ECM and ICCA launch European partnership

The European Cities Marketing (ECM) consortium and the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) have launched a European partnership designed to provide better aligned benefits for their respective members. Specifically, the new phase of the partnership will start off with a programme of exploring exchange and reciprocity in three areas: educational content, advocacy and a mentor programme. The idea is to implement a flexible framework of collaboration between the associations without compromising the focus of each member organisation. Work will begin by engaging a series of educational exchanges incorporating each other’s knowledge content into the respective congresses, develop a mentor programme for newcomers in the events industry and starting to align approaches taken to advocacy activities, beginning immediately. Senthil Gopinath, ICCA CEO, said: “We are extremely excited to formalise an already existing long-term partnership and work closely together in moving the meetings industry forward in Europe together with ECM.” “With this alliance, ECM and ICCA seal existing links to achieve greater efficiency in key areas, enabling better services for their respective members… In those challenging times, this is also one more step to show the resilience of the meetings industry on the way to recovery,” added Petra Stušek (pictured), president of ECM and CEO of Visit Ljubljana.