The official conference and events bureau for Cambridge has secured three high-profile international congresses, delivering an economic impact of approximately £1.5m to the city.
Meet Cambridge, founded and funded by the Cambridge Colleges, has supported three local organising committees through the services of its Conference Ambassador Programme to win bids against other international destinations.
The association congresses are global events, which rotate between countries.
Following Cambridge’s success against Shanghai, the 16th Symposium of the International Neurotrauma Society, NeuroTrauma 2024, will bring 700 scientists from around the world to the city in August-September 2024.
Meet Cambridge’s support included producing a video and a comprehensive bid document, arranging site visits, venue-finding and liaison.
The team also secured the services of Suzy Howes and associates ltd who will be the professional conference organisers (PCO) for the event. The bid was led by local conference ambassadors: Professor Peter Hutchinson, professor of neurosurgery, University of Cambridge and professor David K Menon, head of anaesthesia, University of Cambridge.
The second event is for The International Association of Music Libraries (IAML), which is organising a five-day event in July-August 2023 to be attended by 400 delegates and including plenary sessions and social activities. IAML encourages and promotes the activities of music libraries, archives and documentation centres to facilitate projects in music bibliography, music documentation and music library and information science at national and international levels.
Meet Cambridge assisted with information for the bid, venue-finding and site visits. The congress ambassador was Margaret Jones, music collections supervisor at Cambridge University Library, together with a team comprising Anna Pensaert, Sarah Chapman and Susi Woodhouse.
The third successful bid is the International Organization For the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) which will take place over four days in early 2023. With 115 delegates, the event will comprise plenary sessions and a gala dinner.