Can we guarantee safety to all participants of our meetings? How to develop a successful strategy to make sure our meetings are safe? Can the destination maintain a positive image when safety issues affect tourism? How to deal with security threats and challenges appearing in 2017 and arising for 2018? These and other issues were discussed at ICCA CEC Summer Meeting, which took place on 17-19 August 2017 in Lviv, Ukraine.
The central theme of event was “Safety and Security of Our Meetings”, a subject with instant relevance and interest among all who have witnessed high-profile incidents in many European cities.
After the official welcoming speeches, the meeting started with the key note speech “World in 2030: Global Trends & MICE” presented by Ukrainian entrepreneur, co-founder of the New Country civil platform Valerii Pekar. He spoke about the impact of global trends on our daily life and MICE industry, trying to figure out how to prepare ourselves for the future full of some dramatic social, economic, and political consequences.
Then the 1st panel “How to develop a successful strategy to make sure our meetings are safe?”, being moderated by Anna Górska, ICCA CEC Chairperson started. Panelists focused on the definition of security and discussions of risk management techniques. Anna Jędrocha from Symposium Cracoviense, Poland, presented components of risk assessment and stages of crisis proceedings. Oleksandr Filts from European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies identified security as balancing between freedom and dangerous expectations while preparing a conference. Krzysztof Zieniewicz, professor of surgery from Poland, highlighted the main safety issues for medical events. Stefan Lohnert, Germany, shared his views on risk assessment based on event organization at Internationales Congresscenter Stuttgart.
During the 2nd panel “Safety issues affecting tourism – can we maintain a positive image?”, being moderated by Yaryna Klyuchkovska, the delegates had an opportunity to listen to 4 international speakers from Germany, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.
Ivan Liptuga, Ukraine, explained in detail from a government perspective how to create a friendly atmosphere in the country during the military actions and to make sure that business travellers are more than welcome. Hicran Özbük, general manager of Istanbul Convention & Visitors Bureau and Istanbul Shopping Fest, shared experience of Turkey, which faced with riots, the coup attempt, terrorist attacks, an infinite flow of refugees, and earthquake over the past year. Igor Kovacević from Serbia Convention Bureau focused on Serbian journey from “no destination” to the leader in the region and TOP 50 in the world. “Never stop bringing people together to exchange ideas”, said Karina Grützner in a strong statement to ensure business clients to visit Stuttgart.
At session on cyber security Anton Skrypnyk, CEO of KindGeek Software, Mykhaylo Shmelyov, National Technology officer for CEE Multicountry Europe at Microsoft, Ukraine, and Jaanika Merilo, Acting Deputy Mayor of Dnipro city, expert in innovations and e-services from Estonia, spoke about increasingly sophisticated protection system in a world where everything can be hacked.
The specificity of communication while an unexpected incident occurred was characterized by Tina Altieri from Australia during an interactive skype session “TOP 6 strategies you should know when dealing with and handling an incident”, moderated by Karina Grützner.
Lina Ostapchuk, Director of Lviv Convention Bureau commented, “I hope our friends and colleagues received an introduction to the city we love, along with a fruitful agenda and welcome reunion with their ICCA pals. And now, it is on to the next project.”
Next year ICCA CEC Summer Meeting will take place in cooperation with Meetings Experts Conference (MEXCON) on 20-22 June 2018 in Wiesbaden, Germany. The destination was presented by Matthias Schultze from the German Convention Bureau (GCB).
More details about ICCA CEC Summer Meeting in Lviv see at the website.
Photo gallery is here.
