From August 17-19, ICCA held its CEC Summer Meeting in Lviv, Ukraine. This meeting’s general theme was safety and security during events. As MICE professionals all know, safety and security are becoming increasingly important to planners and attendees alike in today’s political (and natural) climate. When thinking of security, there are many different things to consider: terrorism, natural disasters, political conflict or unrest and cyber security.

The CEC Summer Meeting opened with a keynote from Ukrainian co-founder of the New Country civil platform, Valerii Pekar: “World in 2030: Global Trends & MICE.” During his speech, he addressed how we can try to prepare ourselves for the future, ridden with dramatic social, economic and political changes.

Following Pekar, Anna Górska, ICCA CEC Chairperson, moderated the first panel entitled, “How to develop a successful strategy to make sure our meetings are safe.” Panelists discussed the definition of security and different risk management techniques to utilize. The panelists were Anna Jędrocha (Symposium Cracoviense – Poland), Oleksandr Filts (European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies), Krzysztof Zieniewicz (surgery professor – Poland) and Stefan Lohnert (ICS International Congress Center Stuttgart – Germany).

The 2nd panel was moderated by Yaryna Klyuchkovska. The four panelists from Germany, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine discussed “Safety issues affecting tourism – can we maintain a positive image?“. Ukraine’s Ivan Liptuga for example shared how to create a friendly atmosphere for business travellers during political and social unrest from a governmental perspective.

Next, Anton Skrypnyk (KindGeek Software – CEO), Mykhaylo Shmelyov (CEE Multicountry Europe at Microsoft Ukraine – National Technology officer) and Jaanika Merilo (Acting Deputy Mayor of Dnipro city) led a conversation about cyber security and what steps can and should be taken during a time when hacking is becoming ever more prevalent.

Lastly, Karina Grützner moderated an interactive Skype session with Tina Altieri from Australia called “TOP 6 strategies you should know when dealing with and handling an incident”. Follow this link to check out Altieri’s presentation!

You can also watch a video about attendee’s opinions about event security, as well as about Lviv by following this link!

Interested in taking part in a similar event which also focuses on safety and security? Make sure to check out BOE, in Dortmund from 10-11 January.

Photo ©ICCA World