What risks do international associations and local suppliers experience when organising a congress? How can the global meetings industry move towards a more balanced approach to risk-sharing management? Recent international developments and challenges, such as Covid-19, have uncovered several risk scenarios for planning and hosting large congresses and events. While international associations and local suppliers are keen to minimise the risks linked to organising these events, they will likely have different views and taxonomy on the risks, leading to a challenging business environment.

Copenhagen Convention Bureau has launched a new risk assessment project to help build the bridge between buyers and suppliers to understand better the risks that each group experiences. The project seeks to uncover and map the primary risks of planning and executing international congresses and meetings and explore best practices, mitigation measures, and recommendations. The mapping will be done through desk research, surveys, and interviews, and the convention bureau will then map the primary risks for each stakeholder group.

Until now, there has been limited knowledge about potential risks and sharing experiences and best practices in an international meeting context.By launching the project, the convention bureau hopes to gain new insight that can be shared with its stakeholders and partners to improve the overall experience for associations and suppliers in connection with congresses held in Copenhagen.

“The urgent need for a better, mutual understanding of what risk is to one another in the international meetings ecosystem will hopefully lead to a stronger two-way communication on the subject and us all doing better business together,” says Bettina Reventlow-Mourier, Deputy Director of Conventions at Wonderful Copenhagen.

“We hope the project will inspire and create awareness of risk on an organisational level and generate new thoughts and perspectives that will benefit future industry collaborations.”

Copenhagen Convention Bureau works closely with several selected national and international stakeholder groups, including leading industry organisations and associations such as ESAE, ICCA, PCMA, IAPCO, and AIPC. Consultants Karen Bolinger, Mayvin Global, MI Global Partner, and Danish risk experts are helping conduct the project.

All the findings will be assembled in a final report, expected to be finished in June.