Alongside operator Reed Exhibitions’ own tradefairs, third-party events make up the second key business pillar of the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center facility in the Austrian capital.
Reed has also announced that in 2019 a total of 68 external events attracting a 229,275 visitors were staged at the Messe. When Reed Exhibitions’ own fairs are included, the past year saw almost 700,000 visitors and participants walk through the doors at Messe Wien.
Congresses, conferences and corporate events form the most important segment in the guest events business field, according to Martina Candillo (pictured), Director of Congresses & Events at Reed Exhibitions Messe Wien.
“In contrast to other venues, rather than focusing on maximising the number of events, we emphasise the respective scale and market significance of each event. As is often the case – less is more,” Candillo says and offers some hard facts to justify the claim: “Of the 21 congresses hosted, eleven were international-scale events; and of the eleven corporate events, four of them were international.”
The highlights of 2019 were the annual ESHRE congress attracting 12,000 participants, the International Liver Congress with 8,500 people in attendance, and KAO Salon Division Global Zoom Event which brought in more than 3,000 guests.
In 2019, congresses and corporate gatherings at Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center alone accounted for 228,000 overnight stays in the city, with the international congresses generating 191,000 local overnight stays.
As regards corporate events, international gatherings generated 17,000 overnight stays.
Based on available statistics, Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center contributed 11% of the profit made by the Vienna meetings industry overall.
Looking ahead to 2020, 13 international congresses have been scheduled for 2020 at the Messe which has emboldened management to predict it will exceed the 2019 figure.
Scheduled events include two of the largest scientific congresses in Europe: The annual congress of the European Respiratory Society with approximately 19,000 participants, and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual congress – attracting around 18,000. Four additional congresses are expected to bring another 5,000 participants to Vienna.
Martina Candillo adds: “It’s particularly pleasing to note that all six congresses are now regular clients.”
