Nearly 1,000 meeting industry professionals and association meeting planners from 75 countries gathered Sunday for the start of the 58th International Congress and Convention Association’s 2019 Congress, expected to be the largest ICCA conference held in the North American region.
Attendees will experience education, networking and business opportunities over four days, with organizers bringing together a world-class roster of global and local speakers from inside and outside the meeting industry. Sessions will explore collaboration and meeting industry advancement from multiple perspectives.
“At each annual Congress, ICCA seeks to break new ground with an innovative, up-to-the-minute program, providing answers to our global membership’s most pressing questions regarding the evolution of the international association meetings industry and addressing its futuristic topics,” said Senthil Gopinath, CEO of ICCA. “The changing face of our industry is a constant source of debate and discussion.
“Through the unique opportunities for knowledge sharing on offer at the ICCA Congress in Houston, we aim to cement our industry’s vital role as a driver of global progress, with our members as the leading innovators.”
Innovation & Technology
This year’s Congress theme is “Innovation and Technology,” with leading figures from various industries appearing as keynote speakers.
Scott Parazynski, a former NASA astronaut and the first man to have both flown in space and summitted Mount Everest, is among the keynotes along with Soulaima Gourani, who as one of Denmark’s most inspiring businesswomen will lead the annual Copenhagen Denmark Lecture, and Scott Stratten, an expert in viral marketing who will be sharing his knowledge of how organizations can embrace disruption.
Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO of Meeting Professionals International, is speaking during a Tuesday panel on event design called “Busted: Dispelling 8 Common Beliefs About Experience Strategy and Design.”
Interdisciplinary association Pumps & Pipes, who specialize in creating interactions and knowledge transfer between unconnected professional groups, will share their expertise on facilitating innovation through cross-industry collaboration as part of the program.
Outside-the-Box Sessions
Other “out of the box sessions” include technical tours of Houston Spaceport, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and TMCx, a healthcare and life-science incubator located within the world’s largest medical center in Houston, shaping the future of healthcare by uniting promising innovators with the best minds in academia, science and medicine.
In an examination of how association clients view collaboration, a panel of association executives and destination marketers will also debate the successes and failings of how the two sides work together.
“The ICCA Congress has been long awaited in Houston and now is finally here,” said Daniel Palomo, director of global sales and Visit Houston. “It will be a great platform to help position our destination even further among the leaders in the international association meeting market, especially in the U.S. We are very proud and excited to host 50 international association clients and at least 100 global PCOs that can potentially bring additional business to our city.
“Also, the Congress will be a great platform to educate our local industry and community through a series of engagement programs mainly focusing on the relevance of the meeting industry beyond the tourism impact.”
