Prague, 20th May, 2014 – After two years of intense preparations Prague has been announced as the host city for the 56th Congress of the International Congress and Convention Association – ICCA – in 2017. Prague, represented by members of the Prague Convention Bureau team, namely Sanjiv Suri (President PCB), Lenka Žlebková (Managing Director PCB) and Dagmar Brožová (Association Meetings Manager PCB), and representatives of the City of Prague – the Mayor of Prague, Mr. Tomáš Hudeček, and the Deputy Mayor, Mr. Václav Novotný, competed with other two strong candidates – Gdańsk in Poland and St. Petersburg in Russia.
“The competition was really tough and we are very happy that we succeeded,” says Lenka Žlebková, Managing Director of Prague Convention Bureau. “After last year’s failure we are absolutely excited about Prague’s win, especially because we managed to create a strong team consisting of representatives of the private and public sectors in the course of last year. The support and personal participation of the Mayor of Prague also helped us a lot,” she adds.
The candidacy of Prague was based on the importance of congresses and conferences for the strategic plan of the development of the city and the whole Czech Republic. The Mayor of Prague, Tomáš Hudeček, explains: “We want to inspire ICCA delegates with the story of our city’s success on the international meetings market, which has occurred not just because we are a great cultural and tourist city, but because we have placed international meetings at the heart of our economic development and knowledge economy strategies. Bidding for this prestigious congress has helped us to forge a stronger and more creative team, involving public and private sector organizations all across our country, and we are honored that ICCA has placed its trust in us to deliver an outstanding event.”
Thanks also go to the Deputy Mayor, Mr. Václav Novotný, not only for his contribution to the bid, but also for his active participation in pushing through the modernization and extension of the Prague Congress Centre, the only congress facility in the Czech Republic for prestigious international meetings with the participation exceeding 1,500 delegates. “Prague’s success shows that the city really belongs to the top of the world congress destinations ranking,” says Václav Novotný. “ICCA congress is good publicity for the destination and it also guarantees that the city is able to provide the meeting organizers first-class services. In recent years, Prague has returned among the best congress destinations. Compared to 2010, when it ranked as the 19th destination in the world, the city managed to move up eight rungs within three years. In 2012, it ranked as the 11th destination in the world and maintained this position last year as well,” he adds.
Prague’s winning candidacy for the “Congress of Congresses” is a perfect example of an efficient strategic partnership between the private and public sectors. This proved to be Prague’s biggest advantage and the way to its greater competitiveness on the international congress market.
“It was not easy to compete with such strong destinations like Gdańsk and St. Petersburg. Their candidacies were carefully prepared and presented with a great enthusiasm. It will be pleasure for us to cooperate with them at the 2017 congress in order to deliver the most successful ICCA congress held in the region in ICCA’s history. The ICCA congress in 2017 thus could become an example of an efficient strategic partnership at the international level,” says Lenka Žlebková.
