When 70 association meeting professionals met in Wales they came up with a
host of ideas to adapt to the changing landscape of bidding.
VisitBritain hosted its second Association Conference from
11-13 February 2025 at the International Convention Centre (ICC) Wales in
Newport.
The conference, with the theme ‘Bid for Today, Bid for
Tomorrow,’ brought together 70 industry professionals including UK nations,
city convention bureaus, international associations and professional congress
organisers.
Through moderated discussions, workshops and practical
learning, delegates discussed the state of the event bidding process from the
perspective of destinations, associations and organisers; leveraging
partnerships to deliver wider impact measures through congresses; and the
growing role of smart technology to influence destination sourcing and event
design, balancing artificial intelligence (AI) augmentation with the
personalised ‘human touch.’
During the first session of the day, ‘The changing landscape
of event bidding’, panellists Ioannis Pallas, managing director of the European
Society of Association Executives, Heather Lishman, director of the Association
of British Professional Congress Organisers and Danielle Bounds, director of
sales at ICC Wales, shared their perspectives on bidding in 2025 and beyond.
Addressing everything from reduced budgets and extended
expectations to the role artificial technology can play in help speeding up processes
and the value of ambassador programmes in winning bids.
“As budgets reduce but expectations remain the same or even
increase, a lot of our members are finding that their clients (associations)
don’t want to put the extra costs onto their members, so the PCOs (professional
congress organisers) are having to find inventive ways to bridge the revenue
gap,” explained Heather Lishman who represents her membership of PCOs.
“They’re having to bring more delegates into meetings and
acting not just as organisers but consultants a lot of the time.”
When is comes to time spent on responding to requests for
proposals from association clients, Lishman added that PCOs are often bidding
for work against 10 or 15 other PCOs which can be very time consuming. “A two-stage
approach to bidding would be a good time- and effort-saving strategy going forward. This
would look like a basic first response outlining everything the PCOs capabilities
and capacity to work with the association,” Lishman explained. “The second stage
would be more thorough and build in creative aspects around legacy and impact
as well as all the logistical aspects.”
As part of the education programme, the audience also heard
from Sarah Fleming, managing directors of Sarah Fleming Associates who looked
at the role destinations play in meeting clients’ needs. She emphasised the importance
of communicating the work a destination is doing around sustainability, legacy
and impact. “Different destinations have varying budgets and might not always
be able to fund big marketing campaigns to spread the word, but it’s essential
they communicate to prospective clients.”
Touching on the importance of utilising local experts from
academic institutions, whether they’re part of an official ambassador programme
or not, Fleming added that destinations who activate this knowledge can easily
demonstrate to clients why their destination is an ideal host.
VisitBritain continued training delegates on the application
of the VisitBritain BE Impactful Framework, designed to support cities and
associations to integrate outcome-focused positive impact strategies into their
business events. Developed in partnership with #MEET4IMPACT, the framework
supports British destinations to define and measure impact objectives against
eight capitals: Natural, Built, Political, Cultural, Financial, Human,
Intellectual and Social, working in partnership with their clients.
“We are pleased to host our association conference at the
wonderful ICC Wales, creating a forum for our delegates to discuss the bidding
landscape and how we can work together to deliver growth and impactful
association congresses in Britain. We extend our gratitude to the teams at ICC
Wales, Celtic Manor Resort and Meet in Wales for their partnership in hosting this
year’s conference, and to our industry partners the Association of British
Professional Congress Organisers, The Business of Events, the European Society
of Association Executives and each nation for supporting our event programme.
Finally, a huge thank you to all our attendees for contributing to a successful
and informative conference.”
Aside from the educational itinerary, attendees also visited
South Wales University to learn about the research and sector developments
taking place. They also attended a welcome reception at the Tŷ Newport hotel
and a gala dinner at the Twenty Ten Clubhouse at the Celtic Manor Resort.
