Succeeding Philippe Fournier, whose term has expired, Gonzalo Perez Constanzó has been unanimously elected the new president of the International Association of Professional Congress Organizers (IAPCO), the association announced yesterday.
Based in Santiago, Chile, Constanzó is managing director of Kenes Latin America, the South American arm of the medical meeting planning firm Kenes Group. He previously worked for over 10 years at Congresos Internacionales in Buenos Aires, followed by 11 years as conferences officer for the IMF/World Bank Group, for which he planned conferences and annual meetings that were attended by more than 10,000 participants. Most recently, he worked for Tilesa, Kenes' Spanish subsidiary.
"It is not by chance that IAPCO has been in existence for 44 years: There is a message to spread and a mission to accomplish," said Constanzó, who identified meetings-industry education as a top priority for him as president. "Today the need for education is still a priority. Services that were essential in 1968 have been replaced with new items, [such as] new technologies, implementation and best use of social media [and] accessible events ... Education [and] training ... are words that will remain at the core of IAPCO; they are part of what we do, who we are, and what we believe should be carried out by us all."