The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has chosen Kuching, Malaysia, as the site for its 55th ICCA Congress, taking place in 2016, it announced last week.
To host the ICCA Congress, bidding destinations must address 11 different decision-making factors in their bids, from “value for money” to “ICCA business development opportunities” to “creativity.” In addition, they must hold up to scrutiny from ICCA’s discerning meeting-planner members.
“ICCA delegates are senior-level, highly experienced meetings professionals, many of whom feel they have have ‘been everywhere and seen everything,’ and the numerous [meeting planners] in attendance pick up on any tiny failure in logistics or organizational capacity, so I have nothing but admiration for those ICCA members who volunteer to submit themselves to such microscopic, critical scrutiny,” ICCA CEO Martin Sirk said in a statement. “But what is also clear is that those destinations which deliver an outstanding event will gain massive PR recognition and a boost in the international marketplace that can bring benefits for a decade or longer.”
Ultimately, Kuching beat out several other finalists in the bidding competition, including the Czech Republic’s capital city, Prague, which was the runner-up.
“The ICCA board always has a difficult but important job to do. Very frequently we have to decide between bids from different continents, but this time was perhaps our most extreme set of differences — we were comparing business arguments and other factors for a newly emerging destination in our fastest growing region of the world, and a well-established cultural European capital with the potential to help ICCA build a stronger presence in Eastern Europe,” said ICCA President Arnaldo Nardone. “Both presented tremendous bid documents, both delivered strong presentations, both teams were enthusiastic and committed. Kuching, however, stood out in terms of presenting themselves as a role model and inspiration for other second-tier cities, based on how they have used ICCA’s educational and marketing platforms to build their professionalism and creativity, so that they are now regularly winning prestigious international congresses in a wide variety of fields. But this was also a whole country bid involving all our Malaysian members, and clearly presented as part of a sophisticated national development strategy.”
The 52nd ICCA Congress will take place Nov. 2-6, 2013, in Shanghai, China. The 53rd and 54th ICCA Congresses, meanwhile, will take place in Antalya, Turkey and Buenos Aires, Argentina, respectively, in 2014 and 2015. For more information, visit www.iccaword.com.