When choosing a destination, meeting and congress planners not only seek good offers, high-quality infrastructure and safety, but also context and connections in their business segments; they look for innovation and appreciate the “smart” attitude of “officials”. The more the local authorities are aiming at creating best matching meetings and congresses and at facilitating cooperation with local experts, the more they fit into what we call a “knowledge” oriented destination. Vilnius is for sure one of these cities that perfectly fit into this category.
Johanna and Ulrike visited Vilnius in February to find out more about the Lithuanian capital’s local expertise. They were meeting with several interesting people from Vilnius – representatives of Vilnius Airport, Hotel Association and Invest Lithuania, leading researchers at the university, the Mayor of Vilnius and much more. Read more about the “knowledge” storyline here.
So, what could we learn about Vilnius in the past 4 months?
…that CONVENE and the city in general undergo a dynamic development: “Convene in Vilnius: modern, efficient and personal”
…that it has a highly developed infrastructure. (Interviews with LITEXPO’s Director Mindaugas Rutkauskas, Eglè Mikailaite, Head of Business Development of Litexpo Events and Milda Ivanauskiene, Acting Head of Modern Art Center: “Excellent venues in Vilnius: LITEXPO and Modern Art Center”)
…that Vilnius offers a variety of top hotels:
“Artagonist – art concept hotel in Vilnius”
“Kristina Viskontaite, Comfort Hotel LT Rock ‘N’ Roll Vilnius: “We are revolutionary”
…that its airport successfully reacts to the development in the city. (Interview with representative of the airport: “Olaf Martens, CEO of Vilnius Airport about the airport’s successful development”)
…that the new City Economic Development Agency “Go Vilnius” incorporates the Vilnius Convention Bureau into efforts to promote business and investment in Vilnius. (Interview with Dr. Darius Udrys, the new director of Go Vilnius: “Knowledge clusters in Vilnius – and their connection with GoVilnius and CVB”)
… that different business sectors invest in Lithuania and that this can be also relevant for international meetings and congresses. (Interviews with Dalius Morkvenas, Head of Marketing & Communication Department at Invest Lithuania and Przemyslaw Siuda, General Manager of the American International Group (AIG), one of the world’s largest insurance companies who opened a service center in Vilnius in 2015: “What business sectors invest in Vilnius”)
…that the Baltic city can be proud of an impressive growing start-up scene:
“TechPark Vilnius: a place where ambitious startups meet”
…that Vilnius functions as a center of research (Interviews with leading researchers at the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology: “GoVilnius – a key source for collective knowledge and innovative support by city leaders, local ambassadors and investment partners”
and “THINK FRESH: Go Vilnius and CONVENE at the core of city masterplan” including an interesting video (by James Latham))
We also led a detailed and passionate interview with the Mayor of Vilnius, Remigijus Simasius.
(Part 1: Remigijus Šimašius, Mayor of Vilnius: “My team and I are working tirelessly to make deep and fundamental changes to the way our city runs”
Part 2: Remigijus Šimašius, Mayor of Vilnius: “Sometimes our people are too modest to let the rest of the world know what we are good at.”)
Last but not least, we’ve led many interviews with representatives of Vilnius’ hotels (all articles here: www.tmf-dialogue.net/category/clients/vilnius-convention-bureau)
We hope you enjoyed reading our storyline.
Get inspired, feel some of the passion and engagement of all these stakeholders and plan your next conference or congress in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania to experience the spirit first-hand!
Your contact in Vilnius:
Jolanta Beniuliene
Head of Vilnius Tourism and Convention Bureau
Go Vilnius | The official international economic
development agency of the City of Vilnius
jolanta.beniuliene@vilnius.lt
tel. +370 5 212 1833
www.vilnius-convention.lt
Your contact at tmf:
Ulrike Kiesel
Head of Content & PR
u.kiesel@tmf-dialogue.com
+49 931 9002 114
