MP Nick de
Bois opened IMEX 2012 in Frankfurt today
by calling for action amid optimism in the events industry. The chair
of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the UK Events Industry stated
that “risk takers are fully at the mercy of the external threats coming from
the financial sector, but that it is clear that the international meetings
industry must and will play a major role in not just companies’ bottom lines
but also their nations’ growing and vibrant economies.”
Using the
UK as an example, de Bois, who also once owned an events company, added: “The
UK events and meetings industry contributes £36 billion to UK gross domestic
product (GDP) across 25,000 different business, and while that might be a small
percentage of total GDP, I am less fascinated by this sum than I am by the
added value that the industry brings to the whole economy.”
He also
said that IMEX attendees “have the responsibility of making sure that meetings
and events remains on the national agenda and that governments should see the
important link between temporary business, that is, the industries of today,
and permanent ones, one example being the meetings and event industry.”
The
UK has great opportunities in 2012 to press the industry’s case to politicians, de Bois continued, hinting at the forthcoming Olympics. He said: “Our job is not
to let a decision maker see only someone crossing the finish line but to see
the economic impact of him or her doing so.”
Matthias
Schulze, president of the German Convention Bureau, and Wolfgang Marzin,
president and CEO of Mezze Frankfurt, IMEX’s host, were also on the show's opening panel. They joked that they hoped attendees would forgive them for not talking
about football, something they usually do to break the IMEX ice – referring to Chelsea’s victory in the
Champions League over German team, Bayern Munich at the weekend.
It was a
humorous note to start IMEX where hope was the order of the day - de Bois ended
the opening session, and said: “The events industry will not solve the economic
crisis, but this is a sales opportunity we have to send to our governments,
that the events industry has a decided role in aiding the growth agenda. Our
industry’s optimism confounds the general feeling of recession.”
Pictured: MP Nick de Bois