TTGmice's weekly round-up of MICE developments outside of Asia-Pacific.
Germany: Country’s exhibition centres get €1 billion boost
AUMA, the association of the German trade fair industry, has revealed that more than €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) will be spent to replace, renovate and modernise exhibition halls in Germany from now until 2023.
This decision was made after an AUMA survey earlier this year found that German exhibition centres of national significance had 2.8 million square metres of hall space at the start of 2019, which was approximately 1.4 per cent less than in the year before.
AUMA said the report put the decrease in hall space down to some capacities being discontinued and also construction work. As such, the drop has prompted them to invest in the upgrade and replacement of old halls.
In 2018, more than €400m were invested in Germany’s major exhibition centres and hall capacities are expected to increase by 29,387m2 by 2023 (+1%), with 22,558m2 coming online in the course of 2019.
Germany currently has a total 3.2 million square metres of hall space for exhibitions, according to AUMA.
Denmark: Denmark to drive stronger outreach benefits for global meetings
Four Danish destinations – under the umbrella alliance MeetDenmark – have banded together to launch a new programme designed to make international conventions more impactful for both associations and destinations.
Launched at the recent IMEX Frankfurt, the outreach programme’s stated vision is: “Destinations and associations will define innovative partnership models, through meetings and congresses, aiming at creating value for both the participants and the local stakeholders.”
Bettina Reventlow-Mourier, deputy convention director and head of congress for Wonderful Copenhagen, said in a statement: “We want to create a significant value-add for international associations coming to Denmark. We are focused on helping associations achieve greater impacts in fulfilling their own goals and missions while also strengthening the value of visiting congresses for Danish society beyond the traditional direct economic benefits. We’re looking to develop a powerful nexus between community goals and association goals.”
“We want Denmark to be seen as world-leading in terms of proactively building meeting impacts and legacies. And, we think that associations will be interested in what we have to offer. We want to help them find new ways of engaging with our communities, because we think there is an opportunity to do things in a much different way,” added Allan Tambo Christiansen, head of conventions for Visit Aarhus.
Besides hoping to leave a lasting positive impression on meeting attendees, Christiansen wants his community to “maintain the relationship with the associations after the meeting has come and gone, and to keep working on achieving key outcomes”.
The members of MeetDenmark are the Ministry of Business Industry and Financial Affairs and the tourism organisations VisitAalborg, VisitAarhus, Inspiring Denmark and Wonderful Copenhagen.
Argentina: UFI goes to to Buenos Aires
UFI has announced that the 2nd UFI Latin American Conference will be held in Argentina, in the last week of April 2020.
Taking place at the new Centro de Convenciones de Buenos Aires, the event will be hosted by La Rural and co-located with the 17th Expoeventos Latinoamerica, one of the major exhibition industry events in the region.
The two-day programme will focus on regional-specific topics including: digital impact, the future of venues and events, talent management, market opportunities in the region, and participants will have the opportunity to discuss common strategies for different realities in Latin America.
