The second edition of Meetings & Incentives Healthcare Europe was staged in Finlandia Hall in Helsinki on 11-13 February 2020. Polish representatives attended for the first time, both exhibitors and invited hosted buyers.

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The main reason for involvement of Polish Tourism Organisation’s Stockholm-based International Office supported by Poland Convention Bureau was to promote Poland as a setting of meetings and events and to take part in 26 individual meetings with organisers of conferences, congresses and other business meetings of the healthcare sector (medicine and pharmacology) selected out of 175 hosted buyers. Table talks were accompanied by a diverse agenda of workshops designed to agree upon standards of cooperation between delegates of the medical sector/agencies representing them and the meetings industry (hotels, PCOs, convention bureaux).

“According to PCB POT data compiled in 2019 Poland Meetings and Events Industry Report, more than 13% of events held in Poland focus on the medical sector. In a global perspective, as demonstrated by the 2018 ICCA ranking, their share is even larger and constitutes 16.9%. Taking into consideration brand-new investments and the diverse offer of Polish cities, we expect attendance in international trade shows and profiled industry events to boost the position of our country on the global map of the meetings industry”, said Małgorzata Hudyma, Head of Polish Tourism Organisation International Office in Stockholm.

It is worth mentioning that all exhibitors at M&I Healthcare Europe had to complete an healthcare events online training and pass an exam verifying knowledge about pharmaceutical industry’s international code of good practice, with particular emphasis on norms in the area of staging symposia, congresses and other scientific events. The idea behind introducing the code is to raise the ethical standards of the pharmaceutical industry and to increase the transparency of relations between pharmaceutical companies and representatives of healthcare occupations.

Photo: Samuli Pentti and Aneta Książek