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by Paul Vallee, Managing Director, BestCities Global Alliance
Berlin. BestCities Global Alliance, a strategic collaboration between the world’s premier meeting destinations, is committed to delivering the highest possible standards and achieving the best results for its clients. The twelve cities - Berlin, Bogota, Cape Town, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Houston, Melbourne, Singapore, Tokyo and Vancouver - reap benefit from the pooling of resources and leverage their collective reputation to build sustainable advantage for future success.
This sharing of best practices, intelligence and knowledge among partners has sharpened each one's competitive edge and was evident at the Alliance’s annual client workshop, which took place in Berlin at the end of August. An exclusive list of association clients attended alongside the Alliance's 12 city members, gaining practical insight to assist with their own conference planning and association management. The workshops also enable city members to have the opportunity to collectively define and share a value proposition, not to mention building face to face relationships with associations which can lead to new bid opportunities.
As host city, visitBerlin Berlin Convention Office extended a very warm welcome to all delegates, showcasing a wide variety of the extensive venue offering in Germany’s capital city, such as the CityCube and the Estrel. The Convention Office also provided a lively snapshot of this dynamic and energetic city and its rich history, including a sunset boat ride along the Spree.
A particular highlight, the Client Workshop Ambassador Dinner at the stunning Humboldt-Box at Museum Island, included insightful presentations by Dr. Marion Müller, Einstein-Foundation, and Prof. Dr. Detlev Ganten, from World Health Summit, enforcing the scientific strength of Germany’s capital city.
Throughout the four-day workshop, informative sessions allowed clients an opportunity to discuss relevant issues, and one crucial learning running throughout the four-day event was the importance of creating legacies. Captured in a keynote address by Chair of BestCities and Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) Chief Executive Officer, Karen Bolinger, the workshop outlined the critical role of international association conferences advancing the case of others for the local destination, their community and the cause they each represent.
Karen talked about the growing trend for leading associations to measure the success of meetings and conferences not only by delegate numbers, new sponsors, great keynotes or smooth operations. She noted that legacy creation is about the intent and motivation to deliver a specific result and is not something which happens as the consequence of hosting an international meeting.
Instead, it is the reason for the meeting, the organisation’s purpose and shared goal that shapes association conferences. Associations and congresses should meet together in advance to define their core purpose. Legacies will then define the success of the meeting, the association and the congresses’ leadership.
Open to international association planners, the next BestCities Client workshop is set to take place in Dubai from 5-9 December 2016. To find out if you qualify to be hosted or for more information, please visit www.bestcities.net.