After an enforced coronavirus pause, the Czech capital Prague has once again honoured outstanding scientists, professors, doctors, and other top experts for their contribution to the meetings industry. The Prague Convention Bureau organised the 11th Annual Ambassador Awards Evening on 6 September at the Residence of the Mayor of Prague. Mayor Zdeněk Hřib attended the event, along with representatives of the city and the Ministry of Regional Development. He finally presented the 2019 awards (postponed due to Covid) to their winners. The following ambassadors and events were awarded in the following six categories: Congress of the Year 2019:
- MUDr. Jan Starý, DrSc. for the 1st Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE)
Almost 1,500 delegates attended the Society’s first annual meeting, which also included recovered paediatric oncology patients and their parents. Congress of the Year 2019 with fewer than 500 attendees:
- Jan Drahoňovský and MUDr. Radek Chvátal, for the 5th European Congress on Endometriosis
The Congress included live broadcasts of surgical procedures in France, Italy, and Japan. Candidacy of the Year 2019:
- Martina Lehmannová for the 26th General Conference of the International Council of Museums ICOM
Initially losing candidacy to rival Alexandria, the event was successfully won for 2022 for Prague. As a result, Prague welcomed over 3,000 museum science experts this August to the conference. Corporate Event of the Year 2019:
- Ron Bakker and Tomáš Ouředníček for the System Designers Conference by Yamaha Music Europe
The event takes place biannually and was held for the first time in the Central and Eastern Europe region. The conference was attended by 350 professionals from all over the world. Inspiration for 2019:
- Terezie Sverdlinová for TERIBEAR moves Prague
A ten-day non-stop happening with nearly 21,000 participants aiming to walk or run as many kilometres as possible. The biggest benefit of the project is not only the financial support, but also spreading the awareness about the aspects of life of children growing up in institutional care. Long-term contribution to the meetings industry:
- MUDr. Jan Betka, DrSc. FCMA, emeritus head of the department of ENT and Hehd and neck surgery, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague and Motol University Hospital
Professor Betka has brought key contributions to organising numerous scientific events, such as the 3rd Congress of the European ENT-HNS Society or the annual meetings of the Czech Society of ENT and Head and Neck Surgery. “The meetings industry, which normally generates over €10.5bn in revenue annually, has, due to the pandemic, almost sunk to the very bottom in last two years. The number of events in Prague in 2021 fell by more than 79% compared to 2019,” said Roman Muška, Prague Convention Bureau MD, adding: “I am all the more pleased that this year, with the delay, we were able to present not only the well-deserved awards for 2019, but also to recognise those congresses and conferences whose organisers decided to hold their events despite the situation and under strict hygienic conditions, often using the latest technologies.” The special award for the support of the congress industry in 2020 and 2021 went to Metrostav company for its 50th anniversary event for over 7,000 current and former employees. A large number of conferences and congresses took place during the pandemic virtually or in hybrid form. Two of the events winning special awards were held in hybrid form. The first was the World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC). The second was the International Union of Crystallography Congress. The International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) had to be transformed fully into a virtual form, with the ambassador Ing. Libor Přeučil, CSc. receiving another of the special awards. The last prize was collected by professor Ivan Rychlík, for his candidacy for the European Renal Association Congress, due to take place in Prague in 2025.
