The way forward  - to 2012 and beyond
 

Dear Colleagues,
 
Over the last seven years, EFAPCO has made tremendous strides in establishing a powerful voice in Europe’s political lobbying corridors, in growing its membership and in giving members invaluable insights into the ways their industry operates in other member countries.
 
Indeed, last year’s Congress, EFAPCO 2010, was a truly landmark event with a record-breaking 180 delegates, from 17 countries, taking part at the European capital city’s new state-of-the-art SQUARE Brussels Meeting Centre.
 
Themed on Sustainability and Competitiveness in the Meetings Industry, it offered two days of action-packed plenary and parallel sessions featuring experts from many diverse fields analysing the impact of new social media on the meetings industry, the implementation of sustainable solutions and creating new opportunities out of the current global economic challenges, to answering the expectations of PCOs and the upcoming Generation Y, plus understanding the impact of new VAT regulations on the congress industry.
 
Post-event feedback was tremendously encouraging. We made a deliberate decision to embrace as wide a vision as possible. Indeed over the two days there was only one PCO speaker – and she was not an EFAPCO member. The emphasis was on information-gathering, business networking and professional education.
 
The congress, organised jointly by EFAPCO and BAPCO – the Belgian Association of PCOs – scored a technological “first” with an impromptu videoconference session featuring a snowbound David Stubbs, Head of Sustainability for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
 
It was made in tandem with a similarly topical report from Jan-Chrtistoph Napierski, Head of Sustainability for COP 15, the UN Climate Change Conference, which took place in Copenhagen in December 2009.
 
Our new Board has been charged with a mandate running from now until the middle of 2012. So it is important to stress the Federation’s focal objectives:
 
· Recognition of the professionalism of European PCOs and their contribution to the success of Europe as the world’s leading meetings destination.
 
· Continuing development of the European meetings industry.
 
The business plan for the current two years, approved by our General Assembly in Brussels, identified two tasks as being crucial to the success of our mission:
 
Development of Membership: Only by increasing the number of member states in which we are represented, will EFAPCO broaden its influence and raise its image and validity in the eyes of European institutions. Today we have 12 full members – all national associations. We aim to have at least 15 by the end of our term of office. Remember, it took the EU over 30 years to gather this number of member states.
 
Expansion of Contacts with European Institutions: We have scored significant successes in opening EU eyes to EFAPCO. Clearly, the European Commission and other EU institutions, including the Parliament, are crucial partners in helping us to achieve our goals.
 
It is also important to underline our belief that EFAPCO’s growth – along with the development of the meetings industry globally – cannot be realised without close collaboration with the other stakeholders in our sector. EFAPCO has found its place in a competitive market because it has never looked to act as an alternative to other existing associations. Our business focus and our primary aspirations are complementary to other associations and federations and only through co-operation with them, and mutual understanding, will we achieve our objectives.
 
Nicolas Le Brun
President
 
2011