Heike Mahmoud: conventions topics in St. Petersburg
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The theme of ECM Spring meeting in St Petersburg (28th – 31st March 2012) is the future of Europe’s city tourist offices and convention bureaux. A substantial element of the seminar content relates specifically to business tourism and the meetings industry. In addition, on Wednesday afternoon a “Best practice session” has been arranged for ECM convention members to exchange their experience and ‘know-how’. Heike Mahmoud, ECM Vice-President for Conventions, has been the driving force behind these developments and spells out her thinking below.
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The role of PCO, PCO versus CVB are topics that have been already discussed many times. Why have you chosen these topics/are there still new points of view to be mentioned?
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The worldwide meetings industry, and so our clients are heavily challenged by changes: changes in the economy, changes in Governments and also changes in the business behavior. CSR, sustainability, better and smarter use of all kinds of resources will influence the everyday life. PCOs and destinations play a big role in this network. They can offer much more tailor-made services and should have a better understanding of the clients’ needs. For this reason, associations would like to work much more with core-PCOs or organise their meetings in different times in the same destination. The know-how about every detail of the conference will not go lost and trust and commitment from a city or destination can be very beneficial for both sides.
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Pharmaceutical industry and hybrid meetings, barcamps…. one of the topics is a convention classic, the other a completely new trend. What guided you to make this choice?
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We can see also changes in "classic convention topics". The pharmaceutical industry spends enormous budgets in innovations and new products. The worldwide competition is very complex and development time plays a very important role. Doctors and staff have to be educated, sometimes much more now, in order to be competitive in the future. We would like to give insightful information, how a scenario will influence the meetings industry in general and what we can do as cities to be prepared!
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Everyone is talking about social media, new meetings structure or architecture, new technical developments. What does it mean? How will this influence our marketing strategies and services we should offer our clients? We would like to give an overview of different developments and how to use them effectively.
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On Wednesday a "Best practice session" for conventions members will be held for the first time. What is the main idea?
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ECM’s core purpose is to provide a platform to perform better in our convention and tourism activities. The new "best practice session" will give ECM members from convention bureaux a place to exchange knowledge and best practice. Learning from each other, from capital cities and smaller cities, will be the focus. We would like to deliver content. Anne Wallin-Rodven has put all her energy in preparation of this new session. I am sure it will be of a great benefit for all the participants.
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Heike Mahmoud is a graduate in foreign trade and also has a degree in economics and international marketing. After working in several sales and marketing positions in congress hotels and then as an exhibition organiseer and a PCO, she took up her current post as the Convention Director of Berlin Convention Office of visitBerlin in July 2001. Her job is to ensure the German capital continues to maximise the economic benefit of the meeting industry across association, corporate and other market segments.
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