The eight Conventa highlights personal experiences

Conventa – exhibition for meetings, events and incentive travel, has again brought to Ljubljana key meetings industry professionals from New Europe. From 20 to 21 January,

more than 140 meeting providers from 14 destinations will be presenting their meetings offer to 174 international and more than 100 Slovenian and regional meeting planners gathered at GR – Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre.

For eight years Conventa has been connecting the South East and Central European region and promoting its meetings offer. In recent years the results of the hard work put into the organization of the show have been showing. Maja Pak, Acting Director of the Slovenian Tourist Board, asserted: “The Conventa trade show has greatly contributed to the recognition of Slovenia as place to hold congresses and business meetings. Conventa has been placed on the European congress map as a ‘must-go-to’ event, where more than one hundred providers of congress services from South East Europe exhibit to clients from all across Europe and beyond.”  Zoran Janković, Mayor of the city of Ljubljana, continued: “The Conventa Show is also of great importance to Ljubljana, since it offers a host of opportunities to establish relevant business connections in a destination that is striving to raise its profile on the international market.”  Petra Stušek, Managing director of Tourism Ljubljana added: “Needless to say, welcoming around 160 hosted buyers who can experience at least some qualities of our destination is a valuable opportunity to pinpoint Ljubljana as an attractive city for meetings and events with a strong touch of local authenticity.“

This year 149 meeting providers mostly coming to from Slovenia, Austria, Croatia, Turkey and Serbia are exhibiting, while meeting planners attending the show as hosted buyers are coming from a record number of countries. “We broke yet another record, as we are welcoming hosted buyers from 33 countries, and this time from overseas too,” confirmed Miha Kovačič, Director of Slovenian Convention Bureau and organizer of Conventa.The focus of the show remains on personal meetings between exhibitors and hosted buyers. The One2One system the show uses to enable matchmaking has recorded a whopping 3.148 pre-arranged meetings, a number that will only grow during the trade show that offers numerous opportunities for networking; from business meetings to connections created in a relaxed atmosphere of accompanying social events. Zdravko Počivalšek, Minister of Economic Development and Technology of Slovenia: “Despite the digital age, meeting and working together face to face still proves to be the most efficient way to cooperate, and a hand shake is still the best way to find out what kind of a person we are dealing with. This is precisely what Conventa offers – along with the many opportunities to make the step beyond a meeting to becoming business partners.”

Conventa has proven once again that it is not only a trade show that offers providers a business-oriented platform to develop individual business relationships with targeted meeting industry audiences in a cost- and time efficient manner, but is also a meeting point of New Europe filled with energy, warmth and great hospitality. It is a place where personal experience is what matters most. Gorazd Čad, Director of Toleranca Marketing and Conventa organizer, explained:  “The theme of this year’s Conventa follows that of the Conventa Experience and the participants’ journey through all the bodily senses. We believe that this encourages better thinking, more curiosity and a higher level of interest for our products and destinations. We also believe that an experience can tell more than a thousand words.”A part of the unique Conventa experience will also be the knowledge transferred to the audience by international meetings professionals. Miha Kovačič, Director of Slovenian Convention Bureau and Conventa organizer: “Knowledge was, is and always will be crucial in our industry. Conventa is fully aware of that. Every year we introduce a top knowledge component to the show for the regional industry that is complimentary. This year we are also proud to co-host the SITE Incentive Summit in Ljubljana and to be able to offer a unique musical experience by Slovenian world renowned violinist  Miha Pogačnik.”

The show will end with probably the most important experience for hosted buyers, a familiarization trips to certain congress destinations in the region. Next to a pre-tour of Ljubljana, hosted buyers will be able to attend trips to Bled, Portorož, Kranjska Gora, Maribor-Pohorje and Zagreb.

The ninth Conventa will be held from 18 to 19 January 2017 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.