Pictured L-R: AIPC President Aloysius Arlando and Valencia Conference General Manager Sylvia Andrés.
Centre Wins for “Highest Client Rating Received by a Convention Centre”
The 2018 Annual Conference of the International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC) held in London earlier this month featured the presentation of the 2018 AIPC Apex Award, an award made in recognition of the highest client rating received by a convention centre, to the Valencia Conference Centre in Spain.
The decision was reached after an analysis of client surveys from 17 finalists, all of whom had qualified for the competition by achieving a required complement of client testimonials which were analyzed by the international market research firm Ipsos under a rigorous set of evaluation criteria established for the award.
“The Apex Award is our highest honor and is therefore made on basis of the most in-depth independent analysis of facilities and services in the industry,” says AIPC President Aloysius Arlando. “The award decision is therefore entirely in the hands of centre clients, who rate a wide range of facility qualities to enable Ipsos to arrive at a conclusion that is as meaningful as it is prestigious. These qualities include facilities, project management, customer relations, catering, creativity and technology, and collectively add up to a comprehensive assessment of a centre’s capabilities and performance.”
In receiving the award, Valencia Conference General Manager Sylvia Andrés said, “The recognition of a convention centre as the World’s Best in the opinion of its clients is the best recommendation a conference centre can have. It also coincides with the fact that this year we are celebrating our 20th anniversary, which makes it especially important as an endorsement of the management and the results we have achieved.”
The AIPC Board also recognized two runners-up in this year’s award: the Kongresskultur Bregenz GmbH, in Austria and the Palais des congrès de Montréal in Canada. “Given the very intense competition this year, our runners-up also deserve important recognition, as the very high standards required to compete in this program make this achievement an important one, second only to the overall winner,” says Arlando.
“The AIPC Apex Award process clearly distinguishes the factors that are most important to clients in their determination of centre performance,” he adds. “The result is that every participant is a winner in the sense that the award process generates information and insights that drive overall centre performance, and which are of great use in advancing each centre’s product. Having said that, the winner and runners-up can take great pride in their emergence as the best amongst their peers.”
AIPC represents a global network of more than 185 leading centres in 60 countries with the active involvement of more than 900 management-level professionals worldwide. It is committed to encouraging and recognizing excellence in convention center management, based on the diverse experience and expertise of its international representation, and maintains a variety of educational, research, networking and standards programs to achieve this. AIPC also celebrates and promotes the essential role of the international meetings industry in supporting economic, academic and professional development and enhancing global relations amongst highly diverse business and cultural interests. For more info, visit www.aipc.org.
