IBTM has announced that Pancho Campo, former tennis professional turned high profile events producer, will be the first keynote speaker for IBTM World 2020, which will take place in Barcelona from Dec 1-3.
In a talk titled “The Future of Events: Lessons Learned from Working with Barack Obama,” Campo will draw on his more than 30 years’ experience organizing major events to explore how to run an event with high profile attendees, as well as sharing practical solutions to overcome the unique challenges inherent to this type of event. Pancho will also discuss how event organizers can adapt in a COVID-19 world and give valuable insight into what events of the future might look like.
Originally from Santiago, Chile, Campo is a former ATP tennis professional and Olympic captain, who participated in the 1992 summer Olympics in Barcelona as a coach for the Chilean team. He retired from tennis in 1995 to set up his events management company, Chrand Marketing & Events. He initially worked on sporting events such as the Davis Cup, the Pro Beach Soccer Tour and sports tournaments with fellow celebrities Andre Agassi, Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash and Eric Cantona, but later expanded to music, promoting concerts with legendary music artists Sting, Enrique Iglesias and Pink Floyd.
Campo’s interest in the environment and climate change led him to meet former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, with whom he went on to produce several world class conferences, as well as U.S. President Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
During lockdown, Campo produced a virtual climate change conference called Marbella Futuro 2020, one of the first online summits to take place under COVID-19. The one-day, non-profit event brought 61 speakers from a diverse range of backgrounds together over 35 panel sessions to discuss ideas and share inspiration.
Campo says: “Although the current situation is worrying, the future is bright. I’m very much looking forward to attending IBTM World and discussing innovative ideas and where all these changes might take us as an industry.”
For more info, visit https://www.ibtmworld.com
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 IBTM Asia Pacific. For more info, visit www.ibtmevents.com
Reed Exhibitions is a leading global events business. It combines face-to-face with data and digital tools to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 500 events in almost 30 countries across 43 industry sectors, attracting more than 7 million participants. Their events, organized by 35 global offices, leverage industry expertise, large data sets and technology to enable our customers to generate billions of dollars of revenues for the economic development of local markets and national economies around the world. Reed Exhibitions is part of RELX, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. For more info, visit www.reedexhibitions.com
