Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the best in the region of them all?

The awards are earned through quality work and service. The assessors – hidden congress guests evaluate the quality of destinations based on the Meeting Experience Index, comprising 75 evaluation criteria. Hotels and venues are evaluated based on a visit by the hidden congress guest, who assesses a hotel’s services based on 654 evaluation criteria. The gala award ceremony for the best hotels, conference centres and most influential people in the meetings industry will take place on Wednesday, 21 February 2024, at 18:30 in Linhart Hall in Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana.

An award tailored for event organisers

The Meetings Star is a certificate of quality. Only the best service providers and venues can earn it. Moreover, the winners were assessed by our hidden congress guests and had to meet strict criteria and the demands of international event organisers. That matters more than the award ceremony itself, which we see as an encouragement to raise the quality of the meetings industry. Numerous positive responses have shown our awards accurately reflect the state of the meetings industry.

The certified venues and providers are among the leading on the market. When evaluating hotels and convention centres, hidden congress guests calculate the percentage of fulfilling criteria and the average grade, enabling the hotels to improve quality-wise over the years.

The evaluation is focused primarily on the region of New Europe. Nonetheless, to make the comparison with the best easier, our hidden guest assessors often evaluate destinations and venues beyond the frontiers of New Europe. We are tremendously proud that in all the years of our assessment, we have not received any complaints regarding the transparency and credibility of our work. We did receive several appraisals that our system is a reference point for international event organisers, though.

Among 129 evaluated destinations from 33 countries, winners will be announced in four destination categories (XL, L, M and S destinations) and a regional category – Best in New Europe.

The largest category comprises renowned European meeting destinations with superb meeting infrastructure and stellar air accessibility. Such destinations are major air crossroads.

The congress infrastructure and air accessibility of these destinations enable the organisation of events with up to 2,000 attendees.

The most heterogeneous category is dominated by regional hubs and large tourist towns.

The smallest category includes smaller tourist outposts where the meetings industry is a complementary sector in the low tourist seasons.

The Best in New Europe category awards the most innovative and unique destination in the region.

Among 277 certified hotels from 19 New Europe countries, winners will be announced in five categories (city, resort, spa, boutique hotels and congress centres). A dedicated category will award the best Slovenian hotels and convention centres.

In all its years, the award has gained acclaim within the community of event organisers as one of the handful of awards based on precise criteria and standards. Hotels and venues are evaluated by hidden congress guest, who evaluates the hotel based on 654 evaluation criteria.

In each category, hotels are divided into three subcategories based on the number of points achieved in the hidden congress guest evaluation:

3*** Meeting Stars – final marks from 4.81 to 5.00
2** Meeting Stars – final marks from 4.61 to 4.80
1* Meeting Star – final marks from 4.41 to 4.60

Urban hotels are characterised by their location in the city centre. Their design most commonly includes conference capacities or large conference centres. Most certified hotels in this category have four or five stars.

Resort meeting hotels boast a diverse and complex offer, including a sea of additional tourist services. They often boast conference centres. The Adriatic Coast is dotted with many resort hotels, similar to renowned Alpine tourist towns.

In our categorisation, spa meeting hotels are most unusual – not by chance. Our region boasts an astonishing number of such hotels. Spa hotels offer a diverse and authentic offering for meetings and events.

Boutique hotels are defined as hotels with less than 50 hotel rooms. Still, their conference capacities are noticeably smaller compared to larger hotels. Most of them only have one or two meeting halls. They are ideal for incentive programs or smaller corporate events, though.

Convention centres represent the quintessential strategic infrastructure for every illustrious meeting destination. On average, convention centres boast 18.7 meeting halls. Most (42.8%) feature from 11 to 15 meeting halls. The average size of meeting halls in regional convention centres is 3,167 square metres. In our comparison, 38% of convention centres have at least one hall that can accommodate between 1,000 and 2,000 event attendees. The average-sized hall can accommodate 2,484 attendees in a theatre setting, 2,589 attendees in a standing reception and 1,721 participants for banquets.

In 2024, we will announce the winner in a special category – the most creative venue. Our assessors were busy evaluating venues’ creativity, offerings and services throughout the year.

One of this year’s novelties is also the evaluation of hotels’ sustainable practices. Based on the hidden guest evaluations, we will announce the most sustainable venue out of all 277 certified hotels.

BEST SLOVENIAN HOTELS AND CONVENTION CENTRES

Slovenian hotels and convention centres were evaluated by hidden congress guests, who evaluated the hotels based on 654 evaluation criteria.

See the full list of hotels here. 

MEETING INFLUENCERS

We have been selecting the most influential people in the regional meetings industry since 2014. The prestigious award will be awarded to one trailblazing influencer out of eight categories. The selection has gained acclaim within the international community of event organisers because all candidates are verified before the evaluation commences with the help of Kongres Magazine’s partner network. Only individuals who meet strict criteria make it on the list. The influencers are divided into comparable categories, which is another reason the project became a trustworthy source of information. Colleagues often say the shortlist represents a “Who is Who” selection of the regional meetings industry.

This year, 279 individuals from 24 countries were nominated. They continue to prove the regional meetings industry is agile and creative.

SPECIAL CONVENTA AWARDS 2023/2024

Three special Conventa awards will be awarded, too. These are the Conventa Ambassador Award, the Conventa Hall of Fame Award and the Conventa Lifetime Achievement Award.