| AIPC – the International Association of Convention Centres – has announced a 2016 Annual Conference program that focuses on today’s most urgent priority for centres worldwide – how to stimulate the kind of creativity, innovation and adaptation that help centres maintain competitiveness in a tough market. The Conference, which will take place July 3-6 in Nantes, France, will offer new and thought-provoking insights from a range of presenters and discussion leaders who have demonstrated their relevance in a variety of related fields.
“These remain extremely competitive times for our centre members around the world, and our job is to assemble the best possible resources to help them address that situation”, says AIPC President Geoff Donaghy. |
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| “In terms of our Annual Conference program, this means illustrating what innovation has delivered for both other meetings destinations and even entirely different business sectors that are going through similar transitions, while at the same time creating opportunities for strategic thinking around how to apply these to their own businesses”.
Under the overall program theme “Diversification and Adaptation” the conference program will look at practical responses for centres in the face of rapidly changing expectations – a factor that spans all regions and facility types everywhere in the world. Along with insights from leading centres, destinations and client groups, the program will be enhanced by presenters who bring new perspectives from related sectors facing similar challenges. They include: • John Thackara, author of How To Thrive In The Next Economy, and described by the Wall Street Journal as having “established a global reputation as a cutting edge design expert” who will look at at how other business sectors have faced and coped with disruptive change and what lessons may have been learned that have application to centres planning their future. • Robert Govers, Managing Research Partner of www.good.country, Chairman of the International Place Branding Association and an independent advisor, researcher, speaker and author on the reputation of cities, regions and countries, who will explore the question of how place branding is evolving and what centres need to do in order to get the kind of access it needs to ensure their more specific needs are being addressed. • Simon Naudi, founder of Answers Training, an international consultancy delivering sales and management programmes in over 60 countries throughout Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia, who will apply 29 years of experience with the event industry to the question of what kinds of adaptive responses convention centres can use in planning for change • Gary Kayye, President and CEO of rAVe Publications, a publishing and digital strategy and communications company and keynote speaker at over 1000 technology events recognized as InfoComm’s Educator of the Year, who will explore what lies ahead for centres grappling with today’s ever-changing technology scene. • Elizabeth Randall-Winkle, Chief Strategy Officer for Smith Travel Research, and a global expert on the hotel industry who will be updating members on the latest news from the critical accommodation sector, where major mergers and buyouts have rocked the sector and altered the playing field over the past year. “The AIPC Annual Conference has become known as the most senior-level learning and strategic planning session in the industry, and this is a product of combining our own member expertise with new insights and perspectives from others who have seen many similar issues play out in other sectors”, said Donaghy. “This year’s edition will have a particularly unique combination appropriate to the scale of the challenge that faces us all in adapting to change on so many fronts”. |
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AIPC Annual Conference Addresses Key Issues of Diversification and Adaptation
