Associated as part of the KRAKÓW NETWORK business initiative, several hundred representatives of the meetings industry and related sectors from Kraków and the region of Małopolska work on a document modelled on the Kaohsiung Protocol Framework announced by ICCA in November 2020 and identifying strategies enabling a recovery of the global meetings market.

The Kaohsiung Protocol Framework is ICCA’s response to the major global trends such as technological advancement, safety and health, and understanding the next generations of attendees, all impacting the global events industry. Its purpose was to identify key macro and micro trends, important strategies to consider implementing by sector, and new event success metrics in the future. The main conclusion is that it is the duty as well as privilege of the event industry to contribute to the advancement of the society through promoting core values such as knowledge economy, sustainable development, and global connection.

This is also the mission of KRAKÓW NETWORK: know-how sharing and joint actions intended to secure partners and boost the number of business events hosted by Kraków. Today, these efforts gain an additional dimension: practical models of cooperation between local industry members are needed to enable them to operate in the brand-new reality. As a result, representatives of six thematic groups creating the initiative (Hotel Group, Kraków Business Food, PR Group, Ambassador Group, Future Lab Group, Events Group) are working on new guidelines to protect all parties to the KRAKÓW NETWORK Protocol. Upon their basis, it will be possible to minimise risk through declarations of respect for guidelines described in detail in the publication. The risk will be shared by venues, agencies, PCOs, DMCs, hotels, catering companies, academies of higher learning and other institutions associated as part of KRAKÓW NETWORK.

“Creating a sense of agreement and partnership between all stakeholders, we intend to negotiate an agreement in the form of the protocol and to promote KRAKÓW NETWORK members and the whole city as ready to safely and effectively host all types of events, also of the hybrid and online variety”, said Paula Fanderowska, Director for ICE Kraków Congress Center at Kraków Festival Office, member of the team of several dozen industry professionals working on the document’s provisions.

The development of the KRAKÓW NETWORK Protocol is accompanied by an image campaign aimed at promoting Kraków as the total package for the meetings industry. Scheduled to take place in late March as its wrap-up, a webinar will announce the outcome of the works and invite organisers to bring their events to the capital of Małopolska.

Finally, it is worth noting that the negotiated provisions will be consistent with the overall direction of the city’s strategy recently announced in “Kraków’s sustainable tourism policy for 2021-2028”, which places great emphasis on business tourism. In addition, they match the assumptions of #KrakówTheHostCity campaign currently implemented by Kraków Convention Bureau.

Source: convention.krakow.pl