Leipzig Highly Sought After As an International Meeting Destination

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Congress Center Leipzig

Leipzig, May 13, 2014

Leipzig highly sought after as an international meeting destination

In the national ranking, the Saxon metropolis finishes fourth. The campaign do-it-at-leipzig.dehas been one ofthe key factors for this success.

The City of Leipzig is one of Germany’s most popular destinations for international meetings and conferences. In the recently published 2013 edition of the annual ranking of ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association, the worldwide umbrella organization of the meetings industry), Leipzig finished on fourth place of German destinations, after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. Looking at the international ranking, Leipzig comes in on place 106, and on place 59 in the European ranking.

This news is particularly welcomed by the 50 or so members of the MICE campaigndo-it-at-leipzig.de. For several years, the alliance of local meetings industry suppliers from venues, hotels, and tourism has campaigned to attract international meetings to Leipzig. Their close co-operation in marketing the meeting destination Leipzig, and the high standards offered everywhere, are convincing more and more meeting planners to bring their meetings to the city. “This ranking indicates that the good cooperation among suppliers in Leipzig pays off, and that we have the power to be really successful when it comes to attracting international meetings”, says André Kaldenhoff, director of the CCL Congress Center Leipzig.

CCL, a charter member ofthe campaign, hosted more than 100 meetings in 2013, among those international conferences such as the Congress of the FEMS Federation of European Microbiological Societies which attracted more than 2,000 delegates from all over Europe and beyond. Prominent guests included Prof. Dr. Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission, and Prof. Dr. HaraldzurHausen who was honoured with the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine.3,000 international delegates attended the 2013 meeting ofthe ESPEN European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, among those doctors from various specialties, nutritional scientists, dietologists, and pharmacists from more than 50 countries.

One important aspect when bidding for such blue-chip conferences is the close co-operation between the CCL and scientific institutions in Leipzig. The city pursues a cluster strategy and consistently focuses on fields or industries of high potential, like the field of medicine, biotechnology and health business, which comprises local clinical centres and research institutions. The CCL consistently relates to these clusters of excellence in science or industry because they predestine the city as a destination for international scientific meetings, and CCL as an attractive host venue. Meetings like FEMS and ESPEN, in turn, make a contribution towards raising the scientific and economic profile of the host destination.

Leipzig’s calendar already features the next international congresses. The University’s clinical centre has recently received confirmations for two major medical meetings, one of them being ”EuroEcho Imaging” which will bring 4,000 cardiological experts from all over Europe to Leipzig and the CCL in 2016. This is to be seen as an acknowledgement of Leipzig’s excellence in cardiology. “For me, personally, this confirmation felt like winning the bid to host a football world championship”, says Andreas Hagendorff, medical co-director of the Department of Cardiology at Leipzig University. The fact that renowned experts like Hagendorff volunteer to be ambassadors of the meeting destination Leipzig is one of the keys to the repeated success of bids to host international meetings.

Prior to that date, in May 2015, the CCL will host the annual meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) which will be attended by 3,500 international delegates. With ESPID, the CCL will host its second conference organized by Kenes International, one of the world’s leading PCOs for medical and scientific meetings. The first time that Kenes was at the CCL was with FEMS 2013 where they could experience the high standards at one of Europe’s most modern conference centres.

The statistics report "International Association Meetings Market - Country and city rankings Report"published annually by ICCA presents trends in the field of international meetings and lists countries and cities according to the number of international association meetings held there. The listing includes only those events which fulfil certain criteria. These are: a meeting must have more than 50 participants, it must be held repeatedly at a regular basis, and it must rotate between at least three countries.

About the CCL

Congress Center Leipzig (CCL) belongs to the Leipzig Trade Fair Group (Leipziger Messe) and ispart ofthe Leipzig Exhibition and Convention Centre. It is one of Europe’s most modern conference venues. One of the CCL’s special features is the individual attention paid to each event and the full scope of services which are needed for a successful meeting. Each year the CCL hosts about 100 meetings, conferences and specialist events. The flexible layout of rooms and spaces, including 23 independent halls and rooms in the CCL building, large exhibition halls and the breathtaking Glass Hall, allows for events of nearly all kinds and sizes. The CCL is a charter member of the MICE campaign do-it-at-leipzig.de, an alliance of Leipzig’s leading meetings industry suppliers whose mission it is to ensure utmost quality and service standards throughout the meeting destination Leipzig.

Contact forthe press:

Claudia Laßlop

Leipzig Trade Fair Group Communications

Phone: +49 (0)341 / 678 65 79

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