ICCA and BestCities announce 2019 winners of Incredible Impacts grants

ICCA and marketing consortium BestCities Global Alliance have selected three winning associations as part of their Incredible Impacts Programme. The winners, announced at IMEX America this week, are: The European Lung Foundation in conjunction with European Respiratory Society; International AIDS Society and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect were all commended as leading examples of excellence within the global meetings industry. As part of the programme, they will each receive a US$7,500 grant towards future projects, in recognition of their hosted events excelling in areas such as legacy development, diversity and accessibility. The Incredible Impacts Programme is now in its third year and an independent panel of industry experts selected the winners of this year’s grant whom they hope will be a source of reference and inspiration for other event planners in the future. ICCA CEO, Senthil Gopinath, said: “ICCA is delighted to have been partnering with BestCities to communicate the importance of the impact of associations and their meetings on all aspects of society: from health and science to advocacy and human rights. “All three winners have proven exceptional efforts to address critical issues within their communities and host destinations, and to ensure inclusion across the globe. It is wonderful to see that all three winners have created awareness for critical issues such as child neglect, HIV and healthy lungs but also managed to develop programmes to include youth in their meetings and activities. Ensuring the education and involvement of new generations across all sectors will help to further progress human kind.” Paul Vallee (pictured), Managing Director of BestCities added: “Our winning associations should be congratulated on not only winning the grants, but also on being advocates and inspiring leaders to others in the field. “We hope to see each association go on and create more inspiring events using the grants they’ve received, which will continue to shine a positive light on our industry. “We’re also pleased to hear that IAS’ next conference on HIV Science is taking place in partner city Berlin in 2021, and ELF have their upcoming annual Congress this year in Madrid.” Full case studies on the Incredible Impacts winners can be found here