We are happy to present you this nice film clip generously produced and provided by The ICEBERG project – tmf dialogue being an industry partner for the project, we have added some of the interviews presented there.
THE ICEBERG is a project created to prove the value of congresses to a destination – far beyond the immediate impact on hotel and locations and other infrastructure. This is the first time that the effects of congresses on a smart development of places is collected and scientifically researched and proven.
We have been in Vilnius for Convene in February and on that occasion collected various interviews and positions on how the city and it’s dynamic GoVilnius concept comes together with local experts. One of the visits took place in the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology. We had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Ramunas Valiokas, Head of the Department of Nanoengineering at the University of Vilnius, and his colleague Dr. Rasa Pauliukaité, the chief Research Scientist and Head of Laboratory of Functional Nanomaterials. Rasa is a member in many professional related societies and involved in international relationships and resulting conferences being held in the campus of the university of Vilnius.
Dr. Valiokas explained the meaning of the exchange with international societies and companies for their work and he agreed that bringing more congresses and conferences into the destination can also help the institute in bringing in additional funds and having the possibility to enhance the research and reputation. Researchers have high commercial pressure in finding and creating new products – so they are in the same situation as we all are. It is a win-win to co-operate closely with them and help bringing meetings and conferences, which are then in return supported by great personalities with unique knowledge. Also the Vilnius University has good locations for conferences and the value is attractive. So when it comes to biotech related laser technology and to development of products based on Nanotechnology (it is fascinating to visit the labs and see the working conditions and necessary security in this field, as well as to talk to the scientists who work on huge microscopes and 3-D printers to produce micro size pieces which are then transplanted into the human body, such as artificial retina) – international organizations are invited to get in contact (via us or the Vilnius CVB). You can see a sequence of the talk with Dr. Valiokas and Dr. Pauliukaité in the video!
Fred Productions Ltd. on Vimeo.
Well – as you might be aware, on tmf-dialogue.net and our other channels and groups we are keen to demonstrate the benefit of different places and cities with regards to their specific local knowledge and intellectual capacity in universities and other organizations.
We are definitely not pretending to be competent enough to judge the true scientific meaning of this, but our content team likes to talk to experts and feels privileged to learn from their enthusiasm and expertise in what they do. And we like to explore the connection to matching clusters of congress planners in the global space. The more expert, the more passionate these international VIP researchers and key persons in local intellectual capital of a destination can be in explaining what they do, how it can be of help to their local industries and with whom they work. Those who we usually talk to in this kind of series, are already involved in some way or another in attracting or holding congresses as in most cases they partner up with the CVBs, our main contacts in the destinations. So they are Ambassadors already, if not in official Ambassador programs, then“unofficially”.
By presenting their subject of research to you in the way we understand it, we hope to give a more grounded view on the intellectual reasons why of choosing a particular destination over another. You might not be aware of this in many cases and it can be so helpful for planners to deep dive a bit more into this subject and get an“amateur” view on the people and economic potential in a city or destination. Share your views how you want us to shape this approach, we are eager to work together with congress organizers as some of our content might be helpful to be used in your communication and preparation of a congress or event in one of the destinations we present.
We will be happy to co-operate with all of you and explore new ways of a) bringing business to a destination by connecting with the local knowledge and b) helping you to have members
