With each day dedicated to another industry association, the event’s concept made it possible to exhaustively discuss all topics prepared for this year.

The series of events was held under the honorary patronage of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism.

Meetings Week Poland was kicked off by the Poland Meetings Destination conference (19 March) presenting the good practices of securing meetings and a detailed breakdown of the tourism fee. The Ministry of Sport and Tourism was represented by Director Ewa Pawlak-Lewandowska, and Polish Tourism Organisation (Polska Organizacja Turystyczna - POT) - by Vice President Agnieszka Jędrzejczyk-Wojciechowska and Aneta Książek of Poland Convention Bureau POT. Speakers from Poland and abroad shared their experiences and unanimously agreed that the multifaceted cooperation of entities involved in securing events guarantees organisational successes. The latter were discussed by Prof. Krzysztof Makowski of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, presenting the details of the process of securing the 23rd International Congress of Historical Sciences, to be held in Poznań in 2020, and Rafał Piechota, Deputy Director of the Office of the Minister at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, who brought up WADA’s 2019 World Conference on Doping in Sport to be held in Katowice. Examples from abroad were examined by Pier Paolo Mariotti, Vice President, European Cities Marketing (ECM) and Roman Muska, Managing Director, Prague Convention Bureau.

On the second day of Meetings Week Poland (20 March) Events Industry Association (Stowarzyszenie Branży Eventowej; SBE) spotlighted the advantages and methods of event visualisation. The invited experts spoke about, i.a. the rule of three (the setting of personal, team and event goals), the colour of events (picking appropriate people for given roles and finding your place in the team), as well as a method of raising awareness of responsibility and creativity when working on events - before, during and after.

On 21 March Association of Incentive Travel Organisers (Stowarzyszenie Organizatorów Incentive Travel; SOIT) together with the Polish branch of Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE Poland) showcased the best practices of incentive organisers. Panel participants discussed the high standards of managing incentive travel projects, business ethics, market regulations related to the new act on tourist events, good practices in the cooperation between agencies and procurement departments, as well as the safety of trips and clients.

The fourth day of Meetings Week Poland (22 March) drew attention to the new legal and financial regulations for meeting organisers. Experts invited by the Polish Conference and Congress Association (Stowarzyszenie Konferencje i Kongresy w Polsce; SKKP) assured that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will motivate entrepreneurs to arrange or create procedures intended to protect personal data in their companies, train their employees in this area and guarantee that the discussed regulations are consistently observed.

The second part of the day also featured a meeting of Poland Convention Bureau Polish Tourism Organisation with convention bureaux representing cities and regions. Dedicated to how the recommendations of regional convention bureaus can be consolidated with running local Ambassador Clubs, the first part of the meeting was attended by SKKP board members - Anna Jędrocha and Paula Fanderowska. Representatives of the POT Department of Strategy, Director Teresa Buczak and Dorota Zientalska, took part in a subsequent session on the Poland Meetings and Events Industry and Poland Meetings Impact reports.

The day culminated with SKKP celebrating its 20th anniversary at the Copernicus Science Centre.

Finally, the concepts of one-man shows, time-out-sessions and case studies were deciphered by the Polish chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI Poland) and Z-Factor on the last day of  Meetings Week Poland (23 March). The IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum - a programme encouraging college students to build their career in the meetings industry - was held parallel to the panel of experts. Results of the IMEX University Challenge competition, focused on showcasing creativity in event planning, were announced in this section. The winner, a student of the Warsaw School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, will represent Poland at the competition’s final stage at the IMEX exhibition in Frankfurt. The latter’s laureate, in turn, will attend the prestigious MPI World Educational Congress in Indianapolis.

The ceremonious MP Power Awards Gala, promoting the professionalism of the Polish event industry and building awareness of its valuable tools, crowned the entire week of meetings. Congratulations to all the winners!

Polish Tourism Organisation was the co-organiser of the Poland Meetings Destination conference inaugurating Meetings Week Poland 2018 and a partner of the whole event. Arranged in the exhibition space, its stand featured VR headsets that made it possible for the participants to watch Polska 360 videos, play industry-related memory games and assemble topical puzzles.