When Global = Local

ICCA CEO Martin Sirk

Ask most people how to win international association congress business and the answer would probably be one of the following: "go to trade shows in Europe and USA", "advertising in meetings magazines", "carry out lots of sales calls in cities like Brussels, Paris, London, and Washington DC".

The true answer lies much closer to home. Most successful cities know that their most important resource is their people: local "ambassadors" who can be encouraged and supported to bid to host the international organisations they are involved with. Doctors, business leaders, academics, heads of local associations: all have a role to play. I personally think that very few destinations invest enough resources in this side of the business; somehow it doesn't seem as glamorous as travelling to Frankfurt for a trade show nor does it have the superficial visual appeal of a dramatic double-page advertisement.

I've recently come across two European Ambassador Programmes that are producing tremendous returns for their destinations.

In April I was invited to speak at a launch of a major new convention centre extension in Milan, Italy, and was amazed to see that the high-point of this event - involving senior local politicians, clients and PCOs from all over Europe, top Italian meetings industry professionals and dozens of local and international media - was a ceremony to honour more than 20 local scientists, doctors and business leaders who had recently won major international convention bids. With TV cameras running, the mayor standing by, an audience of hundreds loudly applauding each announcement, and a glamorous award trophy handed over by an even more glamorous hostess, you could almost see tears in the eyes of these dignified individuals as they stepped forward to be recognised and praised as the most important supporters of Milan's educational, cultural and business development goals.

Then more recently I've been speaking with Scott Taylor the Director of Greater Glasgow CVB in Scotland, who had been organising some local PR with British media to highlight the success of his city's Ambassador Programme and asked me to speak to one of the journalists. He told me that their programme now involves more than 2,000 ambassadors, of whom 800 have either made bids in the past or are in the active process of organising a bid now. His team are supporting ambassadors to make an average of 6 bids a week, with a success rate of over 60%! No wonder Glasgow now attracts more international association delegates than London!

Running a successful Ambassador Programme doesn't take lots of cash. But it does take a tremendous amount of time and commitment: ambassadors mustn't be treated like disposable marketing assets, they need to nurtured, made to feel valuable, and given every possible technical support to enable them to attract their associations to your city. Most of this work is invisible and difficult to explain to a city's hoteliers, PCOs, and other suppliers, but it is something that the city marketing body, the CVB, needs to invest in if it wants to be successful in this field.