The ICCA Board of Directors has selected Kaohsiung, Taiwan as the host destination for the 2020 Congress, following what was said to be the most competitive bidding exercise in the association’s history.
Eight ICCA destination teams submitted first round bids, and three were shortlisted just before IMEX in May 2017: Kaohsiung, Yokohama (Japan) and Cartagena de Indias (Colombia).
The final presentations were made to the board on November 11, and the winner was announced by ICCA president Nina Freysen-Pretorius at the ICCA General Assembly during the 56th ICCA Congress in Prague, Czech Republic the following day.
Freysen-Pretorius said in a press statement: “All three presentations were creative, passionate, but also strongly business-focused, each with their own personality, and in any other year, any one of the three could easily have been a worthy winner.”
On why the Taiwanese destination won the bid, she said: “Kaohsiung told a compelling story of a city that is re-inventing itself through the power of meetings, their team designed creative concepts that will help ICCA engage more effectively with Asia-Pacific based associations, and they demonstrated great team cohesion and offered tremendous value for money.
“I have no doubt that 2020 will be a wonderful Congress experience for our entire global community. Yokohama and Cartagena should also be congratulated on their extremely professional, impressive bids”.
ICCA Congress head to Sydney in 2018 and Houston in 2019.
