This is a very special year for ICCA, as it celebrates its 50 year anniversary throughout the whole year, ending with a climactic Gala evening at the 2013 ICCA Congress in Shanghai, China-P.R.
The ICCA Congress will take place 2-6 November 2013 in Shanghai.
ICCA CEO Martin Sirk commented: “ICCA’s 50th anniversary is just one reason why we’re expecting a record attendance for any ICCA event held outside Europe. Equally important is the realisation all over the world that China really matters: as a source of delegates whose presence is desired by every organiser and venue, as a country with fantastic destinations and facilities for international meetings, as a future research and development powerhouse, and as a present and future competitor. All of these powerful business reasons will attract our members, the meetings industry’s most influential global leaders, to Shanghai.”
Dao Shuming, Chairman of the Local Host Committee: “The ICCA Congress has never been to mainland China before. We believe the 52nd ICCA Congress will be a milestone and an occasion that new horizons will be explored for the future development of the meeting industry in China.“
Sharing information about international association meetings
The concept of ICCA was first discussed by travel agents Moises Shuster from Mexico and Jean Claude Murat from Paris at the beginning of the 1960s, to take advantage of the then-new phenomenon of international association meetings which were being stimulated by the introduction of commercial jet aircraft, and particularly the potentially lucrative medical meetings field. The unique original idea was to share information between friendly business owners based in different countries to obtain competitive advantage and win a bigger slice of the travel revenue from this fast emerging market.
Sharing information about international association meetings for business advantage continues to be the central theme of ICCA’s Mission five decades later.
ICCA50
The “ICCA50” campaign includes a dedicated logo and website (www.icca50.com), an interactive history timeline, with pages where ICCA members can share their ICCA Congress memories, social media campaigns, and video interviews with dozens of members. There will be celebrations and innovative new activities at the ICCA Research, Sales and Marketing Programme in ICCA’s HQ city Amsterdam in June, and at all other events and tradeshows where ICCA is present throughout 2013. ICCA will also mark this milestone by publishing a special 50 year edition of its international association meetings Statistics Report.
