Estonia CVB honours its ‘Conference of the Year’

The Estonian Convention Bureau held its annual Conference of the Year awards ceremony, 20 February, in the capital Tallinn, with the top accolade going to the record-breaking Junior Chamber International World Congress organised by JCI Estonia. Pulling in over 4,000 Junior Chamber members from 105 countries, the week-long event was held in the Estonian capital in November 2019 and was one of the largest international conference ever hosted in the country. The congress involved an array of side activities and post-conference tours. It also shone a focus on sustainability and digital innovation, pushing those issues to the top of the main awards category. “JCI Estonia truly impressed us with their level of creativity, putting together the most extensive professional education and networking social programme we’ve ever seen,” said Kadri Karu, Managing Director of the Estonian Convention Bureau. Karu also praised JCI’s decision to hold the event in November, the low-season month that event organisers tend to avoid most. Deputy Mayor of Tallinn, Aivar Riisalu, presented the honour at the awards ceremony held in the new concert hall of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Congress Project Manager, Ms Kai Kuusik-Greenbaum, accepted the award on behalf of JCI Estonia. The ceremony also saw the ‘Conference of the Year’ prize for events with 100-300 delegates go to the 7th Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators, a three-day academic gathering held in Tartu in late August 2019, while the award for ‘Smartest Conference Solution’ was taken by the Bolt Summer Summit, a hackathon involving 550 Bolt employees from around the globe. Additionally, Lions Estonia was awarded a prize by the City of Tallinn for the charity initiatives carried out as part of the Lions Europe Forum 2019. The ECB has been holding its ‘Conference of the Year’ award since 2011, with each year’s winners chosen by a vote of all ECB members. This year, ECB members and partners nominated a total of 29 candidates for awards in competition – more than in any year prior.