IMEX – incorporating Meetings made in Germany will see its second staging in hall 3 of the Frankfurt Fair. Its strategic partner is the GCB German Convention Bureau,…
IMEX – incorporating Meetings made in Germany will see its second staging in hall 3 of the Frankfurt Fair. Its strategic partner is the GCB German Convention Bureau, which markets Germany as a destination for conventions, meetings, events and incentives. The GCB already integrated its successful Meetings made in Germany congress fair into the Worldwide Exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events in 2003.
How IMEX will benefit Germany
GCB director Lutz P. Vogt explains how the new fair will benefit Germany: IMEX lures an international audience to Germany. IMEX`s 6,000 visitors – top-notch industry representatives and marketing executives from all over the world, international politicians and 150 young managers – are an important base audience for spreading Germany`s image. Giving them a good first-hand impression is the ideal way to lure even more events to Germany. And this, says Vogt, will benefit all of Germany immensely. With IMEX, the GCB wants to realise a key strategic goal: marketing Germany as a leading meeting and incentive destination worldwide.
Already the convention, meetings, event and incentive industry is an important economic factor for Germany. 1.3 million events with around 69 million attendees generated a sales volume of almost 50 billion Euros in 2002, creating around 970,000 new jobs nationwide. With 67.6 million overnights, one hotel guest in three is a meeting or convention-goer – which shows just how important meetings and conventions are for the hotel and tourism industry.
German exhibitors at IMEX will be able to address not only 3,000 German visitors, but also 3,000 international attendees. Site inspections before or after the event also provide good opportunities for contact. In total, 307 groups – co-ordinated by various international IMEX partners – will be taking part. Many of them will visit various regions in Germany prior to or following IMEX. The GCB will take US guests on a sightseeing tour of Leipzig. And the German Tourist Board (DZT) will organise site inspections of the Rheingau region and Hamburg, among other destinations, for international meeting planners from the Netherlands, the UK, Italy and France. On these tours, event and congress organisers will get a first-hand impression of the venues, services and options for social programmes.
Added value for IMEX visitors
Vogt highlights a further strong point of the fair. In addition, he says, thanks to the wide range of German exhibitors, IMEX is the ideal fair for national or international event planners who want to organise meetings, conventions, incentives or events in Germany. No other international meetings industry fair has such a large presence of German suppliers: The GCB stand will feature 135 exhibitors – leading hotels, convention centres, destinations, event agencies and other service providers of the German meetings and incentive industry.
IMEX also has comprehensive training offerings for visitors. During the fair, the GCB will organise eight seminars in German and one in English, all of which are free of charge. Top-notch speakers will talk about topics like incentive planning in times of economic change, event controlling, process optimisation and cost controlling in the event sector as well as strategy development for event marketing. There will also be two English-language seminars a day during IMEX, organised by various industry associations. For more training and education options, you can also visit the Professional Development Pavilion, which will make its debut at IMEX 2004. International industry associations, universities, specialised organisations and individuals will offer visitors advice on basic and further training. There will also be daily seminars on the latest education and training trends as well as products at this pavilion.
Both exhibitors and visitors will benefit from the fact that IMEX is being staged in the heart of Germany. Thanks to its central and convenient location in Germany, trade visitors can also attend the fair for only one day.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
