In developing its extensive conference facilities and promoting itself to the international meeting industry, the Convention Bureau della Riviera di Rimini was also pleased to share its building blocks for success with the UK recently.

Blackpool, with a population of 142,000 and a long tradition as a British seaside town, is looking into options for its future strategy as a conference destination. The Right Solution, consultants on Blackpool’s conference market development, identified a number of successful destination models overseas that would be interesting for Blackpool and made contact with Rimini for an exchange of ideas.

Sally Greenhill, Director of The Right Solution and Mr. Alan Cavill, Assistant Director of Enterprise & Business Development of Blackpool Council, came to Rimini to meet the team from the Convention Bureau della Riviera di Rimini (CBRR) - director Stefania Agostini, sales manager Annalisa Giannini, marketing manager Federica Lucini, and bid manager Monica Petermann. 

“We answered their questions about how the Convention Bureau is organised and the resources of the Rimini Convention Centre,” says Monica Petermann. “We also suggested that they submit ideas about which key issues they wanted to discuss and then we illustrated CBRR’s most significant projects and achievements to date.  These included the Rimini per i Congressi quality project that was presented to the Rimini Riviera Ambassadors Club and the COL, or local conference system organising committee, that Rimini has set up to assist in the bid procedure for international events”.

Sally Greenhill said, “'The Convention Bureau della Riviera di Rimini were very helpful to us in appraising options for Blackpool's future and their open attitude in sharing information was much appreciated'.

During the meeting, the Convention Bureau emphasised the importance of having a strong working relationship with its local authorities and institutions and other international bodies.

“As a growing conference destination, we are pleased to share our success with other towns that are changing their emphasis from leisure to business tourism”, says Stefania Agostini.  “It is good to know that Rimini has made a mark with its conference offering and that other destinations are benchmarking themselves against what we have achieved”.