Success of MEETEX – the first Croatian meeting industry trade show
The first ever B2B Croatian meeting industry trade show MEETEX was held 19th–21st March 2019 at The Westin Zagreb Hotel in Zagreb. It was organized by the Croatian Meeting Professionals Association (CMPA) and Inovativni eventi company.
Main partners and sponsors of MEETEX were the City of Zagreb, Croatian National Tourist Board – Convention Bureau, Zagreb Tourist Board, Croatia Airlines, the Ministry of Tourism, Croatian Chamber of Commerce, hotels The Westin Zagreb, Canopy by Hilton, Sheraton Zagreb, Esplanade, transportation company Hercex and Eldra A/V.
MEETEX gathered 60 international buyers which included specialized agencies, corporations and international associations, and during the 2 working days a total of 1281 1:1 business meetings were held with the suppliers. Among 72 suppliers from all Croatian business events destinations 56 were hoteliers, DMC and PCO agencies and destination tourist organizations. An additional 16 exhibitors were from technical and other event services providers.
“Croatia, as the leading business events destination in this part of Europe has been successfully presented to buyers thanks to the hard work of organizers, support of sponsors and professional presentations of services and professionalism of all suppliers. In favour of this we have the fact that already during the show there were concrete requests for proposal by new buyers. This is a great foundation for further stronger branding of Croatia as the business events destination, because we are as the brand predominantly perceived as leisure destination”, said Adem Braco Suljić, director of MEETEX.
Among the international buyers there were representatives from Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and Great Britain. Additionally, there were domestic buyers from Croatia associations and corporations which organize meetings and all kind of business events.
MEETEX was opened on 19th March, during the Get Together Dinner, when all participants were welcomed by the representative of Zagreb Mayor, Toni Biluš, followed by Director of Zagreb Tourist Board, Martina Bienenfeld, Director of Croatian National Tourist Board, Kristjan Staničić and the state secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Tonči Glavina.
The working program of MEETEX was moderated by renowned Croatian and international key figures in the meeting industry.
The event combined a lot of networking and a social component as well. This format enabled buyers to better meet each other and to familiarise themselves with the city of Zagreb, a high quality and attractive destination for business events.The event was also visited by students of Tourism from Faculty of Economics in Zagreb, with which the organizers have been successfully cooperating for many years already.
Talking about the success of the event, Ranko Filipović, the president of CMPA pointed out that MEETEX, as the first ever Croatian meeting industry conference, will continue its work in the following years. “We believe that MEETEX, along with all necessary activities of market communication conducted by Croatian National Tourist Board and the regional tourist boards, will be a important lever in achieving growth of sales and profitability on the international business events markets”, said Filipović.
About CMPA
Croatian Meeting Professionals Association (CMPA) is the only meeting industry association in Croatia. It was founded in 2011 and it has got 180 members from all over Croatia. After years of connecting colleagues from the industry and organizing numerous educational programs with the world professionals, CMPA’s objective now is not only to support its members, but the whole industry as well in finding new business opportunities, and also to support branding Croatia as an attractive business events destination.
More info at www.cmpa.eu www.meetex.eu
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tmf dialogue marketing is official media partner of the first MEETEX. Based in Germany and India, the company is a key influencer in the intl. MICE and congress space. We support Croatia and Zagreb in showing different and new aspects of the destination in local knowledge clusters, innovation, economic development to create professional networks with international organisers of business events.
