IAPCO President MichelNeijmann said: “Porto has much to offer the meetings industry: it is small, compact,friendly, and efficient; and this incredible building is testament to the forward-think-ing attitude of the city. The Council is so happy to spread the word about Porto, andwe thank you for your hospitality, your generosity and your friendship.”

The Council were equally impressed with the facilities at the Sheraton Porto Hotel,who sponsored the meeting. The hotel embodies a whole world in which fine art,design and comfort are beautifully blended. Situated in the business and cultural dis-trict of Porto, it is a wonderfully modern mix of marble, wood, steel and glass thatboasts facilities including 18840 square feet of multifunctional meeting space thatare complemented by 266 luxurious bedrooms and suites, with a wireless environ-ment throughout.

“The future of sponsor-ship is social,” pro-claimed digital advocateMiguel Neves, SeniorOnline CommunityManager for IMEXGroup, while discussingthe topic of ‘Reachingfinancial targets’ at therecent IAPCO AnnualMeeting in Lisbon. “Social media is non-intrusive, it is interactive(viral at its best), it builds relationships, and its return on investmentis measurable.” Neves highlighted the most important elements ofwhat sponsors require from their partners, based on the findings ofthe IEG Sponsorship Report. Exclusivity is the most importantattribute, closely followed by visibility, brand loyalty and a cus-tomised deliverable. However, 73% of deliverables do not meet thereturn on investment, which is the most important aspect to thesponsor. Notably, the report found that social media is the number 1channel for activating sponsorships (90%).

“My world consists solely of on-line communities,” Nevesexplained. “We are constantly fighting for everyone’s time andattention and at the cost of minimum budget/spend.” Based on hiswork for the IMEX Group, Neves provided examples of engage-ment, budget-free marketing and raising sponsorship that embracedboth physical and digital branding. He noted that ‘outbound’ mar-keting plays an important part, asdo ‘social team activities’ such asphoto booths, Pixe Social, selfiecompetitions, and so on.

As Neves noted, we are all awareof where Wi-Fi sits in the priori-ties of our lives:

Of course, he explained, there arepositives and negatives associatedwith social media sponsorship.For example, it can be easily eval-uated; however, it has low profit margins for now, it requires asocially active sponsor and can be resource-intensive. In contrast, itis easily adaptable, data-rich, has a sales pipeline, can feature user-generated content and, fundamentally, it can go viral.

The theme of the 2015 IAPCO AnnualMeeting and General Assembly, whichtook place in Lisbon, Portugal, on 13 – 15 February, was ‘Reaching newhorizons through co-operation’, a phi-losophy exemplified by AIM GroupLisbon and Leading Congress &Association Management, who provid-ed thrilling experiences for the IAPCOdelegates through collaboration andworking together for a common goal. Inthe two years since Lisbon wasannounced as the winner of the bid forthe 2015 IAPCO meeting, these twoIAPCO members worked with a desti-nation team that also included theLisbon Convention Bureau, the CascaisConvention Bureau and the Epic SanaLisboa in order to present the very bestof their extraordinary city to delegates.In so doing, they showed that their col-laborative ‘whole’ was even greaterthan sum of its parts –that is, the alliancebetween these twocompetitors, Leadingand AIM Group,resulted in an evengreater achievementthan working individ-ually would havedone. Thus the meet-ing proved that suc-cessful co-operationbetween leaders in theevents managementindustry is the answer

for successfully ‘reaching new hori-zons’.

Lisbon, the so-called ‘city of the sevenhills’, offered a very special personalexperience to the 80 leading meetingsprofessionals, including project man-agers through to CEOs from the bestevent management companies aroundthe world, who gathered for the IAPCOmeeting to learn from inspiring invitedspeakers and to experience thePortuguese customs and lifestyle. Theydiscovered that Lisbon is a destinationthat can offer a range of experiences,including the incredible tastes andbeautiful sights that it has in abundance.

The participants left with happy memo-ries of the city, engendered by an excit-ing social programme that took them tosuch highlights as the Palácio da Fozand Coconuts in Cascais.

CPO HANSER SERVICE held its first congress in thenew CityCube venue in Berlin last November, when ithosted the Berlin 2014 Psychiatry Congress, the annualcongress of the German Association for Psychiatry,Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN). Thiswas the first DGPPN congress at the new venue, follow-ing ten consecutive years at ICC Berlin, which closeddown in early 2014. Conference attendees, exhibitors,and everyone involved appreciated the modern architec-ture and state-of-the-art facilities offered by theCityCube.

Taking the social route to sponsorship

Forget the Silver Bullet

First inthe Cube

Lisbon Annual Meeting

PCO: CPO HANSER SERVICE, Germany



Inside the Casa da Música.

Palácio da Foz.

COUNCILHOST CITY2015

Porto is a Host CityPartner of IAPCO

Porto: Music to our Ears!

Reaching newHorizons

The 2014 DGPPN annual meeting at its new homeproved a great success and represented the largest con-gress held at the CityCube so far. More than 9000 dele-gates from 53 countries had the opportunity to attend atotal of 662 scientific sessions and 83 educational andtraining sessions. There were a total of 1637 speakers,lecturers and poster authors, and the congress also fea-tured a number of sessions aimed at a non-scientificaudience, such as symposia for teachers and pupils,symposia for nurses, and podium discussions for thegeneral public. The congress was expertly managed byCPO HANSER SERVICE, who will be bringing the2015 DGPPN meeting again to the CityCube thisNovember.

Whilst every care is taken in the preparation andpublishing of The PCO, the views expressed arenot necessarily those of IAPCO or its members, orof the Editor, and no responsibility can be taken forarticles, errors or comment.

SecretariatIAPCO, Sarah Storie-PughEmail: [email protected]

The PCOPublished by: IAPCOEditor: Sarah Storie-Pugh

Committee of EthicsMichel NeijmannKayo NomuraJan Tonkin

Training AcademyAndré Vietor, ChairJan Tonkin, Vice ChairMathias Posch

Patrizia Semprebene BuongiornoMichel Neijmann



Headquartered in Tokyo,Congress Corporation is openinga second conference facility in its ‘CongresSquare’ concept inApril 2015. The CongresSquareconcept offers flexible spacesresponding to a broad range oforganisers’ needs, with high-quality facilities and excellentaccess for attendees via publictransportation. The new facility is located in Nihonbashi, one ofthe oldest districts of Tokyo, andfollows on from the initialCongresSquare facility inNakano (Tokyo), which openedin 2012.

The name Nihonbashi means literally ‘Japan bridge’ andderives from a historic bridge that was built in 1603, whichbecame the district’s landmark and the starting point for thefive major roads leading outwards from Edo (present dayTokyo). Crossing the bridge in those days, one could view theShogun’s Edo castle, and even Mount Fuji beyond, as featuredin the colourful woodblock prints of the Edo period(1600–1868), during which time Edo’s culture flourished.

The area developed into a commercial centre, and todayNihonbashi retains that status as the home of the Bank ofJapan, the headquarters of various pharmaceutical and finan-cial corporations, and many shops trading in traditional provi-sions. Nihonbashi also remains the ‘zero mark’ for distancemeasurements to/from Tokyo.

The area has always been attractive and filled with history,and today is gaining renewed attention as an area targeted forredevelopment. CongressCorporation believesthat, as a PCO, its work is not only to plan andoperate conferences, butalso to contribute to therevitalisation of the localcommunity. It aims to do this by utilising itsexpertise in planning,constructing and manag-ing meeting facilities thatwill, in turn, attract peo-ple to the area from nearand far, thus stimulatingthe exchange of know-ledge and ideas.

Tourism Toronto, the tourism and convention association for Canada’slargest city, has announced that 2014was a record year in terms of the numbers of future meetings and dele-gates confirmed as coming to the city.In the 12 months ending 31 December,Tourism Toronto and its partners confirmed 665 future meetings andconventions that are expected to bring 463 400 attendees to the Torontoregion, requiring a record number ofmore than 640 000 hotel room nights.“Conventions, meetings and events area mainstay of the tourism economy inToronto, providing solid business forthe region and supporting hundreds ofthousands of jobs,” said DavidWhitaker, President and CEO ofTourism Toronto. “Conventions gener-ate spending on a range of businesses,including hotels, restaurants, retail,taxis and convention centres. In addi-tion, a significant number of servicesbenefit from the meetings industrysuch as audio-visual, entertainment,attractions and transportation.”

The meetings confirmed in 2014 forToronto included a number of majorwins, such as the 2019 congress of the American Educational ResearchAssociation, which is expected to bring14400 attendees to the city, and the2016 Perfect China event for 5000attendees. Overall, 16 of the meetingsconfirmed in 2014 fall into the cate-gory of ‘major meetings’ that attractmore than 2000 attendees and requiremultiple hotels. Thirteen of these major

meetings will be held at the MetroToronto Convention Centre. Torontoalso hosted a number of such globalevents in 2014, including theInternational Astronautical Federationmeeting, with 3200 attendees fromaround the world, the AmericanAssociation for Thoracic Surgery con-gress, with 4500 attendees, the MillionDollar Round Table meeting, with 7000attendees, and the Lions ClubInternational meeting, with 15000attendees.

“Toronto offers so much for our meet-ing delegates – from great conventionfacilities right in the heart of the down-town area, to plenty of flight optionsand all the culture that can easily beexplored outside of the conventionhours,” said Laurie Cipriano of theAmerican Educational ResearchAssociation. “Choosing Toronto forour meeting in 2019 made a lot of sense and will be well-received by ourmembers.”

Social responsibility is an integral partof IAPCO’s philosophy, and it is theassociation’s intention to always domore. I would like to take this opportu-nity to share with you the progressmade in Burundi on a project that we,as IAPCO members, have beeninvolved with since 2013. ThroughFIMAC, the International Foundationof Doctors for Central Africa, we con-tinue to provide help to a village in thenorth of Burundi called Bubanza.Burundi is a small country in CentralAfrica with a population of more than 7million that is growing sharply. Thereare many severe health problems in thisarea – there is a high mortality ratefrom malaria, HIV, tuberculosis andmalnutrition, while in the field oforthopaedics, the population faces con-genital and acquired malformations.IAPCO members provided contribu-tions through their membership fees tohelp the population as well as the hos-pital of Bubanza, and, during 2014, 40members contributed €1495.I go to Burundi every year on behalf ofFIMAC and can personally assuremembers that these donations andfunds are used to help and support thehospital and the whole community,including the children. I have justreturned from one such visit duringwhich we distributed 100 kg of clothes,toys and school supplies, includingpens and notebooks, to the delight ofthe children in the school and orphan-age. You can imagine how touched Iwas by the children’s gratitude andexcitement. It was certainly a situation

in which I gained as much as the peoplewe helped. Through the donations fromIAPCO members we are also able tosupport the expenses involved in thepost-surgical stays of patients follow-ing operations carried out by FIMACsurgeons. FIMAC relies on a team ofvolunteer doctors who make six mis-sions a year to operate on the most dif-ficult orthopaedic cases. With an aver-age of 40 operations per mission, theyoperate on approximately 240 peopleeach year who otherwise would nothave a normal life due to their malfor-mations, tropical ulcers that erode mus-cles, tendons and sometimes bones,infantile clubfoot and other congenitaldiseases.

We now are working on a ‘Brighten thelife of a child’ project that is contribut-ing to the construction of an IAPCObasketball court in Bubanza. Sport canbe a powerful tool to promote child andyouth development. Physical educationplays an important role in the lives of

children, increasingschool enrolment,retention and accessto education, andfostering academicachievement. To cre-ate a sports infra-structure in this ruralarea will not be easy.The terrain inBubanza is very dif-ficult to work with,there are many hillsand they will need toflatten the area and

build retaining walls. The sum we needto raise is €8000! It is a challenginggoal but we feel it is money that will bewell spent.

So far this year we have raised morethan €6200 but we need more to reachour goal. This work resonates with ourhope for a better world, and our wish isthat you would like get involved. Pleasebe generous, and let’s see the creationof an IAPCO basketball court inBubanza!

Our daily lives pull us in so many dif-ferent directions, and we sometimesthink we don’t have the time to make adifference. Yet we are surprised to seehow simple acts can have a big impacton other people’s lives as they touch ourown.

COUNCIL AND CAPE TOWN

The city of Prague played hostto the 10th anniversary of the‘Fashion for Kids’ charity fash-ion show in November 2014, anevent started by the TerezaMaxova Foundation and regu-larly organised by PCO C-IN asa part of its social responsibilityprogramme. ‘Fashion for Kids’was the brainchild of Czechsupermodel Tereza Maxova,who in 2004 had the innovativeidea of connecting the world offashion with the world of corporate social responsibility, and launched the event withthe aim of raising money to support children in need. “The world of fashion hasalways used me, and now I have the chance to use it for something that really mat-ters,” she said.

The show featured famousdesigners such as VivienneWestwood and Jean-Paul Gaultier,supermodel Karolina Kurkova,and an intimate performance fromthe famous musician BryanAdams. An event of such staturerequired a wide range of servicesfrom C-IN, which differed greatlyfrom those typically needed forscientific conferences! In particu-lar, these included full event man-

agement, the casting of models and provision of technical support. C-IN demon-strated that in addition to the range of scientific congresses in its portfolio, it can also provide clients with a variety of professional services for many different events.

Thanks to multiple generous donations, the 10th anniversary event raised the highesttotal to date, of almost €400,000. The C-IN team gained great moral satisfactionfrom its long-term support of such a worthy cause.

One of the key principles of GreekPCO Erasmus is ‘giving back to thecommunity’, which it does not simplyto be seen to be socially responsible,but to support what it feels is funda-mentally important for the future of theworld – educating children. Recently,an Erasmus donation was made in sup-port of the Peninsula School FeedingAssociation (PSFA) in South Africa, anorganisation that offers nutritionalmeals to hundreds of schoolchildren inCape Town. The PSFA recognises thatchildren who are inadequately fed can-not concentrate at school, and so pro-

vides meals to children in 145 schoolsthat are designed to give the necessaryprotein, carbohydrates, vitamins andminerals. To support this work,Erasmus donated 14000 ZAR to thePSFA during its recent Experts in StoneDisease Conference, which it organ-ised in Cape Town in December 2014.This donation was sufficient to coverthe meals of 700 children for one week.

In addition, Erasmus co-operates with the not - for-profit organisation‘Boroume’, which means ‘we can’ inGreek. Boroume fights food waste byacting as a communication hub con-necting those in need with those whocan offer. Through this organisation,Erasmus donates suitable surplus foodfrom the events it organises to welfareinstitutions, soup kitchens and munici-pal services.

Today, Boroume offers on averagemore than 3000 portions of food eachday through its network in Greece.

Zeroing in on Nihonbashi The record attractionof Toronto!

Fashion for KidsThe importance of giving something back

PCO: Congress Corporation, Japan

By Patrizia Semprebene Buongiorno, AIM Group International

PCO: C-IN, Czech Republic

Giving food for thoughtPCO: Erasmus, Greece

Nihonbashi, depicted in a wood-block print by Hiroshige, one ofthe ‘One Hundred Famous Viewsof Edo’.

CongresSquare Nihonbashi.

DESTINATIONPARTNER2015

Toronto CVB is aCorporate Partner ofIAPCO

If you would like to donateplease contact the IAPCOSecretariat (Bubanza basket-ball court): [email protected]

The 2016 IAPCO Annual Meeting & General Assembly will be held in Cape Town inFebruary and will tie in with Meetings Africa, the continent’s premier industry show.Keith Burton, of African Agenda, will be host to the meeting and as such was co-opted to the IAPCO Council as of February 2015. Gonzalo Perez Constanzó stepsdown as Immediate Past President. There were no other changes to the IAPCOCouncil which remains a strong driving force of the Association.



IAPCO EDUCATIONAL SEMINARS AUCKLAND: 24 -26 AUGUST 2015

‘Club Liverpool’ is the new brand for the city of Liverpool’s event ambassador programme, an initiative that is designed to pro-mote the city as a world-class conference and event destination. Over the past decade, more than 120 national and internationalevents have been attracted to the city region by Liverpool’s influential ambassadors, and the new scheme – led by the LiverpoolConvention Bureau, working in partnership with ACC Liverpool, home to the BT Convention Centre, Echo Arena and ExhibitionCentre Liverpool – aims to build on these successes, to entice further major events to the city, and to attract inward investmentfrom a global audience.

Club Liverpool currently includes more than 100 leading members ofLiverpool’s medical, academic, business and cultural communities as cityambassadors, and aims to double this number in the next 12 months, reinforcingits aspirations to grow and develop events in key sectors such as the education,scientific and medical fields. Professor John Hunt of the University ofLiverpool, an existing ambassador, said: “Being part of the ambassador pro-gramme allows you to more formally connect with all the help that’s available inthe city for hosting events, and lets others see how fantastic the city is.”

“Hosting business events and conferences has a huge economic impact on thecity, extending right across the hospitality, retail and tourism sectors,” notedSara Wilde McKeown, chair of Liverpool city region’s Visitor Economy board.“To secure these events we have to compete with leading cities around the world– creating valuable connections through a robust ambassador scheme is thestrongest way to achieve this. Our influential ambassadors raise the credibilityof the city as a national and international event destination and help open path-

ways to attracting different subjectmatters and sponsors to the city. This is why we have focused on building on our exist-ing programme, which has already been proven to bring significant economic value tothe city over recent years.”

Centium Software hasdeveloped what itbelieves is a new para-digm in meetings man-agement technology, representingsomething that the industry has neverseen before. Its all-new EventsAIR sys-tem aims to rewrite the rules on howmeetings technology operates. “Theworld we operate in today is dramati-cally different than that of even a fewyears ago,” said Trevor Gardiner, CEOof Centium Software. “We are seeingnew technology appear with excitingnew capabilities, and we knew we hadan opportunity to do something com-pletely new to our industry.”

Centium Software (formerly AmlinkTechnologies) has been helping meet-ings managers cope with the thousandsof tasks involved in running eventssince 1987, via its EventsPRO system.Over the years, the company has aimedto remain at the cutting edge of tech-nology and to keep focused on main-taining a tool that is relevant and insync with the needs of industry, and theresult is the new EventsAIR system.

EventsAIR is designedlike an app, installsfrom the cloud, and hasa development cycle

that features improvements andenhancements every two weeks. Builtupon the Microsoft Azure network ofdata centres, EventsAIR provides alevel of security and productivity nottypically found in more traditionalsolutions. In addition to introducingthis innovative architecture, the team atCentium software has also designedtechnology to enable the developmentof third party apps via its newEventsAIR App Store. “Today, our cus-tomers don’t need to create customapplications that become static andstale,” Gardiner said. “Now, our clientscan enhance the functionality ofEventsAIR and build custom work-flows and portals that provide a virtually limitless set of options for the future.”

The packed programme of AIME 2015came to a close on Thursday 26February with Melbourne Conventionand Exhibition Centre’s (MCEC) thirdannual Open Space event, a free eventdesigned to showcase creative uses ofMCEC’s spaces. The theme of OpenSpace 2015 was innovation, and theevent featured world-renowned speak-ers and futurists Rachel Botsman and

Chris Riddell, who delivered thought-provoking keynote presentations on thepower of collaboration and sharing,through technology, to transform theway people live, work and consume.

Open Space 2015 was designed tomake guests think outside the box, andto provide a showcase of MCEC’scapabilities and its ability to deliverevents unlike anything else. In additionto the plenary hall being transformedthree times in front of the audience’seyes using MCEC’s cutting-edge tech-nology, the venue served up a compli-mentary taste of its award-winningfood in a unique pop-up café concept,which included furniture made fromreclaimed materials from Australianhistorical landmarks and buildings…along with a skateboard ramp servingas a communal seating area within thecafé. Guests were able to join the con-versation via social media using#OpenSpace15, which allowed thosewho were unable to attend to also bepart of the experience.

The IBTM portfolio of events has beenrebranded by Reed Travel Exhibitionsas ‘ibtm events – connections meaneverything’. With the recent acquisi-tion of ICOMEX the portfolio nowcovers six continents, and as part of therebranding six of the current eightevents (excluding AIME andICOMEX) will be given a new brandimage and logo, identifying them byregion. Notably, EIBTM becomes‘ibtm world’, reflecting its status as aglobal industry event. The new logoswill communicate each show’s proposi-tion and the region that it serves, andwill help to firmly establish the events’individual statuses in the market whileretaining the over-arching ibtm brand.

“As our family of ibtm events evolves,we need to clearly establish each indi-vidual event proposition for the marketthat they serve,” commented SallieCoventry, Portfolio Director for ibtm

events. “We have also introduced dif-ferent event formats for a number ofour events over the past two years, butthe common denominator for them allis still the same defining principals:that they deliver top-level hosted buy-ers and connections, which in turn cre-ate business opportunities. At the sametime, EIBTM is the flagship show forthe portfolio and must be defined asrepresentative of the world.”

Vienna-based European PCO MondialCongress & Events recently launchedits new website, which was predomi-nantly conceived and developed by theMondial team itself. The site aims tohighlight the uniqueness of the PCO,putting industry clichés and conven-

tions aside. “We believe that the uniquecombination of features, views and tal-ents of our team really makes us what

we are,” explained Mondial CongressManaging Director Stefan Walter. “Itwas important to us to see this individu-ality reflected in our web presence.”The philosophy is also true for con-gress organisation – on the surface,congresses may appear similar innature. However, a closer look revealseach event’s numerous different facets,which are all manifestations of its dis-tinctive DNA, and to highlight thesenuances is a crucial aspect of a PCO’swork.

METROPOLIS, the World Associationof the Major Metropolises, is the lead-ing international organisation for citiesand metropolitan regions with morethan one million inhabitants. The organ-isation, which was founded in 1985, hasmore than 130 international membersand operates as an international forumfor exploring issues and concerns com-mon to all big cities and metropolitanregions. Its flagship triennial congresswas held in Hyderabad, India, inOctober 2014, and had the theme of‘Cities for all’. In order to raise aware-ness of the congress and to attract alarge number of quality delegates, MCI

India designed a detailed social mediaand PR strategy that played a vital rolein increasing the event’s profile within arelatively short lead-time of twomonths. MCI’s strategy resulted in theFacebook page for the event registering12585 ‘like’s, more than 100 mentionson Twitter within five days, as well asapproximately 400 000 impressions onthe LinkedIn page. This social mediastrategy ensured that multiple stake-holders were engaged and resulted in asuccessful congress that attracted morethan 2000 international delegates – anincrease of 500 delegates comparedwith previous years.

“I would like to congratulate MCI’sleadership and all members of the team,who were extremely professional, cour-teous and quick to respond despite theoften difficult circumstances, culturaldifferences, tiredness and the manycomplications inherent in running thiscongress,’ said Alain Le Saux, SecretaryGeneral of METROPOLIS.

The new world of IBTM

Opening Spaces and Minds

PCO: MCI India

Left to right: Chris Brown of Marketing Liverpool, SarahWilde McKeown, Chair of Visitor Economy, and BernardMolloy, Chair of Superport, presenting commercial realestate investment opportunities.

www.openspace.mcec.com.au

www.openspace.mcec.com.au

www.mondial-congress.com/en/dna/our-dna

SUPPORTER OFIAPCO EDUCATION2014-2015

ACC Liverpool is aSupporting Partnerof IAPCO

TECHNOLOGYPARTNER2015

Centium/EventsAIRis a TechnologyPartner of IAPCO

Social Media for METROPOLIS

PARTNERS/SPONSOR IAPCO

Convention Centre Partner 2015

Host of May 2015 Council Meetings Corporate Partner 2015

Airline Partner 2015

Corporate Partner 2015 and host ofOctober 2015 Council Meetings

Corporate Partner 2014–2017

Convention Centre Partner 2015

Hotel Group Partner 2015

Supporters of IAPCO Education Technology Partner 2015 Host Venue of February 2015Council Meetings

Host Destination of February 2015Council Meetings

CONVENTIONCENTREPARTNER 2015

MCEC is aConvention CentrePartner of IAPCO

MeetingsManagementtakes to the AIR

New website reveals distinctive DNA

Clubbing to bring major meetings to Liverpool

PCO: Mondial, Vienna, Austria

The One Young World Summit is aunique concept in conferences in that itgathers the brightest young leadersfrom around the world and empowersthem to make lasting connections andto develop solutions to some of theworld’s most pressing issues. OneYoung World delegates are 18–30-year-olds who have demonstrated leadershipabilities and a commitment to effecting

positive change. Many have alreadyhad an impact in their home countrieson a range of issues, such as the role ofbusiness in society, transparency inbusiness and government, the impact ofclimate change, global health andhunger relief.

The annual One Young World Summitwas founded in 2009 by David Jones,Kate Robertson and the FoundingCorporate Partner Havas. It is the pre-eminent global forum at which youngtalent from global and national compa-nies, non-governmental organisations,universities and other forward-thinkingorganisations are joined by world lead-ers, who act as One Young WorldCounsellors. Dubbed ‘Davos for theYouth’ by some, Summit delegatesdebate, formulate and share innovativesolutions for pressing issues currentlyfacing the world. After each Summitthe delegates, who are then known asOne Young World Ambassadors, workon their own initiatives or bring thepower of the One Young World networkto initiatives already in existence. Ofthose in employment, many return totheir companies and set about creatingchange from within their corporateenvironment.

Team IrelandThe fifth Summit took place in Dublinon 15–18 October 2014, attracting1300 young leaders from 190 coun-tries. Global leaders, including KofiAnnan, Sir Bob Geldof, AntonyJenkins and Mary Robinson, spokealongside the delegates to address key

issues ranging from peace and conflictresolution to global business, and fromeducation to human rights and sustain-able development. Ireland was selectedas the venue for this high profile andinfluential conference thanks to thehard work of Bob Coggins, ClaraKelleher and Valerie McGrane, underthe guidance of Nicola McGrane,Managing Director of ConferencePartners, who brought more than 20years’ experience of winning confer-ences for Ireland to the process. Thetheme of the bid – ‘One ThousandWelcomes’ – was a play on the tradi-tional Irish ‘one hundred thousand wel-comes’, or Céad Míle Fáilte, adapted tocomplement the One Young Worldbrand. Significantly, the bid was sup-ported by the President of Ireland, theMinister for Transport, Tourism andSport, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, theGaelic Athletic Association, FáilteIreland and numerous other key organi-sations in a concerted and ultimatelysuccessful ‘Team Ireland’ approach.

David Jones and Kate Robertson high-lighted why Dublin was chosen to hostthe 2014 One Young World Summit.“Whether it was from the North orwhether it’s from the great recession,its story is one of a triumph, it’s one ofsociety, it’s one of communal values,

it’s one of people... pulling through,”they explained. Other aspects also con-tributed to Dublin’s win, such as thestrength of the bid by the young ambas-sadors and the city’s position as ‘thecapital of new technology for the wholeof Europe’. Conference Partners wasselected as the local PCO in December2013 and worked closely with theDublin Advisory Committee, the OneYoung World office in London andpublic relations companies to ensurethat the conference exceeded the bidpromises and went off seamlessly andsuccessfully.

Peace and Conflict ResolutionThe 3-day programme consisted of spe-cial and plenary sessions based on thekey topics of: Education; HumanRights; Leadership & Government;Global Business; SustainableDevelopment; and Peace & Conflict.Speakers included Kofi Annan, fourformer Latin American Presidents,Dame Ellen MacArthur, Mark Pollock,Caroline Casey, Ali Hewson, ProfessorMuhammad Yunis, Ronan Dunne andLord Michael Hastings, to name but afew. The One Young World Peace andConflict Resolution Project highlight-ed Ireland’s unique history of conflictresolution and explored lessons learntfrom the Northern Ireland peaceprocess. With half the One YoungWorld community living in a countryaffected by conflict, a series of sessionsled by Dr Martin MacAleese, SeanMurray, a Sinn Fein member and for-mer IRA prisoner, and JackieMcDonald, Northern Ireland activistand former UDA prisoner, offered del-egates from more than 14 conflict-affected countries such as Iraq, Israel,Palestine, Ukraine, Kashmir, SouthSudan, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistanand Pakistan a platform to share storiesand develop ideas for strengtheningefforts towards conflict resolution intheir own countries.

Seeing the sights in DublinAn innovative aspect of the Summitprogramme was the external breakoutsthat took place across 26 separate sitesin Dublin on the Friday afternoon.Delegates pre-registered for theirbreakout of interest and were thentransported by bus or on foot in groupsof 30–35 people to an off-site locationfor their chosen session. Each breakoutwas hosted and organised by a com-pany or organisation, and this unusual-ly large-scale, offsite activity was co-ordinated by Conference Partners, witheach hosting company/organisationproviding lunch, the venue and anexciting interactive programme to dele-gates. The range of hosts includedGoogle, Facebook, KPMG, Diageo,

Kanchi, ESB Internationaland Dublin City Council,further reinforcing the‘Team Ireland’ aspect ofthe conference as well asthe relevance of theSummit to today’s busi-ness, public sector andcharitable communities. Aspart of the Summit’s prom-ise to give delegates a realintroduction to the Irishway of life, and to live up toits legendary reputation forhospitality, Dublin wel-comed One Young Worlddelegates with a ‘OneThousand Welcomes’ tour.

Small groups of delegates were intro-duced to a young Dubliner, who thentook them on a ‘local’s tour’ of Dublin,enabling them to see the real sights andsounds of the city – not just the ones onthe tourist maps, but the authentic fab-ric of Irish life. Guides included staff orstudent volunteers from the organisa-tions hosting the breakout sessions;although they were provided with brief-ing notes and suggestions for itiner-aries, the idea was that the guides tookownership of their tours and broughttheir own personalities and creativity tothem.

Gaining the World’s attentionAn international press delegation con-sisting of leading media outlets fromaround the world attended the Summit,reporting on the event and interviewingthe delegates and Counsellors. High-impact coverage was secured acrossglobal broadcast outlets including the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Sky News,Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, CCTV, SABC,TV Asahi, RTE and Arise TV.

Based on Failte Ireland’s calculationsregarding the value of conferences tothe local economy, the One YoungWorld Summit generated €1.95 millionfor Dublin and Ireland. Not only did itplace Dublin prominently on the inter-national stage as a leading destinationfor high-profile conferences, but it alsocontributed tangible economic benefit.

A world-class conference“From the outset, it was clear thegigantic task of hosting the event inIreland would require the managementskills and experience of an internation-al PCO with a wealth of local insight

and knowledge,” explained BobCoggins, who was a member of theDublin Advisory Committee for OneYoung World 2014. “The best decisionI made was to introduce the One YoungWorld team to Conference Partners,and the result was a world-class confer-ence delivered despite an array of com-plex visa and logistical issues. Theevent differed from previous years asthe city really got involved, and the del-egates used the city as their conferencecentre, with more than 30 venues usedover the 5 days. Thanks to the involve-ment of world-class Irish performers,local Irish children’s choirs, more than250 volunteers, the Irish business com-munity and – most of all – an array ofIrish suppliers, the One Young WorldSummit became truly Irish this year.

It was a privilege and an honour to beinvolved, but it was a pleasure and acomfort to have the support ofConference Partners making it easy tohost one of the most meaningful annualevents on the planet.”

facility. The Gothenburg ConventionBureau teamed up with all parties and invited a small group of clients to familiarise themselves with the new facilities, as well as the peoplebehind them; Michel Neijmann, repre-senting IAPCO at the weekend

programme inDecember 2014,highly commendedthe new venue. TheGothenburg Teamdisplayed trueexcellence in theway they promotedand hosted theevent and deservemaximum credit formaking the experi-ence a lasting, verypositive memoryfor all attendees.



One Young World 2014The first in a series of case studies from leading PCOs around the world

By Nicola McGrane, Conference Partners, Ireland

CASE STUDY

Nicola McGrane, Managing Director ofConference Partners, reaches the stars.

COPENHAGEN: 18-21 JANUARY 2016 WHISTLER: 25-27 MAY 2016

Education is at the heart of every careerpath, whether setting out at the tenderage of the “Under Fives” with hesitantsteps to your first school, or returningto learning in one’s latter years for thepure pleasure of increasing one’s storeof knowledge and expanding the horizons of personal expertise.Somewhere in the middle of this learning timespan comes the need for continuing professional education toensure up-to-date know-how and practice to guarantee quality of serviceand deliverables.

To this end, IAPCO Education providesthe platform for such continuing pro-fessional education for PCOs, MeetingPlanners and other sectors of the meet-ings industry. And 2015 has already gotoff to a good start with the AnnualSeminar taking place in Switzerland inJanuary, the Meetings MasterClass inLisbon in February and the firstRegional Seminar of the year deliveredin Doha, Qatar in March.

Programmes were received with enthu-siasm with interaction, debate and net-working key components of the learn-ing experience:

“Fantastic and imperative to see pre-sentations and insights of ConventionBureau International Standards deliv-ered to Qatar’s developing businesssector. It stimulated the necessary dia-logue to motivate the attending stake-holders to begin working together towin international business events forQatar.” Amanda Barnett, InternationalMeetings & Events.

“The MasterClass helped me in think-ing how I can be a better TrustedAdvisor (with my clients and my team);made me more open and eager to bemore curious about existing clients andpotential new ones; get more inputfrom the team players and last but notleast, I met very interesting and inspir-ing speakers and industry meetingplayers. Very Exciting!!!”

Already in the pipeline are seminars inBangkok [1-3 July 2015], Auckland[24-26 August 2015], Copenhagen[18-21 January 2016] and Whistler[25-27 May 2016]. Full programmesfor all events available on the websiteas of June 2015 [Bangkok availablenow with on-line registration open].

Off to a good start

The Swedish Exhibition & CongressCentre and Gothia Towers has made a huge step forwards to becoming a destination of choice for many inter-national PCOs and their clients withthe grand opening of a fully integratedhotel, exhibition, event and conference

Gothenburg grand opening

It’s not often that a PCO cele-brates its 50th anniversary inthe business, but for KenesGroup, January 2015 marked ahalf-century in the conferenceand association managementindustry – the very definition,some might say, of the expres-sion “long-term”. Kenes is celebrating its golden anniver-sary with a host of employeeand client events worldwide.

Kenes was founded in 1965 byGideon Rivlin, who is one ofthe pioneers of the global PCOindustry and who, early in hiscareer, served as President ofIAPCO. Five decades and3000 conferences later, Gideon is stillactively involved in the company,which is now managed by CEO DanRivlin. “Kenes started out in a tiny two-room flat in Tel Aviv,” explainedGideon. “At the time, international

17th International Congress onInfectious Diseases (ICID)March 2016; Hyderabad, India2500 participantsPCO: MCI India

European Community onComputational Methods inApplied Sciences (ECCOMAS)June 2016; Crete, Greece2000 participants PCO: Erasmus S.A., Greece

European Operating RoomNurses Association (EORNA)April/May 2017; 1600 participantsPCO: ERA Ltd, Greece

European Society forDermatological Research 2017; Salzburg, Austria; 1000 participantsPCO: C-IN, Czech Republic

European Conference onMathematics Education(CERME)2017; Dublin, Ireland700 participantsPCO: Keynote PCO, Ireland

85th European AtherosclerosisSociety Congress (EAS)2017; Core PCO services2000 participantsPCO: AIM Group International

62nd Congress of the JapaneseSociety for Dialysis TherapyJune 2017; Yokohama, Japan15000 participantsPCO: Congress Corporation

Plant Biology Europe(FESPB/ESPO)2018; Copenhagen, Denmark1500 participantsPCO: DIS, Denmark

International Congress onGeneticsJuly 2018; Vancouver, Canada2000 participantsPCO: ICS, Canada

International Congress ofRadiation Research (ICRR)2019; Manchester, UK1000 participantsPCO: Conference Partners

Monday 18 May

• Association Day: IAPCO session with PCMAStrategic Positioning of Medical Conferences in Today’s Environment

Tuesday 19 May

• Partner Breakfast with Hamburg CVB• IAPCO/PCMA Seminar: Cultural differences beyond behavioural• Partner Lunch with Toronto CVB• IAPCO Ambassador’s Meeting• IAPCO Get Together• Partner Dinner with MEHK Wednesday 20 May

• Partner Breakfast with Dubai Tourism Events• IAPCO Seminar with ACC Liverpool and Melbourne CVB: ICCs – from ground zero to high flying marketing

• ADMCI/DMAI/IAPCO Seminar: Collaborate to improve your meeting ROI• IAPCO Press Conference – Launching the new IAPCO Education Programme• IMEX Gala Awards Evening: presentation of IAPCO Innovation AwardAll this in addition to a stand brim-full of appointments and a packed IAPCO Hosted BuyerProgramme – come and be a part of us on Stand G316.

meetings in Israel were unheard of, butI was determined to prove everyonewrong.” It wasn’t long before Gideonreceived a request from the Hilton TelAviv to organise its grand openingevent – it was an overwhelming success

and helped to launch Kenes on the pathto where it is today, with more than 120long-term and returning clients dedi-cated to medical and scientific confer-ences.

The Kenes template has not reallychanged in 50 years. “It’s true – for thepast 50 years, we have focused on thesame kind of business: internationalmedical meetings,” commented DanRivlin. “We are now considering differ-ent market segments that couldenhance our value outside the medicalfield. We draw a lot of strength fromour heritage, and yet we’re in a fast-paced, competitive business that for-ever challenges us. It’s an exciting mix– and we constantly have to find thebalance.”

IAPCO expresses their great sorrow at the tragic accident which occurred inUruguay last month, where 10 people, many of whom were from within the meetingsindustry, died in a plane crash shortly after take-off. Carlos de Elias was well knownto many IAPCO members, having been active in the industry for over 20 years.“Carlos was a very successful entrepreneur” said Gonzalo Perez Constanzó,Immediate Past President of IAPCO, “He was greatly involved within our industryand, among other actives roles, he was president of AOCA. We shall all miss him andhis colleagues.”


MCI receives re-accreditationMCI group has been re-accredited by the AMC Institute, the global trade associationresponsible for setting standards of good practice in the Association ManagementIndustry. Of more than 500 association management companies worldwide, only 74have achieved AMC Institute accreditation to date. MCI remains the only non-US-based company to receive accreditation, which it has successfully maintained since2006.

Bannie Kim appointed President of KAPCOBannie Kim has been appointed as the new President ofKAPCO, the Korean Association of PCOs. Bannie hasmade significant contributions to the Korean meetingsindustry over many years, and has proven track records ofleadership for organisational growth and of industrialdevelopment in the country. She has always demonstrateda strong commitment to engaging with the convergence ofthe meetings profession with other industries. Her contri-butions have included promotional activities for PCOs,development of the expert community, creation of a stan-

dard industrial classification list for Korean PCOs, and the scrapping of unfair tradeand transactions, and unnecessary requests for proposals.

TFI Group welcomes new talentTFI Group has seen considerable growth over the past 12months – both in terms of business across its three areas ofpharma, association and corporate events, as well as interms of a substantial increase in headcount. MichaelForeman has been appointed as Sales and MarketingDirector to head up a growing sales force at TFI Group.“We are delighted to have Michael on board to lead oursales teams,” said TFI’s associations business develop-ment specialist Barbara Blow. “Michael is a highlyrespected meetings industry ambassador, brings with himimmense experience and shares our vision for innovative engagement – we aredelighted to have him on board.”

In addition, TFI has made other appointments at Board Level, including Sanjay Patelas Financial Director and Lisa James as Director of Operations. Simon Maier hastaken on the mantle of Group Creative Director.

Congrex Switzerland selected as partner for Maritz Travel CompanyMaritz Travel Company, which consists of Maritz Travel Meetings & Incentives andExperient, has selected Congrex Switzerland as a partner for its Maritz GlobalMeetings Network. As a partner in the network, Congrex Switzerland will serve asmeetings experts for Switzerland, offering extensive regional knowledge, capabili-ties and cultural solutions for Maritz Travel Company’s clients, and designing anddelivering global meeting experiences.

ICS’s Grit Schoenherr named President ofPCMA Canada WestGrit Schoenherr, Senior Conference Manager atInternational Conference Services, has been namedPresident of the Canada West Chapter of the ProfessionalConvention Management Association (PCMA).Representatives of ICS, which has its headquarters inVancouver, have been involved with PCMA for manyyears, and ICS is delighted that one of its key team mem-bers is leading the Board for Western Canada.

20000 sporting room nights for GyroGyro Conference has been appointed as the selected partner for accommodation forthe Youth Olympic Winter Games, which are taking place in Lillehammer, Norway,in February 2016. Its mission is to plan and prepare good accommodation for all theguests who will be coming to Lillehammer during the Games, with an important partof the job being to establish partnerships and contracts with nearly 50 properties andfor approximately 20000 room nights. Gyro has previous experience in providingaccommodation for sporting events, having undertaken a similar role for the WorldSki Championships in Oslo in 2011. The company is also currently working on theWorld Cup in Nordic skiing at Lillehammer and in Holmenkollen/Oslo, and workedon the bid committee to bring the Olympic Winter Games to Oslo in 2022.

MEMBER NEWS IN BRIEF

Sorrow at Tragic AccidentRivlin – father and son.


What’s going where;some recent key wins

50 Years of Excellence

IAPCO Active at IMEX

PCO: Kenes International, Switzerland

Congrex Switzerland provides consultancy and managementservices in the areas of association management, congressorganisation and accommodation management. Its clientsrange from national and international associations to gov-ernmental organisations and corporations. Depending on aclient’s needs, Congrex Switzerland can act as a full service provider, or it can utiliseits expertise in specific areas, delivering individual parts of projects. Close collabo-ration with clients enables the company to address complex challenges and to deliv-er exciting projects that are professionally organised.

Congrex Switzerland LtdAlain Pittet, Managing DirectorPeter Merian-Strasse 80CH-4002 BaselE-mail: [email protected]

New Member

This document is printed on 100% recycled Revive paper

The 15th World Conference on LungCancer (WCLC), which was held inSydney in October 2013 and managedby International Conference Services(ICS) Canada, was named ‘BestMeeting or Conference’ at theAustralian Event Awards – IndustryNight of Nights event in November lastyear. The WCLC is the largest interna-tional meeting dedicated to lung cancerand thoracic malignancies and isorganised every two years by theInternational Association for the Studyof Lung Cancer (IASLC). “We areabsolutely thrilled to be recognised bythis award,” said Mathias Posch,President of ICS. “WCLC 2013 was aprime example of what can be accom-plished in a true collaboration with allrelevant stakeholders, including exem-plary local conference presidents, pro-fessional colleagues at Business EventsSydney and the Sydney Conventionand Exhibition Centre, and a long-termpartner in IASLC, which has put itstrust in ICS for many years.”

2014 Awardfor ICS forWCLC 2013PCO: ICS, Vancouver, Canada

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