Meeting in Istanbul – EMEC 2014 – just a beginning

ISTANBUL (eTN) – Istanbul has seven purpose-built convention centers, three exhibition centers, and a wide range of historic venues, palaces, Bosporus-facing waterfront venues, and convention hotels f

ISTANBUL (eTN) – Istanbul has seven purpose-built convention centers, three exhibition centers, and a wide range of historic venues, palaces, Bosporus-facing waterfront venues, and convention hotels from all the major brands.

According to the Istanbul CVB, the city’s top areas for meetings can be divided into three “clusters.” Around the airport, the Istanbul World Trade Center has 11 exhibition halls, accommodation, and meeting facilities covering a total area of 1,743,753 square feet.

Then there’s the Congress Valley in the city center, which has the Istanbul Congress Center and the Istanbul Convention & Exhibition Center. Opened with the World Bank – IMF Summit in 2009, the Istanbul Congress Center covers more than 172,222 square feet of exhibition space, including a 3,705-person auditorium and 115 meeting rooms. The Istanbul Convention & Exhibition Centre has a 2,000-person auditorium and more than 75,347 square feet of exhibition space and 27 multi-functional rooms.

In the Golden Horn area is the Pharonic Halic Congress Center, a massive complex with a 3,008-person auditorium and other meeting spaces covering 1,097,919 square feet, 925,696 of which is indoors. It is the only waterfront venue in Istanbul.

Opposite the Halic Congress Center on the Golden Horn is the beautiful Mosque Sultan Mehmet of Eyup (and close to it is the Pierre Loti Museum).

General Manager Ms. Handan Boyce, MPI President for Turkish Chapter, sees the Halic Congress Center and its 100,000-square-foot-space as her second home. “We have to fight and build a team” as our mission is running the Congress Center for our city, for our country, as we are the ambassadors of our country, she notes.

But how does she achieve it and run her own family life as well? The answer is simple: behind every successful woman there is a respectful man and family, says Ms. Handan Boyce.

The downpours of intensive rain were greeted by most of the Turkish people as a fruitful sign as the city water supply was currently just over 30 percent and water was badly needed, and it was also a sign of fruitful cooperation and networking during EMEC 2014 held from February 23-25, 2014 in Istanbul.

With more than 23 different education sessions, like “EGOtiation to NEGOtiation” by French speaker Christine Morlet, and a very empowering session “Women in Business goes Istanbul – Sharing Insights and Busting Myths,” participants were very enthusiastic. Among the speakers were Yasmine Pirinccioglu, CEO of VIP Travel and Handan Boyce and the PWC First Lady.

“Our goal with EMEC 2014 is to leverage the transformational power of meetings to help attendees learn new skills and generate new ideas and business leads,” said Pierre Fernandez, the newly-appointed Senior Director of European Operations at MPI.

Also new is Federico Toja, the new Director of MPI Chapter Business responsible for Europe, who brings a lot of fresh new ideas to the organization and has worked formerly as a Business Development Consultant for Fiera Milano Congressi.

Istanbul’s forthcoming constructions projects are simply gigantic, and the city on Bospherus could easily become the capital of Congresses in Europe. With over seven new projects of huge congress centers in the pipeline, it is hard to beat and compete.

Just this February 2014, the Bomonti Hilton, Europe’s biggest Hilton Hotel ever, opened as the city’s largest hotel, with 829 guest rooms and suites, overlooking Istanbul with its 32 floors, adding another gigantic capacity venue with a convention center and a ballroom for more than 6,350 guests.

The first ACE of MICE Exhibition of Turkey was held for the first time in Istanbul from February 27-March 1, 2014 with over 700 hosted buyers and over 150 coming just from China. It ended with a MICE Summit on the last day and brought together over 4,000 professional visitors.

Volkan Ataman, General Manager of the Turizm Media Group, is confident that AME will be one of the leading fairs of world’s MICE sector by 2017.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...