2023 AIPC Academy

This year’s edition of the AIPC Academy was a big success, with 26 participants from 16 venues, located in 15 countries, including Singapore, Canada and Columbia. The programme was – as usual – intense, starting on Sunday afternoon and running almost non-stop till Friday lunchtime.

Key themes this year were sustainability, technology, design finance and risk management. For each of these topics, industry leaders and experts were invited to share their knowledge with this group of global convention center talents. Among the speakers were Steve MacKenzie (Chief Innovation Officer Momentus Technologies), Adam Paulitsch (Principle-Architect Populous), Weemin Ong (Vice-President Marina Bay Sands), Maurits van der Sluis (CEO RAI Amsterdam), Ben Wielgus (Chief Sustainability Officer INFORMA), Sandy Kennedy (Entrepreneur, Investor & Advisor for scaling companies) and many others.

Next to lectures, there were also team challenges and role plays, allowing to put into practice the content from the lectures and to interact with the other participants – resulting by the end of the Academy in a new international network of peers who will contact each other when facing challenges, seeking guidance or in need of a sounding-board.

We do want to take this opportunity to thank the participating venues. As mentioned by Julianne Jammers, Managing Director of the Swiss Tech Convention Center and AIPC Board Member: “The fact that you are here, is because you are special. Your management believes that you will become the next leaders within your venues”.

One of the participants, Chao Wang from VIPARIS, summarized his experience as follows: “The more you learn, the more people you will influence. Last week in Brussels, my experience at AIPC Academy was truly fantastic. It was wonderful to meet all the convention center professionals who share the same passion for delivering world-class events and creating emotional connections !”

Next year’s Academy will take place in April – more information to follow soon.