The Board of Directors of the International Association of Congress Centres (AIPC) has announced that the winner of the 2006 AIPC Apex Award for "World’s Best Congress Centre is the Centre des Congrès de Québec of Québec City, Canada.

The presentation was made at this year’s AIPC General Assembly in Montpellier, France, from a field of 19 finalists who had qualified for competition in this highly sought-after award under stringent qualification criteria.

"We are very pleased to offer our most sincere congratulations to the Centre des Congrès de Québec for their win of the 2006 AIPC Apex Award, particularly given that we all had the opportunity to experience their fine levels of service and facilities during their hosting of our 2005 Annual Conference", said AIPC President Barbara Maple.

"It is clear that their clients have the same high opinion of the Centre as we did, as those client evaluations are the entire basis for how the winner is selected. As with every AIPC Apex Award, Québec’s achievement is a demonstration of the extent to which great service and satisfied clients can advance a centre in today’s highly competitive meetings market".

The AIPC Apex Award is made annually on the basis of a comprehensive performance and customer satisfaction analysis carried out by an independent team at the European School of Management in Paris, France.

The "blind  evaluation used in the selection process ensures an objective analysis of the data arising from a series of surveys covering such topics as congress facilities, project management, customer relations, catering and technology.

AIPC Apex Award surveys are completed by event organizers and meeting planners and provided in confidence directly to the evaluation team, who rate centres accordingly.

The AIPC Board also recognized the two runners-up to this year’s award; the Brisbane Convention Centre of Australia and the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos a Coruna.

"While only one "World’s Best Congress Centre emerges from the AIPC Apex Award, the position of runner-up is obviously a significant accomplishment as well", said Maple.

"In fact, all participants are winners, since each competitor gets an individual evaluation report on their particular centre’s results, which enables them to see how they are rated by clients in various aspects of their operations and enables them to focus on these to improve performance. This report is part of our addressing AIPC’s overall mission of enhancing excellence in centre management, and an equally important outcome of the evaluation process".

The Award was initiated in the year 2000 as a way of recognizing the achievements of AIPC members in congress centre management.

Previous AIPC Apex Award winners have been the Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre in Australia, Congress Innsbruck in Austria, the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre in Canada, the Palacio de Congressos y de la Musica de Bilbao in Spain, Cairns Convention Centre in Australia and the Congress Centre Sofia in Bulgaria.

Founded in 1958, AIPC is a professional, non-profit association of 149 of the world’s leading meeting facilities in 53 countries around the world. Its mission is to encourage and recognize excellence in congress centre management, and it supports this mission with activities designed to assist members in improving their level of management expertise in such areas as operations, finance, technology, staff development, marketing, client relations and environment. It is based in Brussels, Belgium.