This is the seventh article in a series of educational pieces by INCON, the international partnership of the world’s leading conference, meeting and event organisers. The INCON partners are leading experts in the conference and events industry. Most of them hold, or have recently held, leadership roles in various industry bodies. Through the publication of their Expert Article series and the availability of their expert resources online, they share their expert knowledge amassed from years of experience in the global meetings and events
industry.

Please take the following link to view the article.

About INCON
INCON is a dynamic partnership of leading companies providing consistency and continuity in
conference and event management by combining global presence and local know how.
INCON Partners operate from 75 destinations in 36 countries employing over 2000 staff,
annually organising over 6600 conferences and events, serving 650,000 delegates, procuring
2,850,000 hotel bed nights and managing budgets in excess of half a million euro.

The survey forecasts optimistic projections for 2010 and 2011, signalling that the worst effects of the recent global recession are abating.

Following on from the inaugural INCON survey of 2009, this research initiative surveyed 30 professional conference organisers (PCOs) representing the 11 INCON Partner companies. Research topics included sources of business, event attendance, industry trends, conference services, competition and employment.

Overall, the survey findings paint a positive picture for 2010/2011. The strong negative impact of the economic downturn on 2009 business is reversing with 60% of INCON partners reporting an improvement in business levels in 2010 compared to 2009 and 47% confirming more profitable business levels. Overall delegate numbers, a key performance indicator for the meetings industry, appear stable or better than 2009 emphasising a shift in the market with delegates more willing and able to attend conferences.

Healthcare continues to reign as the primary industry sector with business from the governmental sector decreasing. Employment prospects are set to improve with 60% of respondents expecting to increase the number of employees in 2010 and only 7% expecting to decrease the number.

Key trends impacting the sector are Procurement and Perception of Value with 83% of PCOs surveyed stating that clients are demanding more transparency across all cost elements. CSR and green concerns are hot topics and PCOs are providing an increased range of Marketing & Communication services with social media being harnessed to enhance the marketing of meetings and events.

A complete survey report providing a detailed statistical breakdown of the findings is available on www.incon-pco.com

About INCON

INCON is an international partnership of the world’s leading conference, meeting and event organisers. The 11 INCON Partners operate locally, nationally, regionally and globally employing over 2,000 staff, annually organising over 6,600 conferences and events, serving 1 million delegates, procuring 2,850,000 hotel bed nights and managing budgets in excess of half a billion euro.

With the theme: “Interdisciplinary Dentistry for the New Decade: Something for Everyone” the Convocation, attended by leading Periodontists and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons from Australia and New Zealand, was proudly sponsored by industry leaders Nobel Biotech, Straumann, Astra Tech Dental and Colgate.

The trade exhibition held in the Astral Room and Foyer area showcased a broad cross section of products and services, a trade exhibition with something for everyone – holding true to the Convocation theme.

The Parliament was proudly sponsored by the City of Melbourne, Australian Government: Department of Immigration and Citizenship, and the Victorian State Government: Victorian Multicultural Commission.

Feedback from Exhibitors

Just a quick note to say that you did an awesome job…and we had the best time EVER at the Parliament!!! Thanks with all our heart for everything you gave…(A Course in Miracles International)

Thank you so much for your excellent help during the huge conference. I congratulate you as you did a marvelous job …so many of us and so many different nationalities, but you succeeded very well to deal with it all. (The National Opal Collection)

Meeting of the Year

arinex has been a national winner in this category for the last four years and it is a great honour to be recognised again. This year’s win for the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) World Congress; a unique and hugely successful meeting setting the bar for sustainable events in Sydney. SETAC will stand as an example for the future of environmentally conscious meetings in the industry and is a great testament to our the Local Organising Committee and our staff for their vision and dedication.

Special Event of the Year

Awarded to The Rocks Dinner for the XXII International Congress of The Transplantation Society (XXII ICTTS). This award represents a significant win in a year that saw so many huge events in Sydney and a first for arinex in this category. The Rocks Dinner was a sensational event incorporating four restaurants, our own incarnation of the Rocks Market, a modern cocktail lounge at the Overseas Passenger Terminal and the James Craig tall ship! The event showcased the best Sydney has to offer (including an amazing team effort arinex and the amazing team effort that went behind it).

Congratulations to the teams involved in the preparation of the submissions, the coordination of the meetings and the support of all of the staff.

This places us in the finals in both categories for the national awards which will be held in April during the MEA National Conference 2010.

Attracting much global media attention, rarely do you see such a diverse group of people meet in one place. Catholic priests, native American leaders, indigenous elders, rabbis from Israel and Buddhist monks from Vietnam will join Muslim scholars, Hindu philosophers and representatives from many other Christian denominations at the event.

Some big name speakers among the 1500 confirmed speakers presenting include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former US President Jimmy Carter, Rev Tim Costello, His Eminence George Cardinal Pell, the Honourable Michael Kirby, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Professor Joy Murphy Wandin, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh and Reverend Dr Stephanie Dowrick.

The topics for discussion are equally big, including issues such as global poverty and global warming, indigenous reconciliation, environmental care and degradation, education of the young and the challenges of social disengagement, voluntary and forced migration and the West’s relationship with Islam. 

It is an event where true global outcomes can happen.

arinex are proud to be the conference management team behind this high profile global event, working closely with the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

“This event was nothing like we had ever done before. To respond to the meeting’s main objective of working in harmony, the level of detail required was intense. Everything was triple checked once, and then triple checked again to ensure that all stakeholders were happy, included and given much choice.’ said Karine Bulger, Executive Manager, arinex.  

 ‘We were brought on board to supply a business ethos to a community event. Each step of the way, each party had to create the balance between providing an authentic all-inclusive community event, with a business mindset. The essence of the event is its community approach, but commercial expertise needed to be applied to ensure the logistics ran smoothly, the communication to delegates, speakers and media was clear, and that the budget produced the desired outcome.’

The director of the conference, Dirk Ficca said ‘Hundreds of people have worked behind the scenes for over five years to make this happen. Melbourne’s meeting and events industry has demonstrated their high standard of expertise to meet all challenges. From the team at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, through to the team at the Melbourne Convention and Visitors Bureau, and of course, the team at arinex, all suppliers have come together to deliver an outstanding event.

I have been impressed by their ability to work harmoniously and productively together to ensure Parliament impressed all. Take the example of the Sikh kirpan which must be carried on their person, and is integral to their religious values. Obviously carrying such an item can cause a few issues in these days of high security measures. The Melbourne team worked closely together: arinex, the Federal Police, Victorian Police, Australian Customs, the Attorney Generals Department and Australian Quarantine developed the policies needed to enable the Sikhs to safely bring their kirpan both into the country, and the conference venue. It has all been very well done.’

-ENDS-

In the News

Click here to see some of the media coverage to date, and how it has captured the attention of so many: 

Media Coverage

Click here to download the official event photography by Ray Messner  www.flickr.com/photos/raymessner

Background on the Conference

‘There will be no world peace until there is peace among the religions.’
Hans Küng

First held in Chicago in 1893, the Parliament of the World’s Religions brings together the world’s religious and spiritual communities, their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation.

Since 1993, a Parliament of the World’s Religions has convened every five years in a major international city (Chicago 1993, Cape Town 1999, Barcelona 2004). It is sponsored by the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. A multi-religious, multi-lingual, and multicultural city, Melbourne offers an ideal location for the 2009 Parliament. Culturally vibrant and global in vision, Melbourne and Victoria are home to indigenous and Aboriginal spiritualities as well as the major world religions – Baha’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism among others. The Parliament will run for seven days with approximately 450 events including keynote addresses, seminars, conferences, debates, performances, concerts and exhibitions.

ENQUIRIES:

Rachel Walker, Business Development and Marketing Manager

Ph: + 61 2 9265 0700 or rwalker@arinex.com.au

Company description:

 arinex provides a quality total solution meetings and events management service to associations, governments and corporate organisations. Our service aim is to assist clients to host inspiring events to maximise substance and to deliver goals.

The Parliament of the World’s Religions is one of Melbourne’s biggest international meetings this year attracting over 5000 delegates from around the world.

With high profile speakers such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Kofi Annan, Reverend Dr Stephanie Dowrick, George Cardinal Pell, Tim Costello and Michael Kirby and many many more, with an extraordinarily complex program incorporating daily cultural events and with hundreds of staff and tens of thousands of man hours behind its organization,.it is a truly unique conference.

arinex are proud to be the conference management team behind this high profile global event, working closely with the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Click here to see some of the media coverage to date, and how it has captured the attention of so many:

Parliament of the World’s Religion Media Coverage

ENQUIRIES:

Rachel Walker, Business Development and Marketing Manager

Ph: + 61 2 9265 0700 or rwalker@arinex.com.au

BE RESPONSIBLE!

IAPCO, the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers, would like to express its views with regard to the recent Statement of the European Commission :”EU to declare war on business trips”.

 It is a recognized fact that there is a need to curb greenhouse gas emissions as part of world’s environmental strategy and the EU is to be commended on embracing this subject. It is however essential that a balanced and objective approach is taken when considering how best to do this. Many seemingly obvious solutions, whilst solving the problem at the outset, create considerable difficulties further down the line.   

 For example, there is a much publicized move to use local produce in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This could be applauded; however, by limiting the import of produce from certain developing nations, the local economy in those countries suffers dramatically, leading to increased poverty, starvation and ultimately dependence upon those countries who helped inflict the problem upon them. Consequences of seemingly obvious solutions must be thoroughly considered and followed through.

 The most recent decision from the EU relates to limiting business trips with the target of reducing them by 20% and replacing them with telecommunication and web-based alternatives.

Business trips embrace many aspects, an important one of which is attendance at meetings, conferences and events. By heavily directing the limitation of business travel, and thus attendance at conferences and events, there are serious consequences further down the line.

 1.         Many nations do not have the technical infrastructure to participate in such meetings and thus such a dictate is limiting the ability for representatives of those nations to participate in a learning and peer review environment. By limiting the attendance of representatives from European countries, the peer review is moved into a position of imbalance.

 2.         In many cases there will be technology security problems as sensitive data is often discussed and presented.

 3.         If attendance at meetings is restricted, or indeed reduced by the proposed 20%, local economies will suffer dramatically. Contributions from delegates equate to approximately €1620 per person [2007 average spend]. Can local governments survive with such a dramatic loss of revenue to their local businesses?

 4.         Technology cannot replace human interface. Governments must never lose sight of the fact that human beings communicate on a face-to-face basis; no technology can replace the benefit and added value of body language, networking and personal contact.    

 5.         There is a strive for continual learning:  Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) are two such programmes which require annual further education. This cannot be achieved without human contact, a large part of which is undertaken during specialist conference and meetings. You would not consider it  advantageous for your children to be educated purely via books and the internet; no, you require a teacher and for the children to be in attendance in schools;  conferences and meetings are the adult’s equivalent forum for serious learning.

 6.         Inspiration evolves from conferences and meetings and however good may the technology be, it can never be as inspiring or thought provoking as actually being there. You need to be a part of the ambiance, soak up the atmosphere, feel the mood, absorb the surroundings. Only then will you truly be able to take away the full power of the information being presented to you.

 7.         There is a common belief that air traffic is polluting the air. It is however a true scientific fact that air traffic is only contributing to a 5% maximum of the gas emissions worldwide. And now, all airlines are proposing carbon offset programmes to their passengers.

 8.         The activities of IAPCO members alone represent a global economic impact in excess of 3 B. Euros worldwide. Add to that all the business activities that are not controlled by IAPCO members and you would be, of course, multiplying these figures by probably at least a hundred! Cutting this will have a devastating impact on the economy.

 IAPCO, with its members, has long ago already created its own task force and guidelines. We strongly believe that face-to-face meetings, conventions, seminars and events are an essential part of daily life and the economy. Reducing this will have no impact on the world gas emissions but will have a strong negative effect on the world economy and therefore the wellbeing of humanity.

 ABOUT IAPCO:  Meeting Quality

IAPCO, founded in 1968 is the worldwide association representing professional congress organisers.  With over 100 members, IAPCO organises every year its annual meeting and general assembly in a different city and plays a leading role in the promotion of the professionalism of congress organisation throughout the world (Annual Wolfsberg Academy, Regional Seminars, political actions).    IAPCO also publishes a number of documents including a code of ethics, a dictionary of technical terms (now in 15 languages) and working brochures.   IAPCO is a member of the Joint Meetings Industry Council [JMIC] and the Convention Industry Council [CIC].   

IAPCO members organised in excess of 5000 meetings annually, representing more than 1.9 million delegates, with 0.5m2 exhibition space, creating an economic impact of some 3.1 billion euros.

 For further information, please contact: 

 IAPCO Head Office :  Brambles House, Colwell Road, Freshwater,PO40 9SL, UK                   

 Email: info@iapco.org        www.iapco.org

 Conference highlights included:

 The Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP): FOSS4G launched the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Climate Challenge Integration Plugfest (CCIP), which demonstrated standards based interoperability between Open Source and Proprietary geospatial applications. It consisted of a server with multiple virtual machines, each installed with geospatial applications offering standards based web services.

 Installfest: Over 100 computers were set up for the Installfest which gave delegates the opportunity to meet in a common area and install a wide variety of FOSS software on their laptops, EE PC or any other system they brought in.

 Demonstration Theatre: During lunch and coffee breaks the demonstration theatre showcased live software presented in short, sharp demonstrations from sponsors, open source projects and the user community showing what is possible with open source today.

 Code Sprint: The final day of the conference was set aside for the Hackers’ Code Sprint.

 The Conference was a huge success for delegates and organisers alike. Special mention to the Hosts; OsGeo and to all our Sponsors who provided support including our Gold sponsors Autodesk, OpenGeo and Ingres.  

 And from these very tech savvy delegates, what better reference is from their blog:

 http://fromtheinsidelookingin.blogspot.com/2009/10/foss4g-2009-day-1_20.html

 *What is Free and Open Source Software?

Free and open source software (also F/OSS, FOSS, or FLOSS) is software that is liberally licensed to grant the right of users to study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. This approach has gained both momentum and acceptance as the potential benefits have been increasingly recognized by both individuals and corporate players.

Newcomers to the subject can be confused by clear the term “free”. In the context of free and open source software, “free” is intended to refer to the freedom to copy and re-use the software, rather than to the price of the software. Advocates of the “freedom” meaning often describe it by saying “free as in freedom, not free as in [free] beer“.

- With thanks to Wikipedia for the definition.