On 30th of March, a conference Katowice MICE „Energy of Meetings” organized by the Katowice Convention Bureau was held in the City. Among one of the speakers was Rob Davidson, a business tourism expert, had recently visited Katowice in June last year.
The event gathered representatives of private and public sectors including hotel managers and marketing specialists, organizers of congresses and conferences, market advisors, tourism organizations and municipality employees.
The speakers focused on the newest tendencies of business tourism in Poland (Sławomir Wróblewski), a foreign promotion of the country as an attractive business destination (Krzysztof Celuch) as well as prospects and expansion of business tourism in the Upper Silesia region (Krzysztof Cieślikowski) in compliance with the project of International Convention Center (Janusz Nowak).
A speaker of the meeting was Rob Davidson who presented world’s tendencies of business tourism including an example of Lille in France as a post-industrial city which had transformed into an attractive and vibrant destination of congresses, events, culture and business meetings. The example of Lille harked back to Katowice which is in a process of transformation as a post-industrial city as well. He also spoke about strong competition on the business tourism market, developing new events destinations, and pointed out opportunities and threads for cities decided to attract business meetings.
Rob Davidson is a professor and events lecturer at the University of Greenwich in London, teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Events Management as well as carrying out research, consultancy and writing books. The leading professional magazine for the business events industry, Conference & Incentive Travel, named Rob Davidson one of the UK’s most influential people in the sector in its annual Power 50 awards. He is named in the awards since last five years. In 2011, for the first time, he jumped into the top 20, being voted in at number 16. In 2009, he was honoured by the Polish government for its contribution to the country’s tourism advancement.