As promised, BTC, the Italian trade show for the meetings, events, conferences, incentive travel and business tourism industry, is set to deliver an extremely rich and varied educational package, designed to update professionals working in the sector and ensure the involvement of all stakeholders: its programme comprises more than 25 events of different types open to all participants over the two days of the show, which will be held at Fiera di Rimini on 1 and 2 July.

“We are committed to offering buyers, exhibitors, visitors and media high-quality professional content”, says BTC Exhibition Manager Gabriella Ghigi. “Knowledge of the market, understanding the trends at work within it and sharing experiences and expertise are key to the meetings industry’s growth and development. We are therefore extremely proud of the fact that BTC is not only the sole Italian trade show specifically focused on B2B for the meetings industry, but also an event that offers high added value in the educational opportunities it provides to the whole meetings community”.

The first educational track of the seminar programme focuses on growth strategies and tools for small and medium-sized companies in the era of globalisation. This will be covered in a round table with Massimiliano Rigon, representative of the Bank of Italy, on the issue of credit; a case history presented by Gianluca Viscardi, chairman of Bergamo’s SME confederation, on the use of financial self- assessments tools in order to submit more effective loan applications; a seminar organised by publisher Convegni on mergers and partnerships for the purpose of pooling expertise and customer portfolios; the case history of Venezia Congressi, an agency acquired by three PCOs that formed an alliance for the operation; and a seminar conducted by management consultant Paolo Novi on change as a driver to combat the crisis.

The second topic is that of European markets: Paul Kennedy will set out strategies to acquire international business; Roger Kellerman (Meetings International) will provide an overview of the Scandinavian events market; Marek Phillips (CAT Publications) will give a profile of UK buyers and their expectations; and José Garcia Aguarod (Grupo Eventoplus) will discuss the
Spanish market and its trends. The new global environment will also be explored, with a seminar conducted by Rob Davidson (Westminster University) and Miguel Neves (Synaxis Meetings & Events) on Generation Y and Social Media as tools to engage and inspire people. This track includes the presentation of the Italian conference market survey Osservatorio Congressuale Italiano, with Attilio Gardini (University of Bologna) outlining the trends on the Italian events market in 2009.

The educational track on events organisation will see contributions from Elena Vender Caldarelli (Kontiki Incentives) on green meetings, from Rudi Conti (Meetings & Communications) on site inspections and from Maria Teresa Terenzio (Focus Incentive Congress) on cross cultural communication at events.

Furthermore, Morena Paola Carli (Trento provincial government) will discuss budget management and Open Source Management will reveal how to “win” client sponsorship.

The track on experiential communication is also very rich, with seminars on theatre, smells, images, colours, music and light conducted by professionals from communication agencies and providers such as Cabrini Associati, Oikos Fragrances, Teatro d’Impresa and Ideogamma, who will bring their own experience in the field to the show.

Event managers from big corporate organisations will also have their say. At a round table, they will bring their own professional experience and draw on best practice case histories, to discuss how the need for an event arises, how they plan and design it to match the communication target and the marketing objectives, and how they measure its results.

The educational programme will also involve tourism stakeholders with a seminar conducted by industry federation Confturismo, in which it will present a survey on Growth and competitiveness in conference tourism. For travel managers, Andrea Guizzardi from the University of Bologna will present a new, targeted blog and conduct a round table with the professionals who took part in the Analysis of business travel training course.

Finally, there is the Future Leaders Forum, the day dedicated to training the future professionals of the meetings industry organised by Tom Hulton of IMEX in partnership with MPI, and the innovative pre-show experiential workshop organised by ioè to facilitate networking and personal interaction between buyers and suppliers.

The complete seminar programme with descriptive summaries will be available on the BTC website from mid-May. Registered buyers, exhibitors, visitors and media will be able to sign up for seminars in the reserved area of the website.
www.btc.it