The Messe Berlin Congress Division can look back on 2009 as a year in which it did outstanding business. In the past financial year 511 conferences and shows took place in the ICC Berlin, the Palais am Funkturm and on the exhibition grounds, with attendances totalling around 220,000.
Conference participants numbered some 200,000, with above-average attendance from abroad.
Around 69 per cent (138,000) of visitors to the conferences came from outside Berlin. ECCO, the largest cancer congress in Europe, was the highlight of the year in the ICC Berlin, with 15,000 professionals from 120 countries attending the event.
Other outstanding congress events in 2009 included:
• The 2nd European Congress of Immunology, with 5,000 participants
• The 24th German Congress for Perinatal Medicine and the 35th Annual Conference of the Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care, attended by more than 3,000 specialists
• The annual general meeting of Daimler AG, attended by close to 8,000 shareholders, shareholders’ proxies and journalists
• The 20th Music School Congress, attended by around 1,800 music teachers and practical experts, which was opened by Federal President Horst Köhler and is recognised as Germany’s biggest advanced training event for teaching music
• The 90th German Radiology Congress, attended by more than 7,500 radiologists
• The 2009 Medicine + Health Congress in the Capital, with more than 7,000 experts from medicine, healthcare and politics
• The 14th Congress of the European Haematology Association, attended by more than 4,500 blood disease specialists
• EUROPACE 2009, the congress of the European Heart Rhythm Society, which is also Europe’s largest congress on arrhythmia and pacemakers, attended by more than 3,500 cardiologists
• The German Orthopaedics and Traumatology Congress
• The joint conference of the German Diabetes Society and the German Obesity Society
• TechEd EMEA 2009, the event for Microsoft developers, with 7,200 participants from more than 100 countries
In 2009 the International Congress Center Berlin (ICC Berlin) received the World Travel Award for the sixth time in a row. Europe’s largest conference centre was voted winner in the category of World’s Leading Conference & Convention Centres.
Once again the ICC Berlin received the world’s most coveted award for congress venues. This was presented in recognition of the building’s multi-functional features, but also honoured the team of the Congress Division for successfully organising and hosting conferences over the course of the year.
More tourism industry experts took part in the vote than ever before, with a majority of some 180,000 from around the world, among them members of agencies, hotels, airlines, tourism centres and other tourism institutions, voting for the flagship of the Berlin congress industry.
The World Travel Award is presented each year by the London-based media concern World Travel Awards Ltd. and is regarded as the Oscar of the travel industry.
According to the latest statistics by the Amsterdam-based International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA), the international conferences in the ICC are responsible for Berlin currently occupying second place in the world rankings of leading conference venues.
In 2010 the ICC Berlin will renew its claim to being a leading organiser and host of large-scale medical congresses. The annual general meetings of major PLCs will take place here, and glamour will dominate the proceedings when the ECHO Music Awards are held on 4 March. Other outstanding events in 2010 include:
• The 29th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2010, with 8,000 participants (24 to 27 Feb.)
• The Heart Failure Congress 2010, attended by 4,200 medical experts (29 May to 1 June)
• The World Ophthalmology Congress WOC® 2010 Berlin (worldwide the largest specialist congress on this topic), with 7,000 participants (5 to 9 June)
• The 20th Meeting of the European Neurological Society - ENS 2010, with 3,000 participants (19 to 23 June)
• The XXXIst International ISBT Congress, attended by more than 4,000 transfusion experts from research and medical centres (26 June to 1 July)
• HAI 2010 - the DGAI Congress for Anaesthesiology and intensive care, plus a symposium on care issues, attended by 2,500 medical experts (16 to 18 Sept.)
• The German Orthopaedics and Traumatology Congress, attended by 9,000 physicians (27 to 30 Oct.)
• The World Conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, attended by 2,000 specialists (11 to 15 Nov.).
For more information, visit ICC Berlin
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