Gallery
Houston’s giant
ICCA leap
International Congress and Convention
Association (ICCA) President James
Rees welcomed almost 1,000 attendees
to the association’s 58th Congress in
Houston, Texas – a record number for
North American hosts.
Delegates from 75 countries attended
a four-day programme of education,
networking and business opportunities.
This year’s congress theme was
‘Innovation and Technology’, and the
congress heard from Houston local Scott
Parazynski, a former NASA astronaut, as
well as a more frenetic Copenhagen
Lecture from Soulaima Gourani. Scott
Stratten, an expert in viral marketing,
shared his knowledge of how
organisations could embrace disruption.
Some delegates toured Houston
Spaceport, The University of Texas MD
Anderson Cancer Center and TMCx, a
healthcare and life-science incubator
located within the world’s largest
medical centre in Houston.
Calgary, Canada, was announced as
host of the sixth ICCA Association
Meetings Programme (AMP) on 28-30
June 2021, the first time the ICCA AMP
will be held in North America.
ICCA’s Moishes Shuster Award
went to Vienna CVB’s Ulrike von Arnold
and a budget passed at the General
Assembly included an 18% growth plan.
New launch initiatives included an
ICCA Association Community and a
Future Leaders Council.
ICCA’s Best Marketing Award 2019
went to the Estonia Convention Bureau
for its ‘Go Wild, Choose Estonia!’
campaign.
Social highlights included the
Halloween/Day of the Dead
evening which saw ICCA delegates
express their dark side with some
considerable shock and awe.
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