events on , you have other mini communities that are coming together at that all have their own cultures . This is not just internally within their companies ; our exhibiting destinations and partners have huge , rich cultural heritages .

As international event organisers , we ’ ve learned that if you align the culture of what your business represents with the culture of the destination that you ’ re running your events in , you can make an even bigger impact and a memorable experience .

We believe that just seeing a speaker is not enough in terms of being someone ’ s solid reason for coming to an event . A lot of our content is still going to focus on education , but also networking and immersion as well . Our attendees are going to be involved , and they ’ re going to come out of each session and having built at least one connection .

Another lesson covers technology . Last year , we learned that implementing technology has to be sat around your value proposition . When we looked at that , we asked : how can technology make event engagement stronger at IBTM World 2022 ? We now have a long-term

agreement in place with one of our software partners who are going to help us drive a stronger experience for our buyers and exhibitors . This will sit primarily around matchmaking , so that the matches we create between two participants will be stronger . There ’ ll be more healthy meetings between them and more buyer leads in conversations .

This year , we ’ ve recognised that learning and other additional experience opportunities can lead to richer conversations . For this , our team is creating bespoke experiences for our buyer personas .

For our association buyer personas for instance , we have an association programme that has been adapted to make sure that the content is tailored to what they need or want . They want to have a lot of discussions that give something tangible to solve the challenges in their sector .

For the corporate buyers , it ’ s about creating a ‘ wow ’ experience . With the corporates , we ’ re having a day where they experience various activities throughout Barcelona . They ’ ll go on different tours , experience venues , types of foods , and maybe a few cocktails as well . These experiences

“ For our association buyer personas , they want to have a lot of discussions that give something tangible to solve the challenges in their sector .”

will stoke richer conversations and business connections .

CO : How have the needs of exhibitors and visitors changed post-pandemic ? DT : The core themes that come up often are sustainability , diversity and inclusion , and technology . Both exhibitors and visitors want to learn how to tackle these developing challenges that we ’ re currently seeing . Alongside these , some immediate issues that we ’ re all facing are the present staffing shortages , inflation , the supply chain , and business needs . We ’ ve designed our programme to give attendees insight into how to tackle those .

We all want to get back to what we love , which for us is building events that drive business cultures as well as driving the sales and marketing leads brought into the organisations that attend the event .

CO : What was IBTM World ’ s biggest success last year ? DT : Overall , we were proud to put something together that was helping to grow the industry . It felt like it was the first major event in Europe where we could see the industry pick up again - it was very emotional and fascinating .

The biggest success was simply getting people together again - bearing in mind that Omicron started up about two weeks before the event .

Although it really kicked in the day before IBTM World , we still managed to achieve 7,000 attendees including 1,400 buyers from 72 countries . At the event itself , we saw the industry start to rebuild their relationships and make new connections ; it showed just how much events are needed .

Ibtm World 2022 will take place in Barcelona from 29 November to 1 December . Visit www . ibtmworld . com for details .