Congress city Copenhagen and one of Northern Europe’s largest congress venues, Bella Center Copenhagen, have successfully attracted a wide range of large congresses taking place in 2018. This proves not only the city’s increasing popularity, but also the close collaboration between local suppliers and the destination’s ability to attract and maintain close ties with international associations and companies.
It has been a stellar year for Copenhagen as a congress destination. With one month to go before the calendar turns over a new leaf, the total number of strategically important congresses won during 2017 have exceeded expectations. And the positive development continues in 2018, which for popular congress venue Bella Center Copenhagen, is set to be another successful year.
“With an estimated 73,000 delegates from across the world attending prestigious conferences and congresses at Bella Center Copenhagen, 2018 is set to be another busy congress year,” confirms Ms. Lise Sparre Milandt, Director of Congress & Event Sales. Ms. Milandt is referring to international events such as EAU, ESA, EAGE and ITS World Congress, all of which will take place at the Danish congress center in 2018 and some of which are returning clients.
One such client is the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) who has decided to return to the city and Bella Center Copenhagen with their EAGE Conference & Exhibition 2018:
“The communities that we serve want to see us bringing the annual Conference and Exhibition to major industrial cities and regions, and here Copenhagen delivers on several parameters: It is centrally located in Scandinavia, easily accessible from abroad and offers a high level of safety and political stability. On top, we receive great local support from our industry, and at the same time the city offers high-quality suppliers for all event activities; conference & exhibition suppliers, social programs, etc,“ states Ricardo Vivas van Leeuwen, Business Liaison Officer at EAGE, and he continues:
“EAGE organized the Annual C&E in Copenhagen successfully for the first time in 2012 and the quality, support and high level of service we received from the first contact with Bella Center Copenhagen’s on-site operations team and its suppliers was astonishing. For 2018 the services have only improved, and we look forward to the upcoming event without any concerns and I am most confident, that we will be back at the Bella Center Copenhagen after 2018 too.”
Copenhagen among the world’s best in attracting delegates
Copenhagen has long been one of the world’s most popular convention cities. 2016 was the busiest year the city has ever seen in terms of number of delegates, which was highlighted in ICCA’s most recent Statistics Report where Copenhagen ranked 4th in total number of participants with close to 100.000 participants and only 110 participants short of snatching the 3rd place from Barcelona.
“Last year was a very busy congress year for Copenhagen with a record high number of delegates visiting the city. This year, Copenhagen has won the bid to host several strategically important conferences, which reaffirm its position as a popular congress destination. We have a busy year ahead of us with many interesting congresses taking place in Copenhagen and we and our partners look forward to welcoming all the delegates to our fantastic city,” says Kit Lykketoft, Convention Director at Wonderful Copenhagen.
Among the many international congresses staged at Bella Center Copenhagen in 2018 are:
• 33rd Annual EAU (European Association of Urology) Congress, 16-20 March 2018: Large urological congress with an expected 15,000 delegates from over 100 countries visiting the city, and underlining the region’s strong research position and attractiveness for international knowledge congresses too.
• ESA 2018 (European Anaesthesiology Congress), 2-4 June 2018: Ten years on, ESA is back in Copenhagen and at the Bella Center for ‘ESA 2018 – Euroanaesthesia’. The congress is expected to attract some 6,000 delegates from across the world.
• EAGE Annual 2018, 11-14 June 2018: This 80th EAGE Conference & Exhibition is the largest and most comprehensive multi-disciplinary geoscience event in the world. EAGE includes a large conference with over 1,000 technical oral and poster presentations, and a technical exhibition presenting the latest developments in geophysics, geology and reservoir/petroleum engineering. More than 6,000 people from almost 100 different countries visit the event, which is returning to Bella Center Copenhagen.
• ITS World Congress, 17-21 September 2018: The premier event in the field of Intelligent Transportation is gathering in Copenhagen in 2018. Themed: “Quality of Life”, an estimated 10,000 delegates will gather at Bella Center Copenhagen for this annual congress.
• BIO-Europe 2018, 5-7 November 2018: The Scandinavian life science industry will be playing on its home turf at the biggest biotech conference in Europe, when some 4,000 delegates gather at the 24th annual international partnering conference staged at Bella Center Copenhagen and other local venues.
