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EFAPCO’s 5th Congress was ‘Green’ in content and venue

The European Federation of the Associations of Professional Congress Organisers (EFAPCO), lived upto its promise of a ‘Green’ Congress in a Green Venue’ at the federation’s 5th congress at the Estoril Congress Center (ECC). The congress was environmentally sound both in the programme content and in the exclusively computer-based registration and communications procedures that had been followed. Even hotel-to-centre transfers were kept to a minimum in the highly walk-able resort on Portugal’s Atlantic coastline.

Underscoring the green credentials of the congress and its setting, one of the highlight sessions, offering a sustainable vision of the industry’s future, was delivered by Pedro Rocha dos Santos, Director of the ECC. His ‘Green’ meetings complex hosted the congress, the federation’s General Assembly and an IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum, which attracted over 40 of the brightest students in the international meetings and incentive travel industry from across Spain and Portugal.

Some of the interesting sessions included a session lead by independent Financial Consultant, Mariana Abrantes de Sousa who spoke about the enduring value of face-to-face events in the era of Facebook and global futurist, Rohit Talwar with his animated predictions about the shape of corporate and association meetings over the next decade and beyond.

Other sessions looked at how the positioning of destinations depended on development of their air links and how the use of scientific techniques could have an impact on attendee behaviour and performance at meetings.