By Christian Folden Lund, CEO, Bellagroup: After more than a year of intense work, Danish legislation around work permits for large international events has finally been changed. A new exemption will be introduced for non-EU professionals working at events in Denmark — a major win for our event industry! This change will make it significantly…
This year’s VisitBrussels Night celebrated the academics, scientific and healthcare professionals, and business leaders whose bids brought important international events to Brussels. The event was a great opportunity to hear views on the strategic role of business events from industry thought-leaders. Over 150 ambassadors, 300,000 delegates and EUR 250 million in direct economic impact …
Held during the 2025 IMEX Policy Forum in Frankfurt, this high-level interview with urbanist, author and global advisor Prof Greg Clark CBE FAcSS provides essential geopolitical and socioeconomic context for understanding the future potential direction of Business Events and what destinations that wish to strengthen their competitive positioning need to do. “A multiplication of opportunity…
From The Business of Events: We are delighted to share the 2025 International Planner Sentiment Report, which reveals a marked divergence in event planner priorities across global markets. Supported by Tourism Ireland, this year’s findings unveil growing regional differences in planner priorities across the UK, Europe, and North America – shaped by shifting economic, political,…
Northstar’s global hosted-buyer event for the incentive travel industry—brings together the most highly-qualified incentive travel buyers with top incentive destinations, hotels/resorts, cruise lines, DMCs, DMOs, technology and merchandise providers, and tourism offices from around the world. Attendees participate in one-on-one pre-scheduled appointments, gain industry insights from our guest speakers and network with this exclusive group…
The AIPC Operational Excellence Summit provides an engaging forum for discussing the issues and opportunities faced by convention centers in times of changing requirements, digitation and sustainability. Amongst the areas to be explored will be risk and crowd management, security and cybersecurity, changing tech requirements, responding to new event formats and the renewed importance of…
This dynamic, in-person workshop is designed to equip PCOs and DMCs across South-Eastern Europe with practical tools, expert insights, and collaborative strategies to elevate regional event capabilities for sustainable growth. The workshop is part of the IAPCO–ICCA MoU, a strategic partnership focused on advancing the meetings industry through capacity-building.
From Boardroom: This past March, Stuttgart played host to the European Robotics Forum (ERF) 2025, marking the first time in its fifteen-year history that Europe’s premier robotics and AI gathering took place in Germany. More than 1,500 participants from research, industry, and government convened at the Kultur- & Kongresszentrum Liederhalle, cementing the region’s reputation as…
VisitBritain’s updated Delegate Spend Report reveals that 62% of all delegates on average intend to return to the city where the event is held, and 47% intend to return to invest or grow business relationships, encouraging sector growth. You can learn more about the findings / download the full report here…
Wonderful Copenhagen’s new high-level strategy for tourism (including Business Events) 2024-2030, designed to “shed light on tourism’s true impact on society and the world – its positive and negative effects, and its direct and indirect.” A model for meaningful engagement with local citizens and deeper links to local business and scientific ecosystems.
From Wonderful Copenhagen: Comprehensive guidelines on how to design a strategic legacy programme, and how to apply the principles and practices to individual events, from identification of challenges and desired impact, designing the process, measuring the impact, with the active involvement of local policymakers. View / download Copenhagen Legacy Lab’s publications and find inspirational tools…
Published by Centre for Events & Festivals: Dr Martin Schnitzer from University of Innsbruck makes the case that public trust is the new currency for hosting major events — and it’s in short supply. Mega-events often stumble when residents see them as “transactional” spectacles rather than “transformational” opportunities for long-term benefit. Destinations need to understand…
Last month, The Iceberg shared its introduction to three case studies of how the GDS-Award winning city is activating the attraction of business events to advance social, societal, and economic transformation, destination development, and positive change. “Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do,” claimed Katarina Thorstensson, Head of Sustainability at the city’s destination…
From ICCA: Signed during IMEX 2025 in Frankfurt by ICCA CEO Dr. Senthil Gopinath and ESAE Managing Director Ioannis Pallas, the agreement affirms both organisations’ commitment to nurturing the next generation of association leaders and professionals, as well as contributing to one another’s ongoing research and development efforts.
From Boardroom: Long recognised for its hospitality, culture, and strategic position within Europe’s business events landscape, Barcelona is now working to embed long-term societal value into the very fabric of the events it attracts.
From Boardroom: As the European Green Deal is shaping various sectors in the continent, associations need to step up their game for advocacy and actively lead their sectors towards transformation. Few have risen to that challenge with the clarity and collaborative ambition of the European Boating Industry (EBI), which has just been awarded the 2025…
Ex-UFI CEO turned industry thought-leader Kai Hattendorf was ubiquitous at this year’s IMEX, challenging the industry to up its game in terms of global advocacy, arguing that this is even more critical than ever during a time of geopolitical flux and uncertainty, and then eloquently demonstrating in a series of interviews how to frame the…
Early pre-event collaboration between the city’s destination marketing organisation and congress organisers was key in designing high-impact outreach programmes involving schools and thousands of ordinary citizens, raising awareness of how to maintain lifelong liver health. From Amsterdam Convention Bureau…
Follow Geneviève Leclerc’s novel experiment through this series of LinkedIn posts, as she attempts to rigorously apply the “BE Impactful Framework” (designed to measure the overall business, intellectual and societal impact of an event) to her own PERSONAL impact and value gained from attending IMEX 2025 in Frankfurt.
The 2025 IMEX Gala was the setting for the sector’s leading associations to present awards recognising star individuals within their communities who are raising awareness of the enormous long-term economic and societal impact of business and scientific events, amongst both policymakers and citizens.
Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau has been the world leader in sharing its innovative work on event impact, creative event design and sustainability, recognising that encouraging competitors to embrace these changes will help the entire world of Business Events to increase its positive societal impact whilst reducing its carbon footprint, strengthening advocacy arguments for the entire…
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