Polish National Stand at IMEX Frankfurt 2024

In Frankfurt, the traditional Polish national stand organized by the Poland Convention Bureau POT was once again present. This time, 17 exhibitors showcased their services, including convention bureaus, recommended organizers (PCOs and ITCs), congress venues, hotels, and an airline.

• Bespoke Agency
• ICE Krakow Congress Centre
• Convention Bureau - Wroclaw
• Creative Poland
• DMC Poland
• Kraków Convention Bureau
• LOT Polish Airlines
• LCK - Lublin Conference Centre
• Marriott Warsaw Hotel
• Mazovia Convention Bureau
• Mazurkas DMC Poland
• Poznań Convention Bureau
• Poznań Congress Center
• Travel Projekt DMC
• Warsaw Convention Bureau
• Vengo DMC Poland
• Zdrojowa Hotels

With the slogan "Poland. More than you expected," we promoted Poland and its MICE offerings at IMEX in Frankfurt this year. With 17 MICE partners, a well-presented booth, a series of live concerts by the irreplaceable Basia Giewont, branding in the gallery at the entrance to the main hall, delicious coffee, and of course, a wonderful atmosphere. We also returned to the tradition of group meetings for hosted buyers. Five destination presentations provided an additional opportunity to promote Poland and showcase our event organization proposals and capabilities, summarized Aneta Książek, head of Poland Convention Bureau.

This year's IMEX received positive feedback from Polish exhibitors.

Hosted buyers inquired about various types of events. However, what seems most important is that they had well-defined needs related to specific projects. They also demonstrated an excellent knowledge of our country, its development, and how it is perceived. This is very encouraging. Therefore, these were certainly not meetings that will remain without response, said Agata Rybkiewicz, project manager at the Warsaw Convention Bureau.

We are very pleased with the meetings we had. There were plenty of them, and in addition to that, a positive surprise compared to other similar events was the fact that many people also came to our booth spontaneously. Moreover, our interlocutors often openly admitted that they want to show their clients something new, a place they do not yet know, which is also very attractive from a tourism perspective and well-prepared to handle groups. This is how they perceive our country, including Warsaw and Mazovia. We exhibited together because our offers complement each other, allowing us to offer more, added Maciej First, marketing and promotion specialist at the Mazovian Regional Tourist Organization (Mazovia Convention Bureau).

Importantly, the topic of the war in Ukraine and related concerns about safety in Poland appeared less frequently, almost not at all, in discussions. Polish exhibitors emphasized that potential clients who paid attention to Poland were specific in their questions and interests.

The trade fair was characterized by a very high quality of meetings. Some even involved exceptionally specific inquiries, related to providing exact dates for events or the number of people participating. The organizers of the IMEX trade fair deserve great recognition for this, said Hubert Syller, director of Vengo DMC Poland.

IMEX Frankfurt 2024 in numbers

According to official data, nearly 12,000 MICE professionals participated in this year's IMEX trade fair, of which over 4,000 were hosted buyers. All of this translated into approximately 60,000 pre-arranged business meetings, to which spontaneous ones organized on-site must be added.

I am delighted with this year's trade fair, including the strong return of exhibitors from the Asian market. I also noticed an increasing presence of partners from Africa, said Ray Bloom, chairman and founder of the IMEX Group.