World Chambers Congress featured at IMEX’s Association Day

The experiences and best practices of ICC and WCF in its Congress bidding and decision-making process were shared with other international organizations from around the world at an association day roundtable on the art of successful bidding, which took place on 21 April.

Held one day prior to IMEX, Association Day brings together 300 association professionals from over 30 countries and provides unique educational tracks for executive, operations and meetings staff, with the latest event management knowhow.

IMEX is where the global meetings industry continues to do business while maximizing connections, networking opportunities. Featuring over 70 education sessions, IMEX also gathers more than 3,500 exhibitors from 157 countries, including national and regional convention and visitor bureaus, exhibition centres and event management specialists.

“IMEX provides a useful framework to communicate with different associations on how they operate, giving insight and new ideas on how to make events livelier and more engaging for all,” said Anthony Parkes, WCF Director.

Following introductions on bidding processes and decision-making by Martin Sirk of the International Congress and Convention Association’s (ICCA), Michael Foreman of Kenes and Caroline McKenzie of Congrex, Mr Parkes discussed the experiences of the eight ICC WCF Congresses held to date and explained the systems put in place to manage Congress bids already received by WCF until 2021. From the bidding procedure to venue selection, Mr Parkes highlighted the factors that contribute to event successful as well as the importance of the relationship between ICC WCF and its partner countries.

During breakout groups, Mr Parkes led discussions with association groups on general standards of bidding processes; role of suppliers versus local association representatives; bidding processes and the need for communication; decision-making criteria and logistics.

Discussions also looked at the problems and challenges facing any event and included an exchange of ideas and experiences on improving congress organization as well as the new concepts being brought into event hosting.

At IMEX, Mr Parkes had meetings with the seven candidate organizations vying to host the 2015 World Chambers Congress. He also met with several convention bureaus and discussed their role working closely with their respective chambers of commerce to help prepare their bids for future Congresses. The convention bureaus of the future Congress candidate cities Sydney, Johannesburg and Buenos Aires, were among those with whom Mr Parkes met.

Watch the IMEX TV highlights.