The number of bids and leads won in 2013 show that event organisers are in no doubt as to Copenhagen’s appeal. A record number of both international conventions and corporate events have chosen Copenhagen to be their host city, underlining the Danish capital’s position as a world class meetings destination. Copenhagen’s new convention director, Jonas Wilstrup, looks forward to building upon this success.
As the books are closed on 2013, it has been another record-breaking year in terms of events secured for the future: 57 international conventions and 272 corporate events have been confirmed for Copenhagen in the years to come, which makes 2013 the third consecutive record year in terms of bid and lead wins.
In recent years Copenhagen has underlined its position as one of the world’s most appealing meetings destinations, most recently ranking number eight on the ICCA’s list of ‘the world’s most popular convention cities’.
The success can partly be explained by the fact that Copenhagen has all the ’hardware’ securely in place: easy accessibility, world class infrastructure, state-of-the-art venues and excellent hotel facilities. And the city’s hotel and venue capacity is continuing to rise.
However, to stand out as a meetings destination you have to offer more than hardware, as Jonas Wilstrup, Wonderful Copenhagen’s new convention director, who took up the post on 1 January, explains:
“The meetings industry in Copenhagen has done a great job developing its product over the years, making sure that the city not only offers the required hardware, but also the software. Its strong points include the various achievements with sustainable events management – the latest being the ISO-certified Danish European Union Presidency in 2012 – and the focus on meetings design, manifested in the Danish Meetovation concept.”
Copenhagen is a university city and has a long tradition as a knowledge hub with a strong reputation within clean-tech, life-tech and IT, to mention a few key fields, all of which are important when trying to attract association congresses.
The Danish capital is also known as a clean and safe destination offering a high quality of life for both Copenhageners and visitors alike, also essential for every organiser. As well as this, Copenhagen has a united meetings industry in which all the major players work together in the Meetingplace Wonderful Copenhagen network. This has significant benefits for customers. Jonas Wilstrup comments:
“The 100 most important suppliers in the Copenhagen meetings industry are united in the Meetingplace Wonderful Copenhagen alliance, making it easy for any organiser to work with us. We know each other and are used to working closely together, which means that we are more efficient and flexible. I look forward to building on our successes and to continue developing Copenhagen as a destination for international conventions and meetings.”
Organisers impressed with Copenhagen
Among the bid wins are the veterinarian congress ‘Joint Congress of the 23rd FECAVA Euro congress and the 42nd WSAVA World Congress’ with 3.000 delegates in 2017 and the clean tech congress European Wind Energy Associations EWEA Offshore with 10,000 delegates in 2015. In 2012, Copenhagen successfully hosted EWEA’s annual wind power congress, making the choice of Copenhagen as the destination for EWEA Offshore 2015 an easy one
