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International Event Organisers Update (IEOU) is published 5 or 6 times a year and is an information source circulated FREE to selected organisers and others interested in keeping abreast of development in the international event industry.
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Note: As a matter of policy International Event Organisers Update (IEOU) does not carry any 0870 telephone numbers in entries for the news or Announcements section of IEOU. This is because these numbers operate as covert premium rate lines – misleadingly called “national rate” by BT and others that sell them – and are charged at five or more times the current normal cost to dial a normal geographical UK number.
Readers are advised to visit www.saynoto0870.com for more information about this customer-unfriendly scam, and to ask all suppliers and potential suppliers to provide their normal, cheaper numbers.
PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCEMENT
The Society of Event Organisers (SEO) which publishes this newsletter has moved to individual free membership, which can be taken up by organisers, convention bureaux, tourist boards, venues, suppliers and agencies in the event sector.
All will receive all the SEO’s free newsletters, which can be unsubscribed at any time, as well as a 20% reduction on all qualifications, tutorials and conferences presented by the SEO. Supplier members, venues and agencies receive a 20% reduction on advertising rates.
To sign up for free membership go to www.seoevent.co.uk
The news that some sleazey Lords in the UK government are taking “consultancy fees” (bungs) to influence laws will be of interest to Transparency International (TI) which currently rates the UK high on its ethical index.
According to the Bribe Payers Index (BPI) published last December the UK shares the third slot – which means it’s supposedly very unlikely for companies based here to bribe – along with Germany and Japan, with Netherlands and Switzerland coming second and Belgium and Canada taking the top slot.
The full TI ranking is as follows, with firms from countries most likely to bribe on the bottom.
1) Belgium/Canada
2) Netherlands/Switzerland
3) Germany/UK/Japan
4) Australia
5) France/Singapore/USA
6) Spain
7) Hong Kong
8) South Africa/South Korea/Taiwan
9) Italy/Brazil
10) India
11) Mexico
12) China
13) Russia
Vienna was the city hosting the most association events in 2007 followed by Berlin, Singapore, Paris and Barcelona.
This is the result of the annual survey of the world’s conference cities carried out by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) which looks at regular meetings run by international associations and rotated around three or more countries.
The full top 21 results were:
RANK --- CITY --- NUMBER OF MEETINGS
01 --- Vienna --- 154
02 --- Berlin --- 123
03 --- Singapore --- 120
04 --- Paris --- 115
05 --- Barcelona --- 106
06 --- Budapest --- 90
06 --- Lisbon --- 90
08 --- Beijing --- 87
09 --- Amsterdam --- 82
10 --- Madrid --- 77
11 --- Copenhagen --- 76
12 --- Prague --- 72
12 --- Hong Kong --- 72
14 --- Seoul --- 70
14 --- Stockholm --- 70
14 --- Bangkok --- 70
17 --- London --- 69
18 --- Taipei --- 67
19 --- Kuala Lumpur --- 66
19 --- Istanbul --- 66
19 --- Brussels --- 66
The Austrian city of Linz, which shares a European Capital of Culture designation with Vilnius, Lithuania this year, has had some bad publicity for promoting its connections to the Third Reich (Daily Telegraph).
Adolf Hitler spent nine of his childhood years in Linz and intended to make it one of five “Fűhrer Cities” with a five star Adolf Hitler Hotel, a Fűhrer museum more than half a mile long with millions of pieces of looted art and a bell-tower to house the remains of his parents. These plans had to be permanently put on hold after he lost the war he’d started in Europe and shot himself.
In today’s Linz however there are a number of links to the man and his madness including Mauthausen concentration camp, an underground aircraft factory which used slave labour, another factory known in the Nazi period as the Hermann Goering Werke and the nearby village of Leonding, which has the graves of Hitler’s parents, a shrine for Neo-Nazis.
Upcoming Capitals of Culture are Pécs in Hungary, Essen in Germany and Istanbul in Turkey in 2010, and Tallin in Estonia and Turku in Finland in 2011 .
Thereafter capitals will be chosen from the countries as below.
2012 Slovenia, Portugal
2013 Slovakia, France
2014 Latvia, Sweden
2015 Czech Republic, Belgium
2016 Spain, Poland
2017 Denmark, Cyprus
The Lithuanian airline Flylal has declared bankruptcy after being refused government help.
SAS is expected to offer flights from Vilnius, a European Capital of Culture city this year, using Estonian Air.
A new online scam is directing bookers of American chain hotels to false websites that take their money.
The sophisticated scam, which uses advanced online advertising, bogus hotel locators and an internet browser virus is affecting more than 70,000 travellers a month booking rooms with Hyatt, Clarion, Red Roof, Comfort Inn, Travelodge, Days Inn, Wyndham, EconoLodge, Ramada and Super 8 Motels, the last three owned by Wyndham Worldwide being the hardest hit, to the tune of 50,000 travellers per month.
Those running events overseas from the UK might need to make sure all their delegates have passports and or visas that will allow them entry to the host countries.
Trade magazine Incentive Travel and Corporate Meetings (ITCM) reports that a delegate on an inspection visit (fam trip) to Croatia they ran last year was detained at Split airport by the immigration police because she had a Belarus passport and Croatia has no agreement with Belarus for visa free passage.
Fortunately for the delegate and ITCM the Croatian hosts were able to persuade their immigration police that she was on a mission of great importance to their country’s slowly recovering tourism industry – damaged by conflict and economic problems of the 1990’s – and the required visa was issued on the spot, saving her from a night at the airport and being put on the next plane home.
French laws which allow swimming pools to operate there without lifeguards on duty are being questioned.
This follows the death of a five year old boy who drowned in a pool at the Explorers Hotel, located near Disneyland, Paris and owned by UK tour operator Thomas Cook.
Vodka consumption in Russia has slumped with unsold stocks up 600 per cent – 82 million litres – from 2007, despite a cut of 15% in output by producers.
Beer consumption in Germany is down to an all time low of only 109.5 litres per person, a 2% drop on 2007.
In the UK pub beer sales fell by 10% in the last quarter of 2008 over the same period in 2007, a drop of 130 million pints.
The slumps are being blamed on the global financial crisis as well as the banning of smoking in bars and restaurants in the UK and Germany.
What is claimed will be Europe’s largest convention centre is planned to open in January 2011 in Milan.
The current convention centre is already the largest in Italy but the new MIC incorporating it will have a total capacity of 18,000 people including a 4,500 seat plenary hall, a 1,500 seat auditorium, 73 spaces for 20 to 2,000 and 54,000 square metres of exhibition space.
www.fieramilanocongnesi.it
A new 7 billion, 76 acre (37 hectares) resort complex is expected to open in Las Vegas late 2009/early 2010.
Incorporating some existing buildings and creating a number of new ones the Citycentre Resort, “a city within a city” will offer three large casinos and 14,000 hotel rooms along with a 2,000 seat theatre, 225,000 square feet (21,000 square metres) of convention and meeting space and a 70,000 square foot (6,500 square metres) spa.
Those who, like us, have been in the events industry longer than they now care to remember may have known of Geoffrey Gray-Forton who died in late December 2008, aged 78 according to Companies House records.
Geoffrey partnered a successful marketing consultancy company Meetings World Ltd with his wife Barbara from their home in Bournemouth, a company they had started together in 1983. As a professional and gifted moderator/chairman for events he was often hired by overseas tourist boards, convention bureaux, and government bodies to promote them at forums staged for the purpose. He was also a deservedly popular choice for educational industry events where his talents were for building enthusiasm for speakers, tactfully keeping them to time and skilfully working the audience to enhance question time. Lessons learned at one of his former jobs, that of professional football referee would have also stood him in good stead.
On perhaps a lighter note he was vociferous in his condemnation of the widespread use of the silly acronym MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) by industry suppliers worldwide to describe their business and which has a second and derogatory meaning in English. Its use, he said, made him cringe every time he saw it and opined that it was “time to rid ourselves of this rodent once and for all”.
Another invented industry term, “Business Tourism” also came under fire for being an oxymoron (contradiction in terms) since “business is work and tourism is leisure”.
Geoffrey was active in the Association for Conferences and Events (ACE, a non-derogatory acronym) of which he was a co-founder and one time chairman, as well as enthusiastic about, and instrumental in getting official government qualifications for the events industry (NVQ’s). He was author of “The Conference Business and Travel Trade” and co-author with his wife Barbara, of “How to Set Up and Run Conferences and Meetings”.
His death came, sadly, after a long period of serious illness. Peter Worger, a former general manager of ACE and current director and secretary of the Event Sector Industry Training Organisation (ESITO) handling NVQ’s commented: “Geoffrey was, unlike some others, an authentic doyen of the events industry and his death marks the end of an era”.
(Note: The above has also been published in Event Organisers Update).
Those who like to stay up in the clouds – and who were not put off skyscrapers by the 1974 film The Towering Inferno – will want to know about the world’s tallest hotel, the new 147 bedroom Park Hyatt in Shanghai’s business district.
This has been built on top of the new 101 storey, 1614 ft (588 metres) high World Finance Centre making it almost a third of a mile high, or more than half a kilometre.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph guests will be knocked out by the views of Shanghai, the cosiness of two of the restaurants and the buzziness of the two 91st floor bars. And the bathrooms feature a TV embedded in the vanity mirror, a deep soaking bath, a rain shower, a separate powder room and a walk-in dressing room.
Prices for all this luxury start at £492 per night for doubles with a special rate of £296 until the end of February. The main meetings room holds around 100 theatre style and is divisible into two. There are also six boardrooms for 14 and two rooms for around 70 for private dining.
www.parkhyattshanghai.com
The Society of Event Organisers (SEO) has moved to individual free membership, which can now be taken up by organisers, venues, convention bureaux, tourist boards, suppliers and agencies in the events sector.
Members will receive all the SEO’s free newsletters, which can be unsubscribed at any time, as well as a 20% reduction on all qualifications, tutorials and conferences presented by the SEO.
To sign up for free membership simply go to www.seoevent.co.uk
The list of events for 2009 includes:
o Certificate in Conference Venue Marketing, August
o Certificate in Conference Food and Beverage, June
o Certificate in Exhibiting, June
o Tutorial – How to write a press release, April and October
o Tutorial – How to be much more creative, April and October
o Certificate in Conference Organisation, March, August and November/December
o Diploma in Conference Organisation, August
o Conference – Delegate Agenda, April and October
o Conference – Training and Qualifications for Event Organisers, June
o Network Forums, February - November
VANCOUVER/CANADA – Where East meets West
An exciting destination, a clean city, operating with fabulous efficiency in spectacular surroundings.
9 HOURS FLYING TIME FROM LONDON – 15 HOURS FLYING TIME FROM SYDNEY
Interested in meeting in Vancouver? – If you require a venue for 50 or 1000 delegates we can help. Free information is available to qualifying organizers from Corporations, Association and Institutions, and a trip is planned for later in the year.
Contact:-
Greens Service Company
Established 1988
IATA/TIDS NO: 96046952
Enquiries to:-
TEL: 01934 612277
Or email: tim@gsc-events.com
www.EventPlannerSpain.com is the first Andalusian portal for event and meeting service providers, with all you need for organising your corporate and private events in Andalusia. Browse a wide range of quality meeting and event-related resources and contact directly the suppliers of your choice. Alternatively, use our inquiry service and let us help you find what you are looking for. Special offers, practical information, segmented news and our monthly newsletter for those of you wanting to be kept informed, complete our service package, all totally free of charge.
Tel: +34 952 294 327
info@eventplannerspain.com
www.eventplannerspain.com
CERTIFICATE IN CONFERENCE ORGANISATION (CCO)
This is a four day course with a 1½ hour, 150 question examination. Non-residential London course dates are hosted at 16 Park Crescent, London W1. Fee is £1,080 + VAT or £864 plus VAT if two or more delegates attend from the same organisation, or if delegate is an SEO member (Free sign-up at www.seoevent.co.uk).
o Putting Together a Conference Programme covering objectives, delegate needs, layouts, food and beverage, speakers and audio-visual Friday 6 March 2009 (London), Monday 24 August 2009 (London), Friday 20 November 2009 (London).
o Sourcing, Evaluating and Negotiating with Venues covering where to find the best venues, inspecting them and getting the best packages Friday 13 March 2009 (London), Tuesday 25 August 2009 (London), Friday 27 November 2009 (London).
o Conference Administration covering contracts, organisation, delegate and speaker care, trouble-shooting and evaluation Friday 20 March 2009 (London), Wednesday 26 August 2009 (London), Friday 4 December 2009 (London).
o Staging a Conference for Profit covering conception, budgeting, pricing, getting sponsorship and marketing. Examination. Friday 27 March 2009 (London), Thursday 27 August 2009 (London), Friday 11 December 2009 (London).
The CCO can also be delivered as an in-house presentation anywhere – call + 44 (0) 1767 316255 or e-mail to peter-cotterell@seoevent.co.uk
CERTIFICATE IN CONFERENCE VENUE MARKETING (CCVM)
This is a four day non-residential course for marketing and sales staff working in conference venues, and those promoting conference venues. There is a 1½ hour written examination. The CCVM is being hosted at 16 Park Crescent, London W1 and fees are £1,200 plus VAT per delegate with a reduction to £960 plus VAT per delegate if two or more delegates attend from the same organisation or if delegate is an SEO member (Free sign-up at www.seoevent.co.uk). The outline programme (full programme on request) is:-
Day One: Nature of the markets, branding, pricing, zero-cost marketing, advertising.
Day Two: Press relations, writing impressive press releases, finding the best stories, handling bad press,.
Day Three: Direct marketing, e-mail marketing, effective direct mailings, copywriting, telemarketing.
Day Four: Exhibitions, maximising the leads, special; events, show-rounds. Examination.
The CCVM takes place August 24-27 in 2009. It can also be presented on an in-house basis anywhere. call + 44 (0) 1767 316255 or e-mail to peter-cotterell@seoevent.co.uk
Two one-day tutorials How to Write a Press Release and How to be Much More Creative. Also new is a one-day organisers networking and discussion presentation Delegate Agenda. Call + 44 (0) 1767 316255 for details.
In addition to the above the SEO presents in-house workshops on such subjects as exhibiting successfully, manning an exhibition stand, running a small exhibition, negotiating with suppliers, conference catering, legal aspects of running events, presenting persuasively and many more. Call + 44 (0) 1767 316255 for more information.
o Event Organisers Update (EOU) for those running UK based conferences and seminars. www.eou.org.uk
o Association News (AN) for those who associate. www.associationnews.org.uk
o Charity Matters. www.ezinematters.com
o Marketing Matters (from March 2009) www.ezinematters.com
A 100-word announcement costs from £95 in this section of International Event Organisers Update (IEOU) and reaches 12,000 organisers.
To download full details and a booking form visit www.eou.org.uk Alternatively call + 44 (0) 1767 316255 or fax to + 44 (0) 1767 316430.
Edited and distributed by:
Society of Event Organisers
29a Market Square, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 8AQ
Tel: +44(0)1767 316255 Fax: +44(0)1767 316430
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