The International Congress and Convention Association, the global community and knowledge hub for the international association meetings industry, honored five of its members with a special edition of the Best Marketing Award—”Recognizing Leadership in Transformation”—at the global hybrid 59th ICCA Congress in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
The ICCA Best Marketing Award, sponsored by the Meetings Show UK, recognizes the excellence and outstanding achievements of organizations in their effort to market their destination or product since 1997. Considering the unprecedented social and economic circumstances this year, ICCA introduced a special edition of the Best Marketing Award recognizing the best examples of transformative action.
Chairman of the judges and BMA moderator, Patrick Delaney of SoolNua, explains, “This year has been an extraordinarily difficult year, it has been difficult for our businesses and affected each and every country. So, in these economic and societal conditions, we felt that it was inappropriate to run our normal ICCA Best Marketing Award. However, we did want to recognize the amazing role ICCA members have played in this very difficult situation, so we combined our Global Destination Sustainability Award and the Best Marketing Award to highlight the key role in transformational leadership that ICCA members have played throughout the world.”
Therefore, ICCA invited all types of initiatives that provide creative answers to the current challenges to apply to be recognized. A great number of well-crafted and engaging submissions made the selection process incredibly difficult for the judging panel. Among all those who applied, five of the initiatives were found not only to have showcased a great amount of creativity, innovation, and local outreach, but also leadership in transformation with their unparalleled community engagement and extraordinary collaborations:
• KINTEX, South Korea: Created a comprehensive and innovative framework for re-opening a venue during the pandemic, which has subsequently been adopted in different parts of the world as the go to standard.
• Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre: Identified a deficiency in their local supply chain, namely insufficient knowledge among the PCO community of the scope of work and services required by international planners. They formed a unique partnership with the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) and the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO) to launch the IAPCO online platform providing globally accredited training to Malaysian Professional Congress Organizers (PCOs).
• Seoul Tourism Organization: Created a series of practical initiatives and supports to underpin their campaign “Stand Strong Together” and totally revitalized the local the MICE community.
• The Indian Hotels Company Limited: Provided emergency accommodation and meals for front-line health and police personnel who were on duty treating COVID-19 patients during the nationwide lockdown. This was in addition to supplying 20,000 food boxes daily for migrant workers who were combating unemployment.
• VISITFLANDERS Convention Bureau: Rebalanced their long-term vision for business events with the immediate need to create measures to support the industry. Taking COVID-19 as an opportunity to innovate, they created a new set of services and tools for their industry supply partners and association customers.
ICCA CEO Senthil Gopinath thanks all initiatives for their great efforts despite facing challenging times as well as their dedication and commitment towards ICCA, adding, “The Best Marketing award is very special for the ICCA community. Every destination makes great efforts in showcasing their achievements. Considering how important it is for the ICCA members, we decided to recognize the community leadership within our industry in these challenging times. It is amazing to see the dedication and commitment of ICCA members and how swiftly they engaged in the society. This year we received a record number of entries and it clearly showcases the long-term vision of our industry. I thank the ICCA members for their efforts in submitting their entries. We are a global community which proactively supports every situation.”
Watch the ICCA Best Marketing Award session recording to learn more about the submissions: https://youtu.be/0_wsia82d8c. For more info, visit: www.bma.iccaworld.org.
ICCA is the global association leader for the international meetings industry and specializes in the international association meetings sector, offering unrivaled data, education, communication channels and business development and networking opportunities. Since its establishment in 1963, ICCA represents the world’s top destinations and most experienced suppliers specialized in handling, transporting and accommodating international meetings and events, and comprises of more than 1,100 member companies and organizations in almost 100 countries and territories worldwide. As of 2020 ICCA encompasses all major stakeholders in the world of association meetings, by opening its doors to associations with the launch of the “ICCA Association Community,” offering education, connections, tools and resources to associations to organize more effective meetings. For more info, visit www.iccaworld.org
