In this meeting, 7 National Associations and 24 associate members from 12 countries had the…
In this meeting, 7 National Associations and 24 associate members from 12 countries had the opportunity to discuss important issues of the Federation. Moreover, the 2006 action plan was determined.
The opening was chaired by the Counsellor of Govern and Economy of the Madrid municipality M. A. Villanueva, accompanied by the Directors General of Tourism of the Madrid Autonomous Government and the Municipal Government A. Nieto and T. Carame.
During the annual meeting, 157 delegates were present, who had the opportunity to attend interesting presentations by distinguished speakers. Among them, G. Porras, Consultant to WTO, A. de la Morena, WTO, V. Iriberri, Director Gerente del campo de las Naciones, F. González Abad, Director General of Savia Amadeus J. Milán, Vice President of OPC España, J. María Bethencourt, Director of the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Madrid and the president of the Madrid hotel association, J. Gatell, J. Zamarriego of the European Federation Pharmaceutical industry Associations (efpia), A. Fernández, Director General of Turespaña, S. Wroblewski, Secretary General of the Polish Conference and Congress Association.
Almost all the above speakers underlined the importance of the meetings market for the development of national economies and employment in the EU, as well as, the importance of the professional congress organisers in this market.
Three universities, the European University of Madrid, the University School of Tourism – Asturias and the Trinity University of Crete, have been officially appointed by the EFAPCO to conduct research on important issues such as definition, code of ethics, statistics and quality criteria in the field of the mice industry.
This work is going to last almost 1 year and the final results will be presented in the next General Assembly and Annual Meeting which will take place in Athens on 8-9 December 2006.
A special acknowledgement it is worth making to the authorities of Spain and Madrid and OPC ESPANA for the excellent hospitality and organisation of this 1st EFAPCO General Assembly.
It was the general impression of the participants, from at least 12 countries, that this excellent hospitality and organization were ideal for spreading the aims and the objectives of EFAPCO, resulting in more companies expressing their will to join EFAPCO.
Altogether, new and old members will start developing new business opportunities among them.
The President, Mr. Zacharias Kaplanidis, briefly commented on the activities taken by the Federation since its establishment in Athens in January 2004, which are the following:
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