As Lithuania celebrates its 100th centenary year, MICE industry trade show for the Baltic region, Convene, opened its sixth edition at Litexpo, Vilnius, 14 February.
Show director Jolanta Beniuliene greeted guests, including hosted buyers, at a Welcome Evening held at the Radisson Blu Lietuva Sky Bar on the 22nd floor of the hotel.
“The meetings and events industry across the Baltic Sea Region has come a long way since the first edition of Convene in 2013,” she said, “and we would like to think that our event has played an integral role in this development.”
Beniuliene added that the emphasis for the 2018 edition of the exhibition was on ‘quality’. There is also an expanded selection of post event familiarisation tours in the region for hosted buyers. The education sessions kicked off on Day 1 with a presentation on the American Express Meetings & Events Global Meetings and Events Forecast by Marc Scales of Banks Sadler and Ralph Knoblauch of AMEX M&E.
Four key trends identified in the new report, based on client responses were:
- A trend towards ‘short but sweet’ meetings. More meetings were reported, but they were shorter.
- More accent on creativity and delegate wellness and CSR activities around the meetings.
- A greater emphasis on engagement and ‘clever’ meeting design.
- More accent on creativity and delegate wellness and CSR activities around the meetings.
Meeting spend was creeping up, with hotel rates creeping up, by up to 3.7% in some regions. In Asia, the report claimed group air rates growth was running at 0.9%, while in North America it was 4.7%.
And 37% of client responses said group air rates influenced their choice of destination. Great use of unique venues and bringing in more local flavour.
The report also identified clients’ top 10 meetings destinations as:
- London
- Barcelona
- Berlin
- Amsterdam
- Paris
- Madrid
- Frankfurt
- Rome
- Munich
- Prague
Convene 2018 runs at Litexpo, Vilnius, 14-15 February.
