Message from André Kaldenhoff
(Chairman of the Host Committee)

On behalf of the German Host Committee, and in fact on behalf of the entire German meetings industry, I have the pleasure to invite you very warmly to the 50th ICCA Congress in Leipzig, to be held October 22 – 26, 2011.

The ICCA Congress has been to Germany before: Berlin 1974 and Munich 1984. Since then, the world has changed. Germany has changed too. While “Made in Germany” has been a quality tag for many decades and while Germany still is among the world’s leaders in business, science and innovation, the country has become younger, friendlier, more dynamic, more relaxed. Leipzig, your host city, epitomises these qualities of the modern Germany. Leipzig in the former Eastern part of Germany was the origin of the Peaceful Revolution in 1989 which brought Europe and the world closer together. The city’s cosmopolitan outlook, its spirit of freedom and tolerance, of creative curiosity and enthusiasm, will greatly inspire the ICCA Congress.