‘AI IS ALL OF US’ DESTINATION: PRAGUE PORTO: 30 YEARS OF THE CONVENTION BUREAU 10,00 € NOV 2024 » MAY 2025 BIANNUAL NUMBER 22 YEAR IX Cláudia Coutinho de Sousa Rui Ochôa DESTINATIONS: AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO This issue focuses on two destinations: Prague, the city whose history has paved the way for innovation, and Porto, which in 2025 will celebrate the 30th anniversary of its convention bureau and host the ICCA World Congress. We also focus on the Portuguese example of Chefs on Fire, an event that brings together chefs cooking only with fire, music, friends and family for an experience that has already gone international, with editions in Spain and the Maldives, and promises not to stop there. In this issue, we also take a look at technology, focusing on AI, which is transforming our societies and also permeating and transforming events. In October we held another edition of REINVENT the event. Patrick Roubroeks and Bartel Van Iseghem were the two keynote speakers and we also had several panels where, as always, we discussed what we want to be in the future as an industry. OWNER Estação Livre, Comunicação Porto | Portugal Phone: +351 221 113 202 | info@eventpointinternational.com www.eventpointinternational.com DIRECTOR Rui Ochôa [rui@eventpointinternational.com] EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Cláudia Coutinho de Sousa [claudia@eventpointinternational.com] NEWSROOM Cláudia Coutinho de Sousa Maria João Leite [mj@eventpointinternational.com] INTERNATIONAL MICE CORRESPONDENTS Ramy Salameh and Rose de Almeida TRANSLATION Diana Reis Marques [info@eventpointinternational.com] DIRECTOR OF SALES Filipe Silva [info@eventpointinternational.com] OPINION Cremilde Pratas DESIGN Norma Design [info@normadesign.com] COVER PHOTO Prague Convention Bureau PHOTOS Minifoto PRINTING N.Print - Artes Gráficas R. do Progresso, 256, Lote 25 4760-841 Vilarinho das Cambas | Portugal LEGAL DEPOSIT NUMBER 358113/13 CIRCULATING 1.000 copies FREQUENCY Biannual It is strictly forbidden to partially or completely reproduce texts or illustrations by Event Point. Information in the ads are the sole responsability of the advertisers. Consequently, we can not be held responsible for any incorrect information shown. EDITORIAL 04 News: Porto to host ICCA Congress in 2025 06 News: Reinvent the event 08 TECHNOLOGY: ‘AI IS ALL OF US’ 12 DESTINATION: PRAGUE 16 SPOTLIGHT: PORTO AND NORTH OF PORTUGAL: 30 YEARS OF THE CONVENTION BUREAU 18 Report: IT&CMA 22 Interview: Catherine Chaulet 24 Events: Chefs on Fire 28 Case-study: Best of Belron 32 Opinion: Cremilde Pratas 35 Companies index DATASHEET CONTENTS TABLE PORTO TO HOST ICCA CONGRESS IN 2025 ICCA has announced the next two destinations for its annual congress and Porto’s bid was one of the winners. Porto has been chosen to host the 64th Congress of ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association). The joint bid by the Porto and North of Portugal Convention Bureau and Visit Portugal was successful and the event will be held in Porto, at the Alfândega Congress Center, from November 9 to 12. For Luís Pedro Martins, president of Visit Porto and North of Portugal, this “is a strategic achievement that consolidates Greater Porto as a benchmark destination for congresses, conferences and meetings”. This segment is considered a priority for the destination and this achievement opens up new opportunities. “We are building a future in which excellence and sustainability go hand in hand and we are confident that, together, we will continue to raise our region to new heights of international recognition,” he said. Luís Pedro Martins stresses that, “with our world-class venues, vibrant culture and rich heritage, we are confident that Porto will provide an unforgettable experience for all © Visit Porto and North of Portugal WWW.EVENTPOINTINTERNATIONAL.COM 4 NEWS delegates”. And 1,300 delegates are expected, responsible for events and congresses taking place all over the world. The event in Porto marks the return of the ICCA Congress to Europe, after editions in Thailand (2023) and Abu Dhabi (2024). Porto ranks 23rd (worldwide) and 18th (in Europe) among cities that host congresses, and is the second most attractive non-capital city in Europe for event tourism. The joint candidacy of the Porto and North of Portugal Convention Bureau (which celebrates 30 years of activity next year) and Visit Portugal was presented in collaboration with Porto City Council, the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission, the Alfândega do Porto Congress Center and the ICCA Iberian Chapter. For Carlos Abade, president of Visit Portugal, “our country is increasingly sought after to host major events and congresses and this evidence is living testimony to our commitment to quality and to strategies for encouraging and attracting events to Portugal. Events leave a positive legacy in the territories that host them and help boost their economic dynamism”. Event heads to Panama in 2026 Panama City, in Panama, will host the ICCA Congress from November 8 to 11, 2026. Senthil Gopinath, CEO of ICCA, points out that the two destinations “share ICCA’s vision for a dynamic, innovative and forward-looking business events industry”. ICCA explains that the two cities are excellent examples of locations that not only support ICCA’s vision of a more sustainable meetings and events industry, but have also developed impressive infrastructure and facilities that will enhance everyone’s congress experience. “Panama has implemented an ambitious strategy to consolidate its position as one of the leading global destinations for international meetings and congresses,” says Fernando Fondevila, executive director of Promtur Panama, the destination marketing agency for Panama. He stresses that “hosting this congress represents a transcendental milestone for our destination, which once again reaffirms its position as an epicenter for the generation of socio-economic opportunities, knowledge exchange and legacy through the business events industry”. © Visit Porto and North of Portugal REINVENT THE EVENT: “UNFORGETTABLE MEMORIES” AT THE EVENTS EVENT The third edition brought together industry professionals at the Estoril Congress Center, Portugal, under the motto “Really Authentic Memories”. On October 25, more than 650 people took part in the third edition of Reinvent the event, an initiative promoted by Event Point entirely dedicated to event industry professionals. “Really Authentic Memories” was the theme chosen for this year, an invitation to reflect together on the importance of maintaining real, face-to-face sharing and experiences at events in a world that is increasingly virtual and manipulated by technology. The two international keynote speakers, Patrick Roubroeks, from Xsaga, and Bartel Van Iseghem, from Meet Marcel, were the highlights of this edition of Reinvent. Both focused on the theme of creativity. In an interview with Event Point, Patrick Roubroeks said that there is no such thing as authenticity: “All the great artists, such as Beyonce, the Beatles or Bach, have ‘stolen’ from others,” and that’s what Xsaga also does: it borrows ideas and takes them to another level. “So don’t copy! Use!”, he advices. Patrick Roubroeks WWW.EVENTPOINTINTERNATIONAL.COM 6 NEWS Bartel Van Iseghem believes that you’re not born with creativity, but that you have to train it. For the speaker, the secret is a combination of “being curious, embracing doubt, embracing unknown beauty”. “For years we’ve worked in a classic way organizing events, and now it’s time to change that and be disruptive and reinvent ourselves,” recalls the director of Meet Marcel. Van Iseghem stresses that we are the “industry of the authentic” and therefore “have a bright future ahead of us”. Next edition confirmed Rui Ochôa, director of Event Point, is pleased with the “success” of this third edition of Reinvent, considering that the purpose of the event was fulfilled: “It was an intense day of sharing and learning for event professionals in Portugal and we are sure that everyone will leave here with unforgettable and, above all, real memories.” The “very positive” turnout of more than 650 people at this year’s Reinvent allows the organization to confirm that a fourth edition of the event will be held in 2025, at a date yet to be announced. Bartel Van Iseghem GREAT IMPACT AND BENEFIT IN THE EVENTS INDUSTRY WWW.EVENTPOINTINTERNATIONAL.COM 8 TECHNOLOGY ‘AI IS ALL OF US’ At the 49th Congress of APAVT - Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies, Sérgio Ferreira, partner at EY, addressed the topic of artificial intelligence. In the session ‘AI - a journey for all companies’, Sérgio Ferreira took delegates on a journey from the dawn of humanity to what we are experiencing today. ‘These machines, today, are capable of talking to us, writing, reading, thinking, reasoning, speaking in any language, producing texts, producing videos, producing images, and that’s the worst they’re going to be,’ as every day they will “continue to have this creative capacity”. Sérgio Ferreira presented three major trends (quantum AI, embodied AI and brain-machine interfaces) and three major changes underway: ‘Today we are living in a world of algorithmic organisations, the world is clearly moving from transactions to experiences in relation to behaviour as human beings and, finally, we are creating an autonomous world.’ As this is a technology that everyone has access to, the challenge is how to create new differentiating products and services or new business models. Sérgio Ferreira showed how the company Amadeus has done it, with simulations of operations to improve efficiency, or the Hilton chain, which ‘is creating experiences’ - ‘through its concierge “Connie” it is transforming the way I can control the temperature of my room, I can do automatic check-ins’, for example. Five important pillars for a successful journey, in the sense that companies can capitalise on the advantages of artificial intelligence, are: having a strategy and creating an AI strategy board; having ethics and responsibility; having literacy and promoting training; identifying use cases and value; through the lab and factory, creating and delivering value. To give examples of how companies can take advantage of the technology, Sérgio Ferreira showed a video, generated by HeyGen, in which an avatar speaks in several languages, making it useful for a presentation to several countries, for example. ‘The opportunity is huge, and so is the risk, but I think that if we do it right, we’ll make the most of it.’ Digital agents will take care of the simple everyday things and, with the help of AI in administrative work, the possibility has been created for professionals to have ‘time for what is valuable as human beings, which is the relationship between salesperson and customer or business partner’. AI is creative and our part is to ‘continue to be the curators and editors of what they do’. It should be noted that ‘there are things that machines don’t do yet’ - they don’t have memories of relationships between human beings, of travelling and of experiences. After all, what is AI? ‘AI is you, AI is all of us. These machines have learnt from everything we’ve built up over thousands of years of knowledge and information that we’ve developed, and so they’re made in our image,’ he concluded.Next >