Borneo Convention Centre Kuching
THIS year’s ICCA Congress, which takes place in Kuching, Sarawak from November 13 to 16, marks the first time international association executives will be invited as hosted delegates, as opposed to as occasional speakers.
Martin Sirk, ICCA CEO explained: “Our new strategic plan includes the aim of bringing international associations more intimately into our business community, rather than treating them purely as clients for supplier members.
Our focus is on building partnerships to advance and improve their meetings rather than only thinking about the perspective of destinations and venues.
“This concept was already successfully trialled at our smaller Association Meetings Programme in Norway this July, and we’re expecting about two dozen top associations to be represented in Kuching this November.”
This year’s programme features more half-day “mini-conferences” than previously to enable delegates to explore topics in greater depth.
Sirk explained: “Many conferences seem to be moving exclusively towards short, sharp presentations that are primarily designed to entertain an audience, but we felt that the importance of many of our topics deserves to be treated with seriousness. Thus we created space for real exploration of issues. We’ve included in-depth sessions on crisis communication, on the latest healthcare meeting regulatory and funding issues and the theory and good practice of pricing and sales techniques.”
Local hosts which includes Borneo Convention Centre Kuching and Sarawak Convention Bureau have incorporated corporate social responsibility into the programme through a baby orang utan adoption project.
The 55th ICCA Congress will be held at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching. More than 800 delegates from over 60 countries are expected to attend.
