Exciting initiatives undertaken during 2009 and plans for 2010 and beyond formed the basis of discussion at the recent BestCities Board meeting in Florence, Italy. Future plans included :
· the provision of additional resources at Head Office to assist with business development services and management support
· a new robust and interactive website
· plans to further engage the international association market; and
· exploratory discussions for enhanced working relationships with other key associations.
Sue Stuart, Board Chair of the Alliance and Chief Executive of Edinburgh Convention Bureau Ltd said, “It is now some nine years since the Alliance was formed and I am pleased to say that all partners remain strong in the belief that co-operative working brings many benefits. By sharing industry expertise , research and sales leads as well as capitalising on the exceptional reputation of our partners – Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver – we have succeeded in gaining valuable market advantage over other competitor destinations. One of the Alliance’s most significant introductions in the last couple of years was LRQA certification – and I am delighted to cofirm that Bestcities is on track to successfully achieve our annual renewal of LRQA for 2009.
Stuart went on to describe the Alliance’s much heralded quality assurance scheme : “In its infancy the Alliance developed a self assessed CVB quality service process to evaluate and benchmark each partner’s client service standards This self assessment process evolved into a desire for our services to be audited by an independent third party and in turn led to the development of an Alliance-wide Quality Management System.
In 2008, the Alliance received certification verifying that its QMS has been approved by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA). This is the first world-wide certification programme for convention bureau organisations. Certification is dependent on all eight partners successfully achieving accreditation. To retain certification each partner in the Alliance continues on an annual basis, to undergo one internal audit and one external (LRQA) audit. The accreditation process allows BestCities to maintain its Best Practices, Best Meetings promise to each of its clients.”
“We are also pleased to announce, continued Stuart “that Jane Cunningham, Managing Director of Medley International Ltd, will be joining the Alliance Head Office on 14 December 2009. Jane will provide business development services and support and will work closely with the Alliance’s Management Committee and Sales Group to identify and expand business leads and bidding opportunities.”
Cunningham, has an exceptional background in the association and business events industry having worked for the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Visit London (CVB) and Congrex UK (PCO)..
“I love working in the association market, and finding best solutions for association meeting planners. I am already familiar with the BestCities destinations and I think the Alliance is a huge asset to the international association conference market,” said Cunningham.
Stuart added: “Jane worked for five years with the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and was during that time responsible for association sales. Her experience and relationship with international associations will therefore be extremely beneficial to the Alliance’s business development efforts”.
“We are also delighted to welcome Selina Chow, a former employee of Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau who has joined the Head Office team and who will provide additional administrative support.
”The last 6 months has been a dynamic period for the Alliance and has seen us very much focus on the business needs of our partners as well as responding to the needs of our clients. I have no doubt that the year ahead will continue to be both challenging and exciting and that under Ana Maria’s guidance the BestCities Alliance will continue to go from strength to strength.”
Sue Stuart will hand over the Board Chair position to Ana Maria Viscasillas, President and CEO of Puerto Rico Convention Bureau in January 2010. Ana Maria’s 2010 BestCities team will include Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo (Cape Town Convention Bureau) as Management Committee Chair, and Anne Dissing (Wonderful Copenhagen) who will be Sales Group Chair.
