Partner Article

Strategic Alliance of National Convention Bureaux of Europe

The Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe has signed a Memorandum of Understanding incorporating criteria including membership, responsibilities and goals.

The Alliance is the first of its kind and aims to boost partnership working between convention bureaux within Europe in order to maintain and strengthen its long-term standing as number one meeting destination in the world (ICCA Statistics Report 2014).

The Memorandum of Understanding was announced on 14 April, the first Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID), and was signed at a recent meeting in Munich. The alliance agreed on its aims - to promote and support knowledge sharing among members, simplify and strengthen the approach to key markets, and enable comprehensive market research via joint activities. The decision making process is based on majority vote by current membership and membership is on a one country one member basis. The strategic alliance has agreed to meet twice a year, rotating host destinations, with the next meeting scheduled to take place 22 – 23 September 2016 in Riga, Latvia.

At the meeting of the Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe at the Hotel Platzl Munich, Sweden and Scotland were confirmed as members, taking the total number of members to 24.

Members also received the latest update on comprehensive market research into China, a key market for the alliance. US, South America and the Middle East were also identified as important markets.

Matthias Schultze, Managing Director of the German Convention Bureau (GCB), and Eric Bakermans, marketing manager for the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions, speaking on behalf of the group, comment:

“The Memorandum of Understanding is a significant step for our Alliance. As a growing organisation, it’s essential that we’re clear on our goals and how we can work together to achieve them. Adopting a partnership approach really strengthens our position in the global meeting and event sector, both as individual countries and as the wider Alliance.”

National Convention Bureaux across the continent are included in the new alliance, they are: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Latvia, Scotland ,Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Ward .