ICCA announces continuation of G3 Partnership and return of its Country and City Rankings

The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has had a busy time in Frankfurt at the IMEX show, where it took part in the tri-partite  announcement of the continuation of the strategic G3 Partnership with the global association of the exhibition  (UFI) and the International Association of Convention Centres, AIPC. The G3 strategic partnership was formed in 2019, with the aim to facilitate collaboration and generate more comprehensive and better aligned benefits for the three associations’ respective members. The alliance launched a programme of exploring exchange and reciprocity in four primary areas: educational content, research, standards and advocacy. Initial alignment happened across the respective research projects. Also, the organisations opened their respective global main events to members from all three organisations to drive exchange across industry verticals. “Our industry is committed to promoting legacy, sustainability, innovation, and education. By strengthening the G3 Partnership, we are sending out a clear signal to both the global industry and the policymakers, that we are stronger when we work together. I look forward to reinforcing a successful collaboration with UFI and AIPC,” said Marta Gomes, president of the ICCA Board. ICCA also announced in Frankfurt the return of its annual Country and City Rankings for the year 2022 after an absence of two years. The publication of the rankings coincides with the World Health Organisation’s recent declaration that Covid-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, thereby emphasising the return to normalcy for the association meetings industry. ICCA said it had made the proactive decision to revert to normal rankings again based on the observation that approximately 85% of all meetings were held in-person, while also recognising that certain countries and territories were still working within the confines of Covid-19 restrictions. ICCA’s Research team said it had identified over 10,500 meetings, of which some 9,000 were held in-person, being either unaffected by Covid-19 or held in a hybrid format. ICCA CEO, Senthil Gopinath, said: “This is a tremendous undertaking by our team, one that is most welcomed by our members because the ICCA Country and City Rankings always generate huge industry interest. It’s heartening to see the drive towards in-person meetings is once more very strong and we predict this trend will grow throughout the coming year.” ICCA offers its members various tools to make the most of the statistical information. There is not a single country where at least one planned meeting was affected by the pandemic in 2022. The ICCA Database displays the status of each meeting, and in the relevant cases, shows the reasoning behind the organiser’s decision not to run a meeting as in-person.