The Annual Conference of the International Association of Conference Centres–Europe was designed to encourage members to seek inspiration and innovation in order to make sure the global association continues to create exceptional meetings experiences.
Delegates representing 15 countries from three continents gathered at Lensbury Conference Centre in Teddington, Middlesex outside of London to focus on ’Turning Imagination into Innovation’ the theme of the conference.
IACC Europe’s Chairman, Jeu Bressers (General Manager of the Conference Centre Kapellerput) and newly-appointed IACC Europe CEO, Mark Cooper, welcomed the delegates and encouraged them to maintain IACC’s consistent mission statement and vision to offer the industry’s finest facilities and directed additional emphasis on generating exceptional meeting experiences.
Sessions included a reality check on the ways to engage with and get the most from Generation Y meeting planners and delegates. Much has been talked of recently about the general behaviour of this new generation and IACC wants to translate this into clear communication strategies and development ideas.
The international speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds encouraged delegates to overlook all barriers and come up with forward-thinking ideas to change their own meeting environments. To close the day’s conference, a humorous wake-up call was delivered on how much impact the mobile revolution will have in the coming years on the meetings industry.
The theme of the conference, “Turning Imagination into Innovation” was supported by the presence of university students from Columbia, UK, Austria, India, and Germany who participated in the sessions and joined IACC’s Global Leaders for the IACC Future Leaders Lunch which provided a forum for the students to learn more about the meetings industry and for IACC’s Leaders to discuss topics relevant to Generation Y and their career paths and interest in the meetings industry.
