In future the GCB (German Convention Bureau) will be making the congress.net online data acquisition system available…
In future the GCB (German Convention Bureau) will be making the congress.net online data acquisition system available for current, regularly updated base data on the volume and structure of the German conference and congress market. Developing the GCB`s study `The German Conference and Congress Market 2002/2003`, the Wiesbaden-based firm ghh consult GmbH – a management consultancy for tourism, the hotel industry, the trade fair and congress market – has been working on the data acquisition system, due to be introduced nationwide in Germany from about April 2003.
The GCB expects the findings obtained by congress.net to reinforce Germany`s leading position as a conference and congress destination: `No other national congress bureau has such a modern data acquisition system for the national market`, says Lutz P. Vogt, the GCB`s Managing Director.
Contributors to and users of congress.net are the providers of the infrastructure relevant to conferences and congresses, such as hotels or congress venues. The online data acquisition system offers them many competitive edges: a firm`s own data can be printed out or downloaded in the form of graphics and tables for its own evaluations. Subscribers can also receive processed evaluations comparing and contrasting their own firm with a group of similar firms and relating them to the whole German market. Another service provided by congress.net for subscribing firms are individually designed, updated monthly benchmark data and comparisons with the previous year. It takes just a few seconds to enter the data into congress.net`s straightforward input template. Password access guarantees the security of the data input.
The GCB itself expects multiple benefits from congress.net: current event-specific data such as type of event, sectors, the number of participants or the method of booking can be acquired with precision and evaluated. The regular, straightforward updating of data enables the GCB to draw up time-series analyses and figure out current market trends in this way. The database also enables targeted marketing at home and abroad.
GCB Managing Director Vogt assumes that many service providers in the German conference and congress market will contribute to congress.net: `We need the support of the whole sector so that we finally obtain coherent statistics for Germany, which will be continued for the entire market on an ongoing basis.` Both GCB members and non-members are being called on to take part in the project. In the first year the start-up funding for the new online data acquisition system is being provided by the GCB.
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