Welcome to our September Edition of Best Meetings News
Explore our website to learn more about BestCities Global Alliance and its Partners – Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver.
EDITORIAL:
Dear Association Executives,
I am pleased to share with you the outstanding results of BestCities Melbourne's efforts to attract international meetings to the state of Victoria!
We secured 245 business events with 92,036 delegates to Melbourne in the coming years, who, in turn, will generate in excess of USD364 million for Victoria's economy. One of them is the World Congress of Cardiology for 2014 with some 9,000 cardiologists and other health care professionals.
Meeting planners always find our Business Events Marketing e-Kit extremely useful. There is a Smartphone App, a Tablet App, Personalised 'My Melbourne' online delegate boosting tool, an EDM and a Melbourne Widget. Four international conferences are already using the 'My Melbourne' online delegate boosting tool.
You can see for yourself how the Melbourne Widget is working for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Asia Pacific by clicking on this link: http://www.himssasiapac.org/11/travel/aboutMelbourne.aspx
Expanded versions of the Smartphone App, Tablet App and EDM will be rolled out later.
Please contact me if you are interested to bring your meeting to Melbourne or to any of our BestCities destinations. All of us at BestCities Global Alliance look forward to welcoming you, and your delegates, to our destinations.
Best Practices. Best Meetings. BestCities.
Yours sincerely,
Julia Swanson, Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau
On behalf of BestCities Global Alliance.
Some Upcoming Events:
1. 20-23 Sept - Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society - HIMSS- Asia Pacific
2. 27-30 Sept - Biennial Congress of the Asian-Pacific Hepato-Pancreato Biliary Association
3. 03-06 Oct - World Summit on the Arts and Culture
For a full list, visit our website.
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FEATURED STORY:
IUPAC visits Puerto Rico
BestCities Puerto Rico recently hosted the 46th General Assembly and 43rd World Chemistry Congress of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
Inset: From left to right: Professor Gabriel A. Infante and Ada E. Yonath (2009 Nobel Laureate)
The concurrent programmes, held at the Puerto Rico Convention Centre, brought together leading scientists from around the globe, including seven Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry. This event is the cornerstone for the 2011 International Year of Chemistry.
Around 2,000 – 2,500 local and international delegates attended the convention which was held in the greater San Juan area. A special element of the conference included a Young Scientists programme aimed to encourage young scientists to venture into the chemical sciences field. The event was also to showcase the career opportunities in chemistry and biotech available in Puerto Rico. For more information, visit www.iupac2011.org.
Some Upcoming Events:
1. 02-05 Oct - Conferencia Anual Latinoamericana de
Auditoría Control y Seguridad de Tecnología de la Informacion
2. 20-23 Oct - Asamblea del Consejo Latinoamericano de Escuelas de Administracion
For a full list,
visit our website.
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"What began as a casual idea of the Singapore Baptist Convention hosting the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) global Youth Conference in 2013 was set aflame with the enthusiastic support and timely follow-up by the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau. The decision to select Singapore as the host was unanimous and I am looking forward to receiving more than 7,000 Baptist youths from more than 90 countries to Singapore in July 2013."
- Peter Tang, Executive Director
Singapore Baptist Convention
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It's Singapore ... Again!
Singapore has retained its position as Asia's Top Convention City for almost a decade, according to ICCA - International Congress and Convention Association.
It is also in the Top 5 global convention cities alongside Vienna, Barcelona, Paris and Berlin.
Given that the ICCA Global Rankings focuses on meetings that rotate regularly between at least three countries, this accolade serves to intensify Singapore's appeal as a destination for not only new but also returning events. According to this qualifying criterion, 136 rotating events were held in Singapore in 2010, representing more than 14% growth over the events that qualified the previous year.
BestCities Singapore attributes this success to the city's sound business fundamentals, ease of doing business and the relentless commitment of its leaders and industry partners. Singapore attracted 3.1 million business travelers last year, which accounted for 27% of all visitors to Singapore, spending about US$4.48 billion.
Some Upcoming Events:
1. 27-29 Sept - Conference of the Asia Pacific Quality Control Organization,
2. 02-05 Oct - Currency Conference
3. 10-13 Oct - Asia-Pacific Retailers Convention and Exhibition,
For a full list, visit our website.
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Visit Vancouver in the App Store
Spectacular natural beauty, urban excitement and a cosmopolitan vibrancy have all helped to land Vancouver at the top of "must visit" lists.
Now, its Vancouver Vacation Guide is available in the iTunes App Store. Perfect for conference delegates, this guide to Vancouver is loaded with ideas for exploring the best of the city, whether you've got just a day or two to see the top highlights or a bit longer to delve into some of the locals' favorites. The guide is free and available in 20 languages. Click here to check it out.
Incidentally, ICCA has ranked BestCities Vancouver as North America's top meeting destination for more than three years. The city's Vancouver Convention Centre also won the Green Supplier Silver Award for demonstrating best efforts to minimize environmental impact at this year's IMEX (the exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events). Meeting planners and their delegates can be assured that they will be in good hands in Vancouver.
Some Upcoming Events:
1. 05-08 Oct - International Conference on Entertainment Computing
2. 05-06 Oct - IPTI Mass Appraisal Valuation Symposium
For a full list, visit our website.
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BestCities Cape Town Leads Charge
A new Destination Marketing Forum has been formed under the auspices of the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) to promote business tourism in Cape Town and its neighbouring regions.
The forum's main objective is to promote knowledge sharing to build capacity and formulate the 10 Best Practices for Convention Bureaus; and to step up engagement between the public and private sectors to stimulate growth in Business Tourism. All very good news that will benefit international meeting organizers who want to bring meetings to Cape Town.
Amanda Kotzé-Nhlapo, manager of the Cape Town & Western Cape Convention Bureau, is the inaugural chairperson of SAACI's Destination Marketing Forum.
Some Upcoming Events:
1. 25-28 Sept - International Housing and Home Warranty Conference, Cape Town
2. 03-07 Oct - Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, Cape Town
3. 09-13 Oct - World Veterinary Congress, Cape Town
For a full list, visit our website.
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Edinburgh Making Waves
BestCities Edinburgh is part in The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Its yacht, the appropriately named 'Edinburgh Inspiring Capital' set sail from Southampton on July 31 on a 40,000 mile ocean race across six seas.
52 crew members – some on-board for the entire journey, others taking part over specific legs and many having never sailed before – represented Scotland's capital racing against nine other boats over almost twelve months and stopping off in fourteen ports, including New York, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Singapore.
The yacht is manned by accountants, teachers, managing directors, a farmer and a hairy Heilan Coo, its mascot, as well as a relay team of doctors, nurses and patients, led by Professor Stephen Wigmore of the University of Edinburgh. They will tell their incredible, personal stories about organ transplantation on each leg of the journey, to help raise Edinburgh's profile as a top research and development.
This is the second time that Edinburgh has taken part in the Clipper race.
Upcoming Events:
1. 07-11 Sept - World Plumbing Conference,
2. 19-22 Sept - International Conference on Nuclear Criticality Safety,
For a full list, visit our website.
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Mind Blowing Creativity
International meeting planners who are thinking about organizing a meeting to BestCities Copenhagen will be interested to know about MIND.
The recent MIND familiarisation trip was organized by VisitDenmark and Wonderful Copenhagen for meeting planners from 14 countries. After the trip, about half of them now expect to bring an event to Copenhagen within the next 6 months, almost all within the next 2 years.
MIND is a Danish Meetovation concept which emphasizes returns on meetings investment via innovative, stimulating and relevant programming. In fact one American meeting planner described it as 'by far the most captivating conference I have ever attended.'
Think Creative, and Think Copenhagen.
Some Upcoming Events:
1. 21-24 Sept - Scientific and Annual Meeting of the European Society of Coloproctology, Copenhagen
2. 03-05 Oct - Annual Course and Meeting of the International Cancer Imaging Society, Copenhagen
3. 20-21 Oct - International Softwood Conference, Copenhagen
For a full list, visit our website.
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Definitely BestCities
Dubai will be hosting up to a dozen association meeting planners to a 3 day workshop and familiarization trip this November. At this unique client event, the other BestCities destinations – there are a total of 8 in this network – will also be present so participants will learn more, not just about BestCities Dubai, but also about the other 7 destinations.
In a recent BestCities survey, 97% of meeting planners vouched that their expectations of a BestCities as the host of their meeting were matched or exceeded; and about 86% said they would recommend BestCities to their other colleagues. The overall experience with a BestCities bureau was rated 9.2 out of 10.
All very persuasive indications that BestCities hosts better meetings! For more information about a meeting in BestCities, contact Jane Cunningham or use our online Request For Proposal.
Dubai is acknowledged to be the biggest host of meetings and conventions in the Middle East and North Africa, hence it is no surprise that Jerad Bachar, Director of Dubai Convention Bureau, has been invited by the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) to chair its Global Leadership Council and serve on their Board of Directors.
Jerad is also the Chair of BestCities Global Alliance's Expansion Committee which seeks beneficial partnerships with other complementary convention bureaux and cities. The global network of BestCities destinations in key regions has been likened to 'manna from heaven' for meeting planners who seek consistency as their meetings rotate around the world. One example is the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology who would have used 4 out of the 8 BestCities after their 2012 world congress in Copenhagen.
Some Upcoming Events:
1. 16-18 Nov 2011 - BestCities Association Clients Workshop
2. 30 Oct - 04 Nov - Conference of the International Bar Association
3. 04-08 Dec - International Diabetes Federation Congress
For a full list, visit our website.
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