Vienna Honours international organisers

EUROPE – Once a year Vienna honours the conference organisers who have brought international congresses to the city during the course of the previous 12 months and this week marked the 26th time that this feature of the Vienna congress calendar has been staged at City Hall. Renate Brauner, president of the Vienna Tourist Board and vice-mayor of Vienna; Norbert Kettner, director of tourism, and Christian Mutschlechner, director of the Vienna Convention Bureau and his team, expressed their gratitude to the 340 organisers in attendance for their contribution to the success of the Vienna congress industry in 2014. Last year the meetings industry accounted for 11% of the total volume of overnights generated by the tourism sector in Vienna, creating value-added of around €900m and securing 17,000 year-round jobs in Austria. Professor Germain Weber, member of the executive board and vice-president of the International Association on the Scientific Study on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) for Europe, accepted his honorary certificate from Vice-Mayor Renate Brauner on behalf of all the organisers present. It was thanks to Weber’s efforts that the 4th IASSIDD congress attracted the international elite in the field of research into intellectual disabilities to Vienna in 2014.   Photo credit: © Clemens G. Schildberger  Caption: L-R: Norbert Kettner, Dr Christiane Weber, Professor Germain Weber, Renate Brauner and Christian Mutschlechner   Do you have news for CMW? Email: Paul Colston