Poland will not be overlooked at the summit. Gdańsk has chaired the CEC for 4 years; furthermore, the Poland Convention Bureau of the Polish Tourist Organisation is going to present joint activities undertaken within the V4 Visegrad Group with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

“Partnership within the V4 group is centred on tourism. In the future, we would like to expand our focus to include the meeting industry, benchmarking our activities with other regional initiatives” - comments Krzysztof Celuch, Head of the Poland Convention Bureau PTO.

 
This year’s agenda has been divided into four discussion panels: 

 
- Regional Associations – Think Global, Act Regional
- Regional Initiatives – Proactive Frame of Work
- Strategic Alliances – Advanced Model of Collaboration
- Regional Meetings – New Business Perspective

“We are actively participating in the organisational and agenda preparation of the meeting. Also, we will be one of moderators for educational sessions.” - says Anna Górska, CEO GTO/GCB, ICCA Central European Chapter Chairperson.

 
This year we will be discussing regional associations as a new business perspective and creating synergy effect on several different levels. We will try to answer such questions as: How the meeting industry can contribute to the development process of regional associations? How to identify decision makers in regional associations? We will also elaborate on selected models of strategic alliances and discuss their effectiveness.
 

Guests who will be there to share their experience include:

- Ms. Benita Lipps, Board Member of the European Society of Association Executives and Executive Director at the DaVinci Institute
- Mr. Nebojsa Lalic PhD, Executive Board Member of the Central European Diabetes Association and Dean of the School of Medicine, University of Belgrade
- Mr. Christian Mutschlechner, Director of the Vienna Convention Bureau
- Mr. Ralf G. Kleinhenz, Director of the Messe Berlin Convention Centre
- Ms. Valentini Amarantidou, GM of Artion Conferences and Events