Jolanta Beniuliene, director of Vilnius Convention Bureau on 2016's Convene, a MICE industry trade show in Vilinius, Lithuania.
What was special about this year’s Convene?
The remarkable difference in comparison to the previous years is that we as organisers can finally benefit from strong brand recognition and reputation of the event.
How are Baltic countries faring in the MICE market?
The Baltic Sea region is a vital combination of very experienced and well known destinations, like Copenhagen or Helsinki, and the less known and still trying to position themselves cities, like Vilnius, Riga or Tallinn. Many of our neighbouring cities from the region have been working already very successfully for many years.
Are plans underway for next year’s exhibition?
Quality not quantity – this is the motto. We try to follow since we started organising Convene. There is only one way to improve: to adopt as much as possible the format of the event to the needs of international event planners. And this is possible to do due to the individual attention to their needs. The most obvious expectation of many of them is to get the expanded offer of familiarisation tours. We are discussing with destinations to open more post-tour proposals for hosted buyers to apply.
What has the feedback been on the show?
85 per cent of hosted buyers rated the show as meeting their expectations. The statement of exhibitors is – we will come back to exhibit in to 2017. This is the most promising and pleasing result we could expect.
