Hoping to position it as North America's premier meetings industry gathering, Reed Travel Exhibitions in June 2011 will kick off its newest event, AIBTM, with America Meetings Week, an entire week dedicated to promoting the economic value of meetings and events.

Announced this week at EIBTM, America Meetings Week will take place during the week of June 20, 2011. Its centerpiece, AIBTM—which joins Reed's other international meetings and incentives events, including EIBTM in Barcelona, GIBTM in Abu Dhabi, CIBTM in Beijing and AIME in Melbourne—will take place June 21-23 in Baltimore and is expected to attract over 300 exhibitors, 500 hosted buyers and approximately 2,500 attendees.

"We aim to equip the U.S. buyer and supplier community with the tools to create more effective meetings and events of their own," Reed Travel Exhibitions' Meetings and Incentives Events Chair Vanessa Cotton said in a statement. "This will be achieved by the creation of a new, high impact America Meetings Week, initiated by Reed Travel Exhibitions and supported by a wide range of industry organizations, including ASAE, PCMA, MPI, SITE and ICCA."

In addition to AIBTM, America Meetings Week will feature a series of smaller industry gatherings, a CEO Summit for meetings industry executives, an awards ceremony recognizing meetings industry leaders, and the presentation of new groundbreaking industry research—all designed to celebrate American meetings and events.

Continued Cotton, "This dedicated week aims to raise the profile of the meetings and events industry to the wider business market and political community across North America, focusing on the economic contribution which meetings and events make to the economy, the number of jobs supported and the positive benefits which effective meetings and events bring to business development and communication."

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