Imex 2008: Worldwide Buyer Growth

IMEX 2008 : The essential worlwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings & events: 22-24 April 2008 . New Vision education The IMEX educational programme also continues to grow with new sessions for association e xecutives; an expanded programme of German seminars; a new Corporate Programme and the busiest ever line-up on the Professional Development Pavilion.

The sixth IMEX is set to break industry records again for numbers of hosted buyers, visitors and exhibitors meeting and doing business over three days in Frankfurt.
Hosted buyer growth: Our hallmark hosted buyer programme is on course to be the largest to date, with a worldwide representation including hundreds of buyers from the US market; plus representation of buyers from as far afield as Australia, Brazil, China, India, the Middle East,
South Africa and Thailand. Thousands of buyers will also attend from across Western and Eastern Europe and HelmsBriscoe International is forecast to attract their largest delegation to date to IMEX ’08. Efforts to both consolidate and expand our reach into the outbound German market will also be boosted by an extensive German visitor marketing campaign, which will target over 50% more potential buyers throughout Germany; including a new campaign that will be aimed at marketing managers and directors.

The IMEX-MPI Future Leaders Forum will educate over 150 European students in Frankfurt and we look forward to welcoming up to 20 politicians to the show for our Politicians Forum. We are also delighted to introduce new destinations – Armenia and Torun in Poland - via the IMEX Wild Card initiative,as well as a host of new technology providers in the Tech Tap.
As the industry begins to recognise the importance of environmental and social responsibility we expect the highest number of entries for the IMEX Green Awards. In addition, exhibitors and visitors will see a range of new initiatives aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of IMEX and we encourage the industry to help us in this goal.

The IMEX 2008 educational programme will offer a packed timetable addressing the needs of buyers, exhibitors and future leaders.
Learning opportunities begin before the start of the show with the ICCA Association Expert Seminar, ICCA Data Workshops, AIPC Sales Summit, a new exhibitor training workshop and the popular IMEX Association Day.
IMEX New Vision will deliver a host of new workshops in the Professional Development Pavilion (p.7); the Marketing Clinic and MICE Market Monitor (p.11); sessions on Cross Cultural Skills and Green Meetings; and the Politicians’, Future Leaders’ and Women’s Forums. A new programme for international corporate buyers will offer a hard-hitting debate; meanwhile, German buyers will be able to choose from a range of seminars organised by the German Convention Bureau.
See the IMEX website for the full schedule of morning seminars organised by the industry trade associations and for more details on all the events described above.

A new breed of younger, more intense industry professionals is rapidly emerging,relentless in their quest for knowledge, extremely IT literate and full of ideas for success. Never was this better illustrated than at the recent IT&CMA Future Leaders Forum in Bangkok. A group of young Thai delegates simply soaked up knowledge and ideas and came back with questions and thoughts way beyond their years. Professional and creative case study presentations came easily to them –with extremely competitive attitudes within their respective teams.
The IMEX-MPI Future Leaders programme has rapidly expanded to meet the global needs of a new industry generation, giving rise to an exchange of ideas, experiences and travel opportunities that have been eagerly accepted by these emerging professionals. More and more Forums are taking place with a refreshing intensity on the part of attendees that promises our industry will continue to grow in the future. When veterans like Tom Hulton, Director of International Relations,IMEX; Martin Kinna, Managing Director of the Convention Partnership and Christian Mutschlechner, Director Vienna Convention bureau take the time to create such learning opportunities and are in turn happily surprised by the standards displayed then it is clear our industry is in good hands!