Prague, 18th April 2014 – At the fifth annual Ambassador Awards Evening organized by the Prague Convention Bureau, which was held last night, the 17thApril, 2014 in the Zofin Palace, the Czech Minister of Regional Development, Mrs. Vera Jourova, the Mayor of Prague, Mr Tomas Hudecek, and the President of the Prague Convention Bureau, Mr Sanjiv Suri, made awards to six different ‘Ambasadors’, each of whom were deemed to have made a significant contribution to positioning the City of Prague as a world-class congress destination through their own individual activities. As is now a tradition, the Gala Evening culminated in the presentation of the “Award for the Long-Term Contribution to Congress Tourism”, to Prof. MUDr. Richard Češka, CSc., FACP, FEFIM.
Prof. MUDr. Češka has been the Ambassador of a number of scientific Congresses and Conferences, including the 75th EAS Congress – European Society for Atherosclerosis in 2005, the 12th European Congress of Internal Medicine (EFIM) in 2013, and this year’s “Prague European Days of Internal Medicine” (PEDIM). He has also been the head of several institutions, both locally and internationally, and is currently President of the Czech Society for Internal Medicine and the Head of the Centre of Preventive Cardiology at General University Hospital Prague.
The evening hosted more than 140 eminent doctors, scientists and experts along with representatives of the member agencies of the Prague Convention Bureau and the Prague Congress Centre, as well as several well-known business and tourism personalities, and followed an ‘Oscar awards ceremony’ theme followed by a buffet dinner.
Additional prize-winners were awarded in five main categories. The award for the “Corporate Event of the Year, 2013” was given to Mrs. Karen Mikelsons for the HP Software Sales Summit 2013, which was held in the Prague Congress Centre in March, 2013 and was attended by 1,100 delegates. The second award, in the category “Candidature of the Year, 2013” was given to Prof. RNDr. Ivan Raška, DrSc., who is the Ambassador of the 12th International Congress of Cell Biology (ICCB 2016), which will be held in Prague on 21st – 25th June, 2016. It is expected that this Congress will be attended by up to 4,000 delegates, and will be aimed at creating a discussion forum on various aspects of cell biology for students, PhD students, post-doctoral students and research staff from all around the world.
The award in the category “Congress of the Year, 2013“ went to Doc. MUDr. Bohumil Seifert, Ph.D. for the 20th World Conference of General Practitioners/family physicians – the “WONCA 2013”, which was organized by the Society of General Practitioners and took place in the Prague Congress Centre in June 2013, and attracted 3,628 doctors from 106 different countries.
The special “Award of the Prague Congress Centre” was given to Prof. MUDr. Vladimír Tesař, MBA, director of the Department of Nephrology at the 1st Medical Faculty of the Charles University and the Military Hospital in Prague, for the 48th Congress of the European Renal Association and the European Association for Dialysis and Transplantation („ERA-EDTA“). The Congress was held in June, 2011, and was attended by 10,000 delegates. Its extent and importance made it a „City-wide“ meeting and it was one of the biggest events to be held in the Prague Congress Centre over recent years.
Finally, a special award for 2013 was given to Miroslav Pelta from the Czech Republic Football Association for the UEFA SUPER CUP 2013, which was held on 30th August, 2013 at the Eden Arena, and was attended by 17,686 visitors.
During the programme, several of the speakers made reference to the fact that successful bids, and the subsequent hosting of international congresses, not only bring enormous prestige for Prague and significant visibility abroad, but they also contribute significantly to the economic development of the city.
The Ambassador Awards Evening, which is part of the Ambassadors Programme of the Prague Convention Bureau, is a way of saying thank you to those individuals that pay such an important part in bringing high level congresses to the city, and the event is planned to be held and developed on an annual basis.
The main partners of the event were the Ministry of Regional Development, the City of Prague, CzechTourism, the Czech Convention Bureau, Prague City Tourism , Prague Airport, Czech Airlines, C-IN, Guarant International and the Academy of Science. The technology partner was AV Media.
