Appoximately 260 members of the EVVC met for this year's annual general meeting which, according to the bi-annual rotation, took place at the Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt. The portal house on the Frankfurt fairgrounds, which only opened in July 2009, offered the ideal setting for this event, offering the participants exclusivity on the one hand, and making it possible to visit the fair in close proximity on the other hand.
“If you want to shape the future, you have to act, so that the future is shaped” is the credo of EVVC President Joachim König, director of the Hannover Congress Centrum. Thus, the largest industry association worked on a number of future issues.
Capital Congress
To strengthen the dialogue with policymakers and, to this end give the entire event industry more clout and dynamics, the EVVC, together with the GCB German Convention Bureau and other key industry associations, will organize a Congress in the German capital Berlin from the 18th to 20th June 2012. The corner-stone of the event will be a convention on the 20th June 2012 with representatives from politics and business. In the two preceding days the respective associations will meet to hold their members and annual general meetings. “The Capital Congress will be a significant step forward for the perception of the industry”, said König. “Furthermore, the possibilities of mutual exchange and networking will be expanded and an optimization of time management will also be achieved. Most participants will be able to do here what they otherwise to during two or three business trips. This alone applies to EVVC members who are also members of the GCB”.
The joint organization of the Capital Congress by the two major industry associations is the continuation of a close cooperation, whose first joint project was the organization and implementation of the green-meetings and events conference in early March in Mainz. Here, the EVVC and GCB also closed ranks and united for the event.
EVVC - Association of the Industry
Currently, the EVVC has 323 member companies with 650 locations - from the Nikolauskapelle in Frankfurt with 80 seats to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin with 74,244 seats. 69 partners from many related industries - from technology services and furniture manufacturers to the Deutsche Bahn as a mobility partner - as well as 23 associate members from the customer base complete the diverse network of the industry. The development of the member and partner figures during the last 7 years reflects the dynamics of the association: Since 2003, 50 new members and 47 new partners were won and, as a result, many topics gained a broader basis.
Even the EVVC itself is part of the large industry network and thus a member and partner of all major institutions of the event industry.
As one of the most important institutions in the industry the EVVC wants to use its influence in political, social and economic bodies and establish and clarify current issues from the perspective of the event industry. Thus, several meetings with the Federal Ministry of Economics took place in the past year to discuss the compensation of the incurred costs that result from the auction of the radio frequencies. In a joint presentation to the Tourism Committee of the German Bundestag Joachim König, as President of the EVVC, and Matthias Schultze, as CEO of the German Convention Bureau, will speak together for the event industry in mid-April 2011.
The EVVC also puts special attention in its work concerning the commitment to corporate social responsibility. In the meantime, some 25 EVVC members and the main office of the Association itself are EVVC Green Globe certified and many other venues are currently being audited. The collaboration in the DIN-Committee “Sustainable Event Management”, the support of many scientific papers and, not least the organization of the greenmeetings and events conference are further significant signals of this com-mitment.
Festive banquet at the Congress Park Hanau including the presentation of the EVVC Awards 2011
At its annual meeting in Frankfurt the association presented the EVVC awards for “Best Centre” for the fifth time at the Congress Park Hanau on the evening of 7th April 2011.
The award, which is unique in this category, recog-nizes event venues that are highly rated by their customers and through a mystery shopping.
The winner in the category “EVVC Award - Best Centre 2011” in the AG I category (houses with a capacity of up to 1,200 seats in rows in the largest hall) was the Congress Centrum Alpbach. Further nominees in this category were the MEDIO.RHEIN.ERFT in Bergheim and the Max-Reger-Halle in Weiden.
The Bregenzer Festspiel- und Kongresshaus GmbH won the award for the AG II (venues with a capacity up to 4,000 seats in rows in the largest room). The nominees in this category were the Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Rosenheim and the Congress Centrum Mainz.
Honorary membership for Klaus Krumrey
At the Annual General Meeting President Joachim König awarded honorary membership of the Association to Klaus Krumrey, who managed the affairs of the Association on the board and as president from 2000 to 2001.
