Houston's giant ICCA leap

International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) President James Rees welcomed almost 1,000 attendees to the association’s 58th Congress in Houston, Texas – a record number for North American hosts. Delegates from 75 countries attended a four-day programme of education, networking and business opportunities. This year’s congress theme was ‘Innovation and Technology’, and the congress heard from Houston local Scott Parazynski, a former NASA astronaut, as well as a more frenetic Copenhagen Lecture from Soulaima Gourani. Scott Stratten, an expert in viral marketing, shared his knowledge of how organisations could embrace disruption. Some delegates toured Houston Spaceport, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and TMCx, a healthcare and life-science incubator located within the world’s largest medical centre in Houston. Calgary, Canada, was announced as host of the sixth ICCA Association Meetings Programme (AMP) on 28-30 June 2021, the first time the ICCA AMP will be held in North America. ICCA’s Moishes Shuster Award went to Vienna CVB’s Ulrike von Arnold and a budget passed at the General Assembly included an 18% growth plan. New launch initiatives included an ICCA Association Community and a Future Leaders Council. ICCA’s Best Marketing Award 2019 went to the Estonia Convention Bureau for its ‘Go Wild, Choose Estonia!’ campaign. Social highlights included the Halloween/Day of the Dead evening which saw ICCA delegates express their dark side with some considerable shock and awe.