As the construction of one of the Middle East’s largest convention and exhibition venues works toward the completion date of 2011, the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) continues its quest targeting the world’s most prestigious organisations to consider holding their future events in Doha.
QNCC’s Director of Sales, Ms Sue Hocking has just returned from North America, attending one of the largest and most comprehensive one-day shows in the association industry, the annual American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Springtime Expo in Washington, DC.
The Springtime Expo attracts more than 2,300 qualified buyers such as Association CEO’s and Executives, corporate and government meeting planners who are responsible for planning future association meetings as well as 800 exhibitors.
“This is the first time that Qatar has been promoted at this event and the response was very encouraging indeed, particularly with the direct services by Qatar Airways from Washington DC, New York and Houston,” stated Ms Hocking.
“By participating in these worldwide events, we are building on the global vision to position Qatar as a leader in the fields of research, science and education and benefiting from the excellent commercial alliances that already exist between Qatar and the United States,” commented Ms Hocking.
Potential international convention organisers express great interest in the world-class institutions located at Qatar Foundation’s Education City such as Weill Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon.
The ones capturing the specific attentions of convention organisers are the newly opened Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) with its anchor tenants of Microsoft, Exxon Mobil; Shell and Cisco, the Sidra Medical & Research Center with its USD7.9 billion endowment scheduled for opening in 2012 and the recently announced M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Considered as one of the world’s leading specialists in his field, Vice President of the International Society for the History of Medicine, Dr Alain Touwaide believes Qatar has enormous potential.
“One of my specialities is the history of Arabic Medicine and I am currently working on four major research programs that involve Arabic herbals and medicinal plants to be developed from traditional knowledge and Doha would be the ideal arena to reveal this data,” remarked Dr Touwaide.
Following on from an extensive research project targeting more than 300 international associations based in North America that hold regular global events, the Qatar National Convention Centre joined its AEG Ogden sister convention centres from Malaysia and Australia by conducting a series of client luncheons to further promote the Centre’s opening in 2011.
Image: Qatar National Convention Centre
Related Article:
