President’s message

Dear AIPC Member,

During our last Board meeting of 2024, which took place two weeks ago, we reviewed the 2024 results of your association, and I am pleased to report that we are on the right track. 

Overall membership went over 200 for the first time and you will find information on the new members elsewhere in the newsletter. And in addition, a solid pipeline has been developed for 2025. But even more important than the number of members is that the level of engagement (that is: members participating in one or more of the AIPC activities) has sharply increased. This means that what AIPC brings to its members in terms of education, research and other activities is valued and we will continue to invest in those areas, especially in education. 

After a first successful “local” Academy in Toronto in 2023 – in close partnership with the Convention Center of Canada – we delivered a new addition in 2024 with the Africa Academy, which took place at the Cape Town ICC, with Taubie Motlhabane as driving force. And in 2025, we plan another addition with the Australian Academy, which will be developed in partnership with the Australian Business Events Association. The transformational impact these Academies have on the participants is truly impressive, making participation a great investment. 

Next to the Academies, we will continue with our two other summits: the Sales & Marketing Summit in Frankfurt and the Operational Excellence Summit in Barcelona. The feedback we received for both events was very positive and provided elements to continue to enhance both the content and the format. Thank you for providing us with such feedback, which is key for the continuous improvement we strive for. 

Smaller, but therefore not less important, educational activities are the Cyber Task Force and the Sustainability Working Group, which both bring together on a regular basis specialist from convention centers across the world to share knowledge and best practices, which are shared with all the members via the newsletters and the monthly Cyber Report (do let us know if you don’t receive these yet). 

And last but not least, there is also the Annual Conference, and it will be a very special edition in 2025, taking place Shenzhen – the Silicon Valley of China. The focus will be on innovation and technology, with lectures from global thought leaders on AI, customer experience design AND visits to top tech-companies like Huawei and Tencent. Make sure to block your agenda. 

All of the above would of course not be possible without the support of all of you and our business partners and I cannot thank you enough for this. We can only continue to thrive because of your engagement and belief in the value AIPC brings.  I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow Board members for their input and support, as the overall success of AIPC is true teamwork.  

Finally, I wish all of you an excellent end of year, which I hope you will be able to spend with your loved ones. 

Greg O’Dell
President of AIPC