Delegate evaluations of the individual education sessions at ICCA’s recent Congress in Hyderabad, India were the highest ever recorded by the association, with 51.3% of the ratings being “excellent” and 40.4% “good”, coming from almost 1,400 individual scores registered using the Spotme networking/feedback device. Every single session had a higher “excellent” score than the sum of “satisfactory” and “below standard” scores.
Earlier in the year, international association meetings industry buyers and suppliers (ICCA members) agreed that apart from networking, the main value proposition for associations is content, especially in the current climate of meeting- and sponsor budgets of international associations being cut and the increasing time pressure on volunteers.
ICCA CEO Martin Sirk said : “Whilst delegates usually have the most vivid memories of the social events and the new business contacts and friends they make at an ICCA event – and both of these were wonderfully positive facets of the Hyderabad Congress – it is the quality of educational content and intellectual stimulation that really determines the success of a meeting. Our delegates came from almost 60 countries with often wildly different business and learning cultures, for many of them English was their second or third language, and 90% of our content was created especially for this single Congress. The panels of speakers had typically never worked together before, rehearsal time was extremely limited, and the levels of interactivity we were aiming for meant that there were tremendous levels of uncertainty about how well things would work out! In the event, this was our highest scoring programme ever, so we’re really grateful to the more than 80 speakers and panellists who contributed.”
The 2011 ICCA Congress will be taking place in Leipzig, Germany from 22 to 26 October, and a record attendance is confidently anticipated, not least because of the results from one of the 2010 Congress survey’s questions: “Would you recommend to a friend or colleague to attend next year’s Congress?”: Yes: 97.6%; No: 2.4%.
