Europe
EUROPE – Strasbourg will be the host city of the third France Meeting Hub organised by National tourism agency Atout France in October 2015. The event, which runs 2-5 October, will be spread over Strasbourg and the Alsace region in Eastern France. Buyers will be invited to attend a workshop in Strasbourg with over 40 selected French partners. The programme includes a visit to a conference at...
EUROPE – A company producing an app linking business travellers to charities has won the Sabre Corporation’s travel hackathon in London. Some 150 participants from 18 countries took part in a 24-hour challenge of intense hacking and creative thinking, with a goal to create new technology and apps for global travel. The round-the-clock coding contest resulted in a variety of new applications ...
European city tourist offices and convention bureau network European Cities Marketing (ECM) has signed a research partnership contract with destination marketing agency Toposophy. Toposophy offers solutions for destination strategy and planning, place marketing and branding, market intelligence, trade marketing, advocacy and government support, tailor-made to each place’s distinct needs. Under the...
EUROPE – The 2015 IMEX Academy Award for Europe has been awarded to Henrik von Arnold, of ENITED Business Events. Von Arnold managed the Convention Offices in Gothenburg and Stockholm for more than 15 years, and was chairman of the Scandinavian Chapter of the International Congress Association (ICCA), as well as being a board member of the European Federation of Conference Towns (EFCT). IMEX...
EUROPE – Destination management companies in Greece have insisted that event organisers face no financial risk, as the country prepares for its make-or-break referendum. The left-wing Greek government and the “troika” – the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and the European Commission – are trading cat-and-mouse threats and promises. Greece this week missed a d...
EUROPE – Maintenance costs deepened the losses at a major international conference centre. The Austria Center Vienna posted a loss after tax €7,345,000 in 2014, compared to a loss of €6,859,000 in the previous year. The costs included work on a new business lounge with a Viennese coffeehouse and catering from Motto Catering. Thousands of new chairs and replacement banqueting and conference t...
EUROPE – The European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) has selected Vienna for its annual congress in 2017 and 2020, and Barcelona for 2018 and 2021. The decision follows a joint bid and promotion by the two cities. The cities to host the 2019 and 2022 congresses are yet to be announced. Organisers Dr Manuel Cassiano Neves and Dr Per Kjaersgaard-An...
EUROPE – The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) announced this week it is to take its bi-annual PCMA Global Medical Meetings Summit to Scotland, 13-16 November, 2015. The summit, an invitation-only event for North American and global senior medical meeting professionals – responsible for medical meetings held globally and global medical association CEOs – will ...
EUROPE – A world-class congress is returning to a country after a 21-year absence. The Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress will take place at the Congrès et Expositions de Bordeaux (CEB) from 5-9 October. The first edition of the show took place in Paris in 1994. The main theme of the convention, “Towards Intelligent Mobility – Better Use of Space”, will highlight ...
ASIA – Shanghai has launched a new meeting campaign at the 2015 Expo Milano. The Information Office of Shanghai Municipality unveiled the city’s new global promotion campaign, ‘Shanghai. Let’s Meet!’ with the launch phase running through to 18 June as part of the Expo in Citta programme. Zhu Yonglei, director general of Shanghai Information Office, said: “Shanghai has always been open to the...
EUROPE – New research into the UK’s conference and business events sector has valued the sector at an estimated £21.6bn (US$34.36bn) in terms of venue and destination direct spend in 2014. The ‘UK Conference and Meeting Survey 2015’ (UKCAMS) says the new total represents an increase of some £2bn compared with the previous year, due mainly to an increase in event size. The survey, now in its ...
EUROPE – More evidence of strong bounce in investment values in the UK hotel sector is illustrated by the £363m (US$507m) acquisition of boutique chain Malmaison Hotel du Vin (MHDV) by Frasers Hospitality UK Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore group Frasers Centrepoint. The deal reflects a decent profit for Denver-based sellers KSL Capital Partners, which paid £180m for the bran...