For the first time the leading global meetings industry associations SITE, MPI and ICCA joined forces for an education session called “Which Association has the X Factor?”.

Advocates from SITE, MPI and ICCA got head-to-head under the spotlight to win the audience for their cause. In a fully loaded seminar room, each association explained the different benefits they have to offer and the panelist gave their views on the future of the Gulf region. The session was moderated by Ali Alsaloom a.k.a Ask Ali.

David Sand, Vice President of the SITE International Board: “SITE has invested in developments within the UAE over the past 5 years, culminating recently in the establishment of a full chapter, led by Sian Thomas, and a full local board. SITE is a collection of key industry players who tend to be CEO’s, Managing Directors, Directors or Vice Presidents whose goal is to develop, through high quality interactions, member to member business results in the motivational meetings and events space. The association also attracts the younger future leaders who seek to develop their own business networks and skills development with the high quality educational content and certification programs that SITE offers. The UAE is a very exciting and important region within our global reach. We are learning rapidly from the people in this chapter and sharing these unique insights of how best to approach and build business relations in the UAE with our global membership.”

Joyce Dogniez, CMM, Director of Development of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) said: “In an effort to support the development of the Meetings Industry in the region, MPI offers training and education through our office in Doha, Qatar, where nearly 250 professionals have already gone through MPI’s training programmes in the last 2 years. We plan to extend our training and education offerings to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the near future. An absolute must attend.”

Nina Freysen-Pretorius, member of the ICCA Board of Directors: “ICCA membership is an absolute necessity for those industry partners interested in attracting international association business to their countries. ICCA has an online database of international associations and the meetings that they host, that is accessible to all members. This ICCA tool is most useful to keep abreast of information and statistics of an international association.  It is however important that potential members interested in joining are able to use this tool and are in a position to do the necessary research.  Attending the annual ICCA Congress and General Assembly is most beneficial to share leads, information about hosting of specific association conferences and discussing current challenges and trends within our business.  As a PCO I have found that this membership has provided me with access to colleagues from around the world and access to information that I would not otherwise have had.”

Moderator Ali Alsaloom of Ask-Ali.com concludes: “I pray that this session will be inviting us all to cooperate even more toward developing this region and bring more awareness toward this industry. Many people don’t know this, but “Business tourism” can easily contribute positively to our political situation in the whole region. More meetings, hopefully can drive more negotiations and inter-cultural dialogues, this will only lead to a better understanding and lots of appreciation between us all”