City report
Copenhagen ready to kickstart business events
COPENHAGEN PUTS SUSTAINABILITY AND DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT STRONG SUITS
BACK ON THE EVENTS CATWALK
n recent weeks, the Danish
capital city’s convention
bureau, DMO Wonderful
Copenhagen, has pushed
forward a number of campaigns to help
kickstart tourism in the city. One of these
is a multiple market meetings and
incentives campaign on LinkedIn, with the
key message that Copenhagen is ready to
meet again and to host meetings and
events in safe surroundings.
The bureau is also working on a wider
2021 business tourism strategy for
Copenhagen, together with more than 140
partners across the industry. The new
strategy follows on from the 2017-2020
campaign, ‘Copenhagen means business’.
The bureau says it will continue the
effort in the field of sustainable
development, and to pursue the goal of
becoming the world’s first Co2 neutral
capital by 2025.
Developing digital solutions within the
business events sector is another focus.
Safe to visit
The focus on creating a safe city
environment is key to any strategy in the
current context and Danish hotel,
restaurant and tourism association,
HORESTA, has developed a ‘Safe to visit’
guide for members which focuses on
ensuring safe distances between guests,
hyper hygiene and workflows designed to
minimise physical contact.
Copenhagen has also been improving its
quality hotel stock, with the opening in
July of Villa Copenhagen.
Denmark’s largest congress venue,
Bella Center, in Copenhagen, has
implemented a list of measures that
include extra space between seats in
meetings, streaming between meeting
rooms, increased and thorough cleaning
and individually served food.
Bella Center also hosted the world’s
Above: At
Refshaleøen
harbour, restaurant
Amass serves
organic cuisine
with ingredients
from its garden in
front of the dining
room. Photo by
Giuseppe Liverino
@tourbillondel
Right: Rosenborg
by Kim Wyon
first fashion week since March, which
included Copenhagen International
Fashion Fair (www.ciff.dk) 9-12 August
2020. The format was different to
normal, and with the main fashion weeks
of New York, London, Milan and Paris
due to follow, the fashion world was keen
to see how the Danes would pull off their
citywide event.
Despite many overseas attendees
staying away, including influencers and
editors, and typical audiences for
designer shows around 70 rather than
700 as in the past, Copenhagen pulled
out the stops as it continues to stake its
claim as a fashion big-hitter.
Talks, physical shows and digital
presentations made for a tighter, perhaps
more efficient model than the traditional
fashion ‘week’, that can drag on for up to
nine days.
Copenhagen proved you can chart a
course that includes being both a physical
and digital fashion week.
According to Vogue, high-profile brands,
like Ganni, did suffer in terms of exposure,
garnering US$630,623 in earned media
value (EMV) between 10-12 August
compared to $3,847,748 for all of August
2019. Saks Potts’s EMV was $176,386,
compared to $469,047 the previous year.
Cecilie Thorsmark, chief executive of
Copenhagen Fashion Week, was,
however, upbeat, and said that success
comes in the form of “being able to
demonstrate that we can adapt to industry
needs and come up with a viable solution”.
Something here for the other shows to
follow, for sure.
Erik Mortensen, head of global brand
activation at national tourism bureau Visit
Denmark, believes things are moving in
the right direction for events, while
acknowledging some setbacks, such as a
slight increase in cases of coronavirus.
The August opening has, however,
included larger groups and events. “We
will see how that lands,” Mortensen adds,
noting that industry partners have
experience executing events post corona
lockdown. “That gives us a huge edge and
potential for the next months and next
year. In fact, we have had football matches
with as many as 10,000 spectators now
– all with a massive focus on corona rules
and regulations, social distancing, etc.
And we now know that these ‘mass’
events have not resulted in an increase in
new cases, so the plan works and we have
the experience to handle such events.”
“The future of business events is closely
linked to not only the course of the
pandemic but also to the megatrends that
we saw before Covid-19. Transformation
is already here and we will continue our
strong focus on the Sustainable
Development Goals, while also building
on the learnings we have harvested in this
extraordinary time,” adds Kit Lykketoft,
Director of Conventions at Wonderful
Copenhagen.
ISSUE 108 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 27