Leipzig is the fourth largest city in Germany, the largest in Saxony, and owes its existence, in part, to the European trade routes directed through the region during the Roman Empire. In fact, the one of the world’s first trade fair halls can still be seen, although only as a facade, in the middle of the historic city. During its heyday there were 50 trade fair halls in operation.
Home to a population of half a million, the city is also an economic power acting as a key hub for logistics, retail and automotive brands such as Amazon, BMW, DHL and Porsche. The city has international strengths in these same industries as well as medicine and healthcare.
“Scientific congresses are an important economic factor for our city,” says Professor Wieland Kiess, the Director of the Clinic and Policlinic for Child and Adolescent Medicine at Leipzig University. “International congresses contribute to making Leipzig even better known worldwide.”
Not without its historical roots, the city is the hometown of Johann Sebastian Back and Felix Mendelssohn and has welcomed 500 composers as residents. Classical music is played throughout the city, no more so than in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, which hosts Europe’s oldest civilian concert orchestra. It is a space that can be hired for symposiums or part of an incentive with tickets to a concert.
In terms of hotels, Leipzig has 7,500 bedrooms, 40 per cent of which are in the four- and five-star category. Several international brands are to open up in the city include Sol Melia, Travel24, Ibis Budget and Motel One.
“Leipzig is looking back on its most successful year in tourism,” Head of conventions at Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing, Hiskia Wiesner, tells CMW. “With a total of 1.3m arrivals (up by 10 per cent) and 2.4m overnight stays (up by 13 per cent), Leipzig set a new visitor record in 2012.
“This also means an increase in business travellers,” she adds. “Several congresses are attracting a large number of participants in 2013. Over 70 per cent of overnight stays in Leipzig are business travellers, more than half of which attend MICE events in Leipzig.”
Wiesner estimates the city hosts 15,000 MICE events per year with the number of delegates around 750,000.
Revving up meetings
When Porsche decided to extend its manufacturing footprint in 2002 it looked to Leipzig, which already had strong connections with the automotive industry. In June 2012, the company rolled its 500,000th ‘Made in Leipzig’ car off the production line.
The way in which the German company designed its plant is unique: as well as a factory, it has a Customer Centre, complete with an on- and off-road FIA-certified racing track, which attracts 40,000 visitors each year for incentives and leisure activities.
Porsche’s event space includes an exhibition of historic Porsche cars, purpose-built conference rooms, an 80-seat small auditorium, a 1,360sqm, pillarless auditorium and a restaurant. These can be used for conferences, product launches and corporate dinners.
Apart from standard conference and banqueting on offer, the plant can organise factory guided tours with a culinary-supporting programme as well as accompanied and solo drives in current Porsche models for delegates.
For more historical surroundings and Saxon food in the city’s centre, organisers can host a dinner for up to 600 delegates at the Auerbachs Keller restaurant, which looks as though it hasn’t changed since 1525. Dinner banquets can come with traditional stories told by the Fasskellermeister.
Hotel Fuerstenhof, which opened near the historical centre of the city in 1913, is part of Starwood’s The Luxury Collection of 65 hotels and offers 92 five-star guest rooms, a restaurant, two bars and a 650sqm spa as well as five meeting spaces for up to 100 delegates. Its courtyard, which is shared with an evangelical church, can be hired for breakout areas or cocktail functions for up to 180 delegates.
The Serpentine Salon, which has been restored to its original 1865 condition with its walls covered with the precious stone serpentine, is best suited for high-level meetings.
Monkey meetings
Delegates can meet in five dedicated event spaces centred around 850 animal species that call the 135-year-old Zoo Leipzig home.
The latest development at the complex is the Gondwanaland Tropical Experience World, which is the largest tropical house in Europe, and can be hired out for evening receptions complete with guided boat tours. The Asian-styled event spaces within this area include conference spaces for up to 300 delegates.
At the Hacienda Las Casas themed area organisers can take advantage of two banqueting rooms and a roofed-in terrace and beer garden offering South American flavours. There are also unique event spaces such as the Aquarium for underwater dining and the historic Congress Hall. The Zoo has partnered with the Congress Center Leipzig (CCL) project.
“It used to be a place of concerts and meetings until the 90s but then was in disrepair and lay dormant for many years,” says the Director of Marketing and Sales at Leipziger Messe, Ronald Kötteritzsch. “Now it is being fully reconstructed, with modern structures inside while preserving the historic façade. Its completion is expected for 2015 and it will again serve as a venue for meetings, with the largest hall offering space for over 1,000 people.”
The CCL is the largest event facility in the city and connects to the Leipziger Messe exhibition halls, which offer 20,500sqm of gross floor space. CCL hosts on average 100 congresses and meetings annually, attracting some 100,000 delegates. The centre consists of 23 meeting rooms and a congress hall for 1,000 delegates. Its grand glass hall can host 4,500 delegates for gala dinners.
In 2011, the CCL hosted the 50th International Congress and Convention Association Congress, which was the highest attended congress for the association with over 1,000 international delegates.
The CCL also hosted the WorldSkills Leipzig 2013 in July, which involved 1,000 international youth delegates competing against each other in 46 non-academic disciplines.
Another feather in CCL’s cap was when it received the Meeting Experts Green Award in the Sustainable Event category in recognition of its commitment to sustainability.
Future events at the CCL include the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases Annual Meeting (ESPID) 2015, which is organised by Kenes International and is expected to attract 3,500 delegates.
“Meetings and conferences at the CCL alone generate an economic impact for Leipzig of €40m (US$53m) annually, and close to 1,000 jobs are thus secured in the city,” says Kötteritzsch. “As early as June 2008, the CCL and its allies teamed up with professors from Leipzig University and Leipzig’s St George Hospital to work on the bid.
“The City of Leipzig and the CCL have identified the fields of Medicine and Life Sciences as one of their strategic fields of growth and excellence. So, this meeting fits into Leipzig’s cluster strategy. The existing medical competence and excellence in Leipzig will contribute to the success of the ESPID meeting, and vice versa; the meeting will help to raise the scientific profile of Leipzig further.”
Other meetings confirmed include the German Anaesthesia Convention in May 2014 for 3,000 delegates; and the Central-European Congress on Haematology and Oncology in 2016.
Leipzig is a hub of culture with strong international connections to important sectors such as medicine and logistics.
Image: Congress Center Leipzig.
This was first published in issue 73 of CMW. Any comments? Email cmw@mashmedia.net
