On the eve of 21st February, the award ceremony Conference of the Year awards ceremony was held at the PROTO Discovery Centre. The ceremony celebrated the best conferences held in Tallinn in 2022.
Deputy Mayor Joosep Vimm and Head of Estonian Conference Bureau Ott Sarapuu celebrated conference ambassadors who brought top events of their field to Tallinn. Thanks to this, Tallinn has gained a lot of international attention, raised its competence as a travel destination and increased the city’s economic income.
According to Deputy Mayor Joosep Vimm, signs of regrowth are visible in the field of conference tourism. “400 international conferences were held in Tallinn last year, bringing with it at least a fifth of international delegates with them. As of this year, we will support international conferences held in Tallinn with €200 000. Nine conferences have already been accepted as suitable candidates and the second round of applying for support measures for conferences held in Tallinn will take place at the beginning of March,” added Vimm.
27 conferences named for the award
The aim of the Conference of the Year awards is to recognise conferences which are significant events for Estonia and its organization has brought significant benefits to the organizer, to Estonian conference tourism and to Estonia as a whole. 27 conferences were named for the award.
The Conference of the Year prize in the category with over 300 participants was given to the MindValley University conference, which brought more than 300 participants and 1830 delegates, 1647 of which were international delegates. The award for The Conference of the Year in the category with 100-300 participants was given to the European Museums Annual Conference and Awards Gala.
The Most Innovative Conference Solution award was given to the Evolving Challenges in European Economies (ECEE) conference. The event also recognizes the new conference ambassadors, who regularly take part in international projects (seminars, conferences) and who wish to bring a new conference of an association or an organization to Estonia. There are 107 conference ambassadors in Tallinn as of February 2023.
The goal of the Conference of the Year award is to recognize the best international conference organizers, show them as an example for other conference organizers and share their best practices and urge them to bring more events to Tallinn.
The Conference of the Year ceremony was first held in Tallinn in 2011. The competition did not take place in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic.
