trade shows

The presentation conference for IFTM Top Resa 2022 was held on Tuesday in the hushed and majestic setting of the Bibliothèque Musicale La Grange Fleuret (BLGF), a new MICE address in the 8th arrondissement. It was an opportunity for the event's new director, Laurence Gaborieau, to take stock of her vision for the show, the changes she intends to make to it, and the...

IFEMA Madrid is back on the international MICE scene. This was the message sent out on 13 July by the Madrid Convention Centre, which reported a busy, and therefore successful, first half-year. IFEMA Madrid's management noted that it had "spearheaded the revival of the trade fair sector...

Bologna's tourism industry has flourished in the shadow of a deep-rooted certainty among many Italians and Europeans. That of being a city totally focused on business. This is not untrue. With a population of 390,000, Bologna is one of Italy's major economic centres, with a dense network of companies in the agri-foodstuffs, electronics,...

You recently took part in IBTM Barcelona: how did you feel about holding an international show in times of crisis, with increased regulatory constraints and fewer visitors? Mubarak Al Shamisi - I don't know how many participants there were at IBTM, perhaps a few fewer than before, but the main thing is...

What is the role of French Event Booster? Jeanne Choffé - French Event Booster is an accelerator for several types of player: for start-ups of course, who we help to access the events market, to grow, create jobs and create value for the end user. But we are also innovation partners...

By inviting an audience of journalists to the Palais des Festivals last September, Cannes' MICE managers were keen to send out a clear message: the destination is ready for the return of events. What's more, the pause for reflection imposed by the crisis has enabled us to improve our offering...

The conference business will not escape the conquest of the West launched in Nice, as the dossier for the Parc des Expositions et des Congrès (Exhibition and Conference Centre) finally takes shape, replacing the Marché d'Intérêt National (MIN). "It's a project that's seen a lot of movement, especially over the last year, particularly in response to the major trends...

On the Côte d'Azur, as elsewhere, the concept of hybrid MICE has made a big impact in recent months. But in a destination blessed by nature, the question of the screen event may be posed differently... "There's no point in coming to Antibes to hold a digital event. There's no point in coming to Antibes to hold a digital event: you might as well stay...

What changes in the market should the partnership announced on 5 October between SAP Concur and VoyagExpert address? Sébastien Delannoy - A few years ago, two distinct models coexisted within organisations: on the one hand, there was travel, with travel agencies and purchasing departments managing this activity internally, and on the other hand, there was...

Admittedly, not everything is rosy in the current business travel landscape, but business travel today is a little 'greener' than it used to be. At least, that's what a study recently published by the Business Travel Show Europe suggests. The London-based business travel event surveyed more than 300 travel buyers in...

More than 300 business travel professionals were surveyed by the Business Travel Show. The London show sought to identify the challenges facing travel managers in this unprecedented context. As a result of the economic crisis, priorities have changed radically. While cost-cutting generally dominated the ranking - it was the top priority...

After a year-long break, the grey cells of the business travel industry are invited to get back to work. On 5 and 6 October, fifteen teams will be meeting at IFTM Top Resa 2021. Their mission: "To reinvent the French market place for business hotels". A huge subject - and a crucial one...

The See You There (SYT) event, which brought together the key players in the events industry on 1 July, had a special flavour this year after months and months of the sector coming to a standstill. Illustrating a trend that began with the health crisis, this annual meeting of the Union Française des Métiers de l'Événement (UNIMEV) brought together...

From one edition to the next, this is undoubtedly one of the great showcases of the VivaTech trade fair, this flurry of futuristic inventions heralding the imminent arrival of flying taxis in the skies over major cities, as well as autonomous cars and soon even... houses in the clouds. Start-up Hover City, for example, has invented 'mobile' real estate. And all at the whim of...

The date of 16 June was not on the calendar unveiled by Emmanuel Macron at the end of April. And yet it marked a major step towards restoring a degree of normality to everyday life. On Wednesday, Jean Castex announced that the general public would be able to do without wearing masks outdoors from the following day, the...

The deconfinement process is taking shape in France. A week after Jean Castex's speech, which set 3 May as the start of the relaxation, Emmanuel Macron took up the issue in the regional press. The President confirmed this starting point, which will mark the end of travel restrictions. He also set out the stages...

How did an events institution like Suntec cope with the crisis? Arun Madhok - We had a full schedule for 2020, all our spaces were practically sold out, and we were hosting a major motor show in January... We even celebrated Chinese New Year, and wished ourselves all the best for the coming months......

Tomorrow's events will either be hybrid or they won't be: that's the message that has been percolating through the meetings & events community for some months now. An ecosystem that is trying its hand at the virtual 100 % for want of being able to meet up 'in the real world', but which is clearly banking on the emergence of a compromise combining face-to-face and remote events,...

What does organising the Convening Leaders conference mean for Singapore? Edward Koh - The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Marina Bay Sands have partnered with PCMA to set up a global distribution centre for Convening Leaders, to host speakers, expert panels and offer face-to-face experiences....

To bring the PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) "Convening Leaders" event out of its American backyard - an historic first in six decades - it needed a context as unprecedented as the health crisis. Above all, it needed to identify a destination that would embody the near future of MICE, while offering guarantees...