At the Brussels Events Ambassadors Evening at Forest National, visit.brussels named 14 congress organizers as ambassadors of Brussels. The new ambassadors are organizations that have helped put Brussels on the map as an international MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) destination over the past two years. It was the fifth edition of the Brussels Events Ambassadors Evening, which honors conference organizers. With over 900 international professional events each year, Brussels is Europe’s leading city for conference hosting. Brussels aims to maintain this position, in part thanks to the ambassador program. The ambassadors form a network of business people who are not only passionate about their sector but also about our region. As such, they contribute to Brussels’ image internationally. The network currently counts more than 150 ambassadors from various sectors.
The program laureates met at Forest National, in the presence of Rudi Vervoort, MinisterPresident of the Brussels Capital Region. Brussels Ministers Elke Van den Brandt and Sven Gatz, Brussels State Secretary Pascal Smet and Cécile Jodogne (Chairwoman) and Patrick Bontinck (CEO) of visit.brussels were also in attendance.
2020 and 2021 were exceptionally difficult years. The pandemic caused an unprecedented crisis in the MICE sector. Thanks to the support funds made available by visit.brussels and the Brussels Capital Region, many meetings were able to go ahead despite all the challenges. Organizers were forced to choose between holding their event online, in person or in hybrid form.
Fourteen of them won bids to organize professional international events in our capital and they were honored at the Brussels Events Ambassadors Evening.
1. European Symposium on Calcified Tissues 2021 – ECTS: Jean- Jacques Body
2. IAH Congress 2021 – International Association of Hydrogeologists: Olivier Lagneau
3. The Continental European Division of the International Association for Dental Research Meeting CED-IADR 2021 – Hanne Van den Keybus
4. EU Lesbian Conference 2021 – Leila Lohman
5. Moving Picture Experts Group Congress 2020 – Gauthier Lafruit
6. CILANE Congress 2020 – Commission d’information et de liaison des associations nobles d’Europe – Henri de Beauffort
7. AutoSens 2021 – Sense Media: Robert Stead
8. Human Brain Project Summit 2021 – France Nivelle
9. International Congress of Living Donor Liver Transplantation Study Group 2021 – Jan Lerut
10. react.brussels 2021 – Aymen Ben Amor
11. IIRB 77th congress 2020 – International Institute of Sugar Beet Research: Stephanie Kluth
12. Brussels Fashion Week 2020 – Melani Barnes-Jaftha
13. SCIC Child Forum 2020 – 13th European Forum on the rights of the child – Valeria Setti
14. Junior Enterprises Europe Winter Conference 2020 – Miguel Bernardo
