As every year, towards the end of May the Convention Bureau of Poland PTO represented Poland at the IMEX worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings, and events in Frankfurt (24 – 26 May 2011). The Convention Bureau of Poland PTO hosted the national stand which featured presentations by the Katowice Convention Bureau, the Warsaw Convention Bureau, Global Wings Meetings & Incentive, Haxel Events & Incentive, Incentive Concept Poland, Mazurkas Travel, the Trip Group, the Palace of Culture and Science (Warsaw Congress Centre), the Starwood chain of hotels in Poland and the MICE Poland magazine.
During this year’s IMEX exhibition the Convention Bureau of Poland carried out an active image campaign for Poland. We were present in the “Show Daily,” the exhibition’s catalogue, the main hall, and on banners on the exhibition’s website. The CBP also had plasma screens at their disposal in the main press café, which presented films promoting Poland, and in the second issue of “Show Daily” there was an interview with Krzysztof Celuch, Manager of the CBP. The second day of the exhibition also featured a press conference during which the CBP presented its activities for the years 2011-2012 taken up to promote Poland as an attractive business destination.
The image campaign during the IMEX exhibition was the first measure of its type, which will also be continued during the next edition in 2012. The campaign is being carried out within the EU-funded project “Let’s Promote Poland Together.”
The G360 Poland’s National Stand was the venue of business meetings carried out according to individual sub-exhibitor schedules, as well as presentations organised by the CBP for Hosted Buyers groups. Kraków’s Deputy Mayor, who participated in the Forum of Politicians, visited on the first day. What’s more, the CBP organised 2 promotion and networking meetings “Happy Hours” for the guests invited.
It is also worth noting that the winner of the IMEX University Challenge was Michał Maziarczyk, a student of Vistula University and a participant in the March conference Future Leaders Forum Warsaw 2011, which is supported by the CBP every year.
The official IMEX reports show that this year’s IMEX exhibition featured 3,500 exhibitors from 150 countries, 37 of which extended their stands compared to 2010, and 39 exhibitors participated for the first time. IMEX invited 3900 Hosted Buyers representing over 60 different markets, who took part in 57,000 meetings with exhibitors. 9000 people visited the exhibition. IMEX organised 90 educational events to inspire and motivate the employees of the meetings industry in their everyday work. 25 politicians from 16 countries of the world met during the Forum of Politicians to discuss the actual business value of the meetings industry events.
Apart from the national stand, Poland was also represented by:
• The Gdańsk Convention Bureau, the Kraków Convention Bureau and Maestro Meetings & Incentives (F385)
• The Poznań Congress Centre and the Poznań Convention Bureau (F382)
• ICE Krakow – New Conference Centre (F385)
• DMC Poland (F425)
• Liberty Incentives & Congresses Poland (F270)
• Mazurkas Travel Euromic Poland (F700)
• Meetings Poland (G402)
• Hilton Warsaw Hotel & Convention Centre(F570)
• Vienna International Hotels & Resorts ( G560)
• Warsaw Marriott Hotel (C520)
• Vistula University G620
