The twelfth meeting of European national convention bureaux was held in Vienna on 1 February 2019 as part of cooperation within the Strategic Alliance of the National Convention Bureaux of Europe.

The Alliance aims to boost cooperation between convention bureaux throughout Europe in order to maintain and strengthen its standing as the world’s number one setting of association meetings. Alliance members agreed on its aims - to promote and support knowledge sharing among members, simplify and strengthen the approach to key markets, and enable comprehensive market research via joint activities.

In recent years the cooperation within the Alliance has considerably expanded, leading to the Vienna signing of the Memorandum of Understanding and the development of a joint budget. Moreover, the Alliance has already started working on research focused on the analysis of medium- and long-term market potential of Europe as a destination for meetings and conferences. Among current trends in the sector in question, the project will place particular emphasis on economic, political and social conditions together with their present-day trends. Austria, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden will participate in the research.

“An alliance of national convention bureaux is a step in the direction of sharing knowledge and reinforcing the meetings industry in Europe. Poland Convention Bureau Polish Tourism Organisation is its founding member and participates in all research projects and meetings of the Alliance, making our contribution to the partnership. I hope that our activity will also reinforce Poland’s standing in the international arena”, sums up Aneta Książek, Head of Poland Convention Bureau POT.

After an official section of the meeting, Palais Wertheim housed a farewell party of Christian Mutschlechner, former Director of Vienna CB who after 34 years of fruitful work for the Viennese meetings industry and 28 years with Vienna CB handed the bureau’s management over to his successor, Christian Woronka.

The meetings of national convention bureaux are staged twice a year. The next edition will be held in Saint Petersburg in autumn 2019.

The list of Alliance members includes: Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Flanders, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.