The first World Expo opened in London, England on May 185 1. At that time, Queen Victoria initiated the tradition of inviting countries to participate in the exhibition through diplomatic channels. This year's Expo * * * has 65,438+00 countries participating in the exhibition, 65,438+0,665,438+0 days, attracting 6.3 million visitors. The Expo is held by the state and invited by the head of state. Its significance shows that this is a government act. In order to host the World Expo, a transparent glass building with a length of 1 0,700 feet, a height of 1 0,000 feet and an area of 96,000 square meters was built in Hyde Park, London. The building used 5,000 steel columns and 300,000 pieces of glass, which changed the heavy style of Victorian stone buildings with the technology and strength of the whole British industry. It was novel and unique, and was called the "Crystal Palace". During the Expo, technical products such as engines, hydraulic presses and textile machinery attracted the greatest attention of visitors.
This World Expo is not only a "dazzling and colorful" display, but also a pioneer of free trade in the next few decades, which indicates the arrival of the era of industrialized production to mankind. All the exhibits represent the development of modern industry and the infinite imagination of human beings. Crystal Palace Expo has become a great driving force for scientific progress in the 20th century. Its success makes the future World Expo as grand as the Olympic Games on a global scale, so the World Expo is known as "the Olympic Games of economy, science and technology and culture".
2. Why do Europe and America play a leading role in the development of world exhibitions?
European and American exhibitions developed early and have a long history. Now we can discuss that they are in an advantageous position from the perspectives of quantity, quality, popularity and influence.
3. What is a meeting? How does ICCA plan the scope of international conferences?
A meeting is an activity where people get together to discuss and communicate in order to solve a problem or for different purposes. It is often accompanied by a certain scale of personnel flow and consumption. As an important part of the convention and exhibition industry, large-scale conferences, especially international conferences, play a special role in enhancing the city image, promoting municipal construction and creating economic benefits. However, at present, there is a misunderstanding in domestic academic and industrial circles, that is, when people mention the exhibition economy, they often ignore the importance of meetings, or think that meetings are not as important as exhibitions.
The so-called meeting refers to the activities that people exchange information, get together and discuss around a common theme with the same or different purposes. The main stakeholders of the conference are organizers, contractors and participants (sometimes speakers). Their main content is to exchange ideas or information among participants.
Modern meetings have already surpassed the single mode of government meetings and are developing in a diversified direction. Many of them have direct commercial purposes and can produce huge economic benefits, such as various summit forums and expert training meetings. The general operation principle of the conference is: the conference organizer makes a conference plan and entrusts it to the organizer, which can be a professional conference organizer, namely PCO, corporate conference and incentive tourism department, etc. ) will be carefully designed around the established theme and contact the buyers of the meeting (that is, the target participants) and relevant personnel (such as government officials, speakers, etc.). ) and the venue in the market, and finally take the meeting yourself or subcontract the business to the conference company.
According to the International Conference Association (ICCA), the world's most authoritative conference industry association, there are many criteria for international conference market segmentation, including conference scale, types of participants, conference purposes and so on. For conference service providers, the main criterion for subdividing the international conference market is to classify according to the sponsors of the conference. According to this standard, ICCA divides international conferences into association conferences and company conferences.
First, the characteristics of the association conference market
According to ICCA's estimation, there are as many as 10000 meetings organized by various associations every year. The conference market of the association can be divided into three categories: scientific and technological conferences, business conferences and' family' conferences. The * * * features of the association meeting are:
* Almost every "specialty" has its own association and professional meeting, which may hold meetings to discuss all topics within its scope;
* Association generally holds regular meetings, such as annual meeting and biennial meeting;
* The meeting place (destination) of the association often changes, and generally it will not be held twice in a row in one place;
* Branches of associations are often sponsors of local association meetings. If it is difficult for a local branch to hold a meeting locally, the association meeting can be held elsewhere;
* The duration of the association meeting is generally 4-5 days, and some are 2-3 days, but generally it will not exceed 6 days;
* The instructive features are: the organizing committee of association meetings generally prefers to rent meeting places and corresponding facilities with less than 400 people, but generally does not like to choose places with more than 400 people (that is, conference centers) to hold meetings;
* Compared with corporate meetings, association meetings need more interruptible rooms;
* Only about 15% of association meetings need simultaneous interpretation facilities, and the proportion of corporate meetings using simultaneous interpretation facilities is even lower;
* The preparation time for association meetings is generally 2-3 years, and some even longer; Company meeting preparation time is generally less than 1 year;
* ICCA statistics show that the demand for exhibition venues for association meetings is increasing. The scale of trade show is getting bigger and bigger, and it is becoming an indispensable part of the conference. In addition, the organization of the activity plan has become more important. It is also a trend (PCO) to set up a permanent secretariat or a professional conference organizer.
* In terms of meeting decision-making, it is impossible for one person to have the decision-making power in all aspects of the association meeting;
* The destination of association meetings is generally determined by international institutions (such as board of directors, general meeting of members or special committees). Destinations are generally proposed by local branches. Therefore, the branches of the association are often the primary contact objects for conference service providers to undertake conference business;
* The meeting place and other facilities are decided by the committee hosting the meeting and the local branch of the association;
* The project committee is generally responsible for the arrangement of conference activities, which can be a subsidiary of the local organizing committee or an independent international organization. ICCA emphasizes that the leaders of local chapters of the association generally tend to decide the right to host meetings by seeking bids.
Second, the characteristics of the company conference market
Company meetings can be divided into three categories:
The first category is internal meetings, that is, meetings attended by employees of the company, among which the most important internal meetings include: sales meetings, technical meetings, training meetings, manager meetings and incentive meetings;
The second category is external meetings, which are held for the company's target market. Participants come from the company's external customers, including: dealer/distributor meetings, seminars, product exhibitions, exhibitions, incentive meetings, shareholders' meetings and product/press conferences.
The third is a meeting that takes into account both internal and external factors. Both employees and customers of the company attended the meeting. This kind of meeting mainly includes seminars and training meetings. Many company meetings are organized by specialized agencies within the company. ICCA believes that for the sake of confidentiality, corporate meetings tend to choose the same place and place to hold meetings compared with association meetings. Therefore, it is difficult to make a detailed summary of company meetings and their characteristics.
Third, the difference between company meetings and association meetings.
ICCA's statistical analysis of international association meetings and corporate meeting planners shows that the characteristics of corporate meeting market different from association meetings include:
* The sponsor is the company;
* people who attend meetings are often forced to go (because of the nature of their work);
* The company can determine the meeting place without considering the wishes of employees;
* The importance of conference promotion is not high;
* The company often organizes one-off activities;
* Company meeting preparation time is generally less than 1 year;
* Participants are generally company employees or external customers;
* The average size of company meetings is smaller than that of association meetings;
* The manager is the final decision maker in organizing company meetings. When necessary, the manager will also use employees as his assistants to organize meetings;
* Meeting organizers are more familiar with the target group); The agenda of the meeting;
* There are many sources of funds for company meetings;
* conference accounts are generally set in the company headquarters;
* different departments of the company organize their own departmental meetings;
* Due to the repetitive business, the company conference service provider will not disclose the relevant information of the company conference to the public;
* For the sake of confidentiality, companies are generally reluctant to publicly report the details of the meeting.
4. What is the general procedure for bidding for an international conference?
According to the relevant regulations, the bid for an international conference needs to be submitted to the foreign affairs department at the next higher level for approval six months in advance. According to the requirements of the provincial government and the Foreign Affairs Office of the province, the following detailed information must be provided to bid for the international conference:
1. The reason, purpose and content of the meeting; The exact time and place
2. What preliminary oral intentions did the organizer reach with relevant units at home and abroad?
3. Which countries' representatives will be invited to participate? Please provide the list of domestic and foreign representatives and the title of the paper.
4. Preliminary agenda, protocol arrangement and language of the meeting (on the preparatory group of the meeting)
5. What diplomatic or political sensitive issues may arise in the meeting and the scope of confidentiality?
6. Background of the meeting
7. Conference-related expenses:
Income: which units are subsidizing and how much money (written proof is required).
Expenditure: meals and accommodation during the meeting; Transportation and data costs; Expenses for going out for inspection during the meeting; Fees for publishing papers after the meeting.
Colleges and universities undertaking international conferences should submit the above information to our bureau in electronic and written form six months before the conference, so as to obtain relevant approval documents in time.
5. How to make the meeting schedule?
Well, it's a long story.
According to the scale and complexity of the meeting, consider everything.