Over 35 policy makers from 19 countries gathered at the Policy Forum, held on 31st May as part of IMEX in Frankfurt.
The IMEX Policy Forum takes place annually and provides a collaborative, global discussion platform to encourage policy creation that directly benefits the global meetings and business events industry.
The aim of this year’s Open Forum, held at the Frankfurt Marriott Hotel, was to help set the agenda for future high-level discussions and build better partnerships and understanding between policymakers and the industry. The session was a combination of roundtable discussions and ‘provocation panels’ designed to ask the moment’s most pressing questions.
Topics included the post-pandemic landscape and the role of the meetings industry in fuelling global business recovery. Measurement and data, effective storytelling, D&I, sustainability and greater collaboration between industry and government stakeholders were cited as ways to create better partnerships and mutual understanding.
City revitalisation could also be the key to the future of the business events sector as moderator Professor Greg Clark CBE from The Business of Cities, explained: “The pandemic has caused a loss of confidence in the idea of human concentration in city centres, meaning there is a need to reinvent them. Going forward, business events should see whether they can be part of this revitalisation because that would have the biggest multiplication impact for anyone.”
