For three days, as usual, Barcelona was transformed this week into the international capital of the meetings and events market. More than 1,5300 professionals from the MICE industry were expected to attend the event, including nearly 4,000 buyers - an increase of 9% on the previous edition - who converged on the Fira Gran Via from 29 November to 1 December. The aim was to do business, of course, and to exchange ideas, but also to discover new trends through the various conferences organised in English and Spanish. These included the presentation of the annual EIBTM report (EIBTM Global Industry Trends and Market Share Report) by analyst Rob Davidson, which identified the major trends in the MICE sector and fostered "cautious optimism", as the saying goes. "The degree of optimism is higher in the meetings and events sector than in the economy as a whole", Rob Davidson points out, adding that "most specialists predict that demand for corporate meetings will continue to grow worldwide, and approach the levels reached in 2008 by the end of 2012". It's an encouraging message for all the professionals at the show, for whom the next date in Catalonia has already been set: the 2012 edition of EIBTM will take place from 27 to 29 November 2012.
