Welcome to Belgrade!
The whole event started on Wednesday evening with the Welcome Reception at Ada Safari on the Sava Island. All Chief Executive members present in Belgrade were then invited to join the first “Leaders’ Dinner” which took place on Wednesday at the Club of Ministers. For the CEOs this was the occasion to discuss common issues concerning the cities across Europe and also to meet Ray Bloom, the chairman of IMEX.
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The day of Thursday was dedicated to seminar “Key Performance Indicators and Tourism – Do they really measure and improve the performance of destination marketing organisations?”. The content and structure of the seminar presentations as well as the choice of the speakers were made under the direction of Mrs. Anja Loetscher (director of Geneva Convention Bureau) and Prof. John Heeley (Chief Executive of Experience Nottinghamshire).
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Working Groups and Knowledge Groups took place on Friday as well as ECM General Assembly that was open to the members to adopt the new ECM strategy. Elections of the Board members were part of the General Assembly’s programme in Belgrade, too. “The ECM meetings are one of the crucial elements for good functioning of our association. For our members it is the occasion to meet and share expertise during so called “Working Group meetings” where the participants focus their effort on a specific task or project. These structured meetings with an interactive method of working enable ECM to develop its activities in a very dynamic way”, explains Frank Magee, the president of European Cities Marketing.
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The whole team of Belgrade Tourist Organization made sure that everybody could enjoy their stay by assuring an exciting social programme including a visit of Belgrade or an excursion to its neighbour city Novi Sad. “I was delighted to have the possibility of hosting the ECM Annual Conference and General Assembly here in Belgrade. It is very important for us to welcome people from different European cities and to exchange experience and knowledge that is often very diverse and therefore extremely rich. I am glad that we had this opportunity and I express my kindest thanks to all who believed in us.”, claims Olivera Lazovic, director of Belgrade Tourist Organization.
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