(Pictured L-R: David DuBois, David Hidalgo, Didier Scaillet and Bernie Schraer)
IBTM Americas and Global MICE Collaborative on Nov. 21 announced a new three-year partnership from 2020-2022 combining networking, business meetings and education.
The partnership aims to drive awareness of the Americas region’s MICE offer and deliver comprehensive learning opportunities in order to develop a highly skilled and engaged community of event professionals in the region’s emerging MICE markets.
In 2020, the GMC and IBTM Americas will activate the first phase of the partnership—a special research initiative: LATAM opportunities for the North American MICE Market and North American opportunities for the LATAM MICE Market. This will act as a springboard to showcase the region’s MICE market to North America through the release of the survey results at IBTM Americas 2020, supported by a significant and sustained marketing campaign implemented by GMC and IBTM Americas.
The second phase will focus on education and will see GMC producing and running a day-long program of education sessions, which will take place the day before IBTM Americas 2021. This will be followed by the two day-long IBTM Americas event, where over 50 high-caliber speakers will deliver content that offers tangible learning opportunities for delegates through the event’s event marketing congress, event production, sport marketing, pharma congress, wedding and romance congress and sustainable events interactive forum.
“Being the exclusive partner of GMC, MPI, SITE and IAEE is core to our growth strategy,” says David Hidalgo, show director of IBTM Americas. “For us it represents a single go-to solution to accelerate global awareness and engagement, after the very rapid growth of IBTM Americas. It gives us the opportunity to consolidate the LATAM meetings marketplace and strengthen relationships with the North American market. This partnership will benefit the industry across the entire Americas region and will also act as a platform to educate and entice meeting professionals from around the globe to the region.”
“As the worldwide association for the exhibitions industry, IAEE is pleased to partner with IBTM Americas to provide attendees with our industry-leading education. We know that high quality education is absolutely fundamental if the region’s MICE industry is going to continue to grow at such a rapid pace”, says David DuBois, president and CEO of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events.
Didier Scaillet, CEO of SITE and the SITE Foundation, adds: “The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) plays a key role as part of the GMC – along with MPI and IAEE – in crafting, curating and delivering purposeful education for the Business Events industry at large. We warmly welcome this partnership with IBTM Americas that will open our learning and development programs to business events professionals in the Americas.”
The GMC community now stands at 73,500 members across 126 chapters worldwide. Established by the International Association of Exhibitions & Events (IAEE), Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), it makes important contributions to the MICE market around the globe and helps to further the industry and drive new business.
IBTM Americas, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2020, brings together around 850 hosted buyers mainly from North America, Latin America and Europe along with 600 companies as exhibitors for two days of one-to-one business meetings, networking opportunities and education. Last year 13,000 meetings took place, with about $10 million worth of business negotiated during the event.
IBTM, part of Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) is the world’s leading showcase for the meetings and events industry (also known as MICE) with a portfolio of five global and regional events providing business solutions on five continents. They include IBTM World, IBTM Africa, IBTM Americas, IBTM China and the recently launched IBTM Asia Pacific. For more info, visit www.ibtmevents.com.
