On the 6th of April 2017 our industry had celebrated the second anniversary of the Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) and the Kongres Magazine team was lucky enough to have spent it in Istanbul, one of the meetings indsustry’s capitals.
With its excelent infrastructure and airline connectivity Istanbul has firmly positioned itself in the first European meetings league. Their genuine kindness, professionalism and high quality service creates a package you won’t easily find in any other destination. Istanbul Convention Bureau’s initiative to carry out a press trip lead us to create an extensive reportage, which will be published before the IMEX trade show in Frankfurt.
Firstly we will uncover stories about the big hotels of Istanbul, which will be presented in our “Behind the scenes” section. Coming to Istanbul is always an adventure and we keep finding new meeting hot spots, which will be featured in the “Special Venue” column. This brings us to our next segment – Off the Beaten MICE Track, where we will write about some of the venues you never would have thought about when organising an event. Our trip to Istanbul has been short but we managed to talk to some of the key leaders of the city’s meetings scene. Expect to read the know-how of:
– Kerim Sipahiler, SITE Turkey President
– Elif Balcı Fisunoğlu MPI Turkey President
– Hicran Özbük, Istanbul Convention Bureau
– İbrahim Çağlar, Istanbul Chamber of Commerce President
A day like the 6th of April, connects the international meetings industry should spread a positive message and erase the negative perception about individual destinations. We live in connected world where a breeze on one side can cause a storm on the other. Meetings industry in Istanbul shows great potential and long-time positive trends. We believe our reportage will help spread the message and slowly but surely change the way we see things.
Rather than just finishing with a full stop, here is a video posted by Sir Richard Branson last year.
