ICCA is in good shape: the association’s annual congress has broken its previous record with the attendance of 78 delegates. Beyond excellent lead generation opportunities, the congress puts the accent on education and group atmosphere, including the now traditional CSR activity, which this year has focused on autism.
Ah, yes… ICCA’s database… ICCA is the association meetings industry’s chief player thanks to its magnificent congress database to which its members have full access, as well as the plentiful opportunities that it offers them for exchanging opinions, experiences and leads – once you have hosted an association congress, it is highly unlikely that you will be doing so again in several years, since meetings have to rotate yearly between at least three countries to be eligible for inclusion in ICCA’s data base, for which reason this type of lead can be shared with other industry players, even a competitor from another city. So, one of the star moments of its annual congress, along with its networking programme, is the coaching workshop where members are taught how to handle the association’s congress database.
The educational programme of this year’s edition of the congress touched on a number of burning issues. Rafael Oliver, head of the research department at Barcelo Congresses, addressed what promises to be the burning issue over the next few years: big data. Those that conduct research on a congress have online access to a huge amount of data, from LinkedIn profiles to videos on YouTube, through congress tweets from the last edition of the event or about the association in question, which offer insights about who is influential and the industry’s present problems, make it possible to contact association members, etc. In the coming years, we will be learn more about how to filter through this ocean of data so as to select the most relevant information.
Along the same lines, Toni Mascaro of eMascaro explained the power of virality in creating new brands, transmitting messages with a multiplying effect thanks to the large number of social networks now available.
TLC’s Diogo Assis talked about the Brazilian adventure of his agency in this highly lucrative but also delicate market, due to the informality and cost-push inflation of qualified professionals. Eric Mottard, CEO of Grupo eventoplus, offered the audience advice on how to design presentations with less, but more effective, messages (less is more!), followed by a workshop where delegates were given the chance to prepare their own Pecha Kucha or elevator pitch. And three corporate clients, Damm, Sorin Group and Celsa Group, addressed the issue "How to make decisions/how to value results" in a roundtable discussion. Yolanda Perdomo, director of UNWTO’s Affiliate Members Programme, presented the organization’s latest report which illustrates the dynamism of tourism and its chief trends and initiatives, like for example the integration of Google Glass in the tourism experience, as well as explaining the affiliate members programme.
There was also time for the CSR activity: Gerona and its congress centre chose to focus the activity on supporting and heightening awareness about autism. This was the central theme uniting a series of activities that took place on each day of the congress. Even the congress’ poster included a reference to the initiative, featuring the blue balloons symbolizing the presentation of 2 April, World Autism Awareness Day.
On 2 April, the day of the delegate’s arrival, the façade of Gerona City Hall was lit with blue spotlights. After the welcome cocktail party, a giant blue balloon was inflated, and after delegates had been invited to express their desires and hopes as regards this issue in writing, it was released. On Friday morning, the CSR activity took place at the Mas Casadevall Autism Foundation, where the delegates participated in its handiwork workshops, whose products will be sold in different places of the city during the Sant Jordi celebrations.
Likewise, the delegates painted and personalized the T-shirts used by the centre’s patients on outings.
One of the congress’ CSR activities
