Listed below is the latest news about INCON and the INCON partners:

RESOUNDING SUCCESS FOR ARINEX WITH THE GLOBAL INTER-FAITH EVENT
INCON APPOINTS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AC&C HOSTED THE INCON LEADERSHIP RETREAT IN ATHENS
INCON PUBLISHES ARTICLE ON WEB MARKETING
INCON RELEASES RESULTS OF ONLINE SURVEY AT IMEX '09
MECI JOINS INCON PARTNERSHIP
INCON LAUNCH FIFTH ARTICLE IN EDUCATIONAL SERIES
EGA AND THE G8 SUMMIT
TOUR HOSTS REBRAND AS ARINEX
MCI DUBLIN HELPS ASSOCIATIONS BATTLE CHALLENGING TIMES
INCON LAUNCHES ITS FIRST ANNUAL SURVEY
PATRICK DELANEY AND MCI DUBLIN RECEIVE AWARDS
ARINEX WIN MEETING AND EVENTS AUSTRALIA AWARD
INCON PARTNERS AIM AND AIMS JOIN FORCES
MCI DUBLIN BEST PLACE TO WORK
SERENAS HOST THE FIRST INCON MEETINGS OF THE YEAR IN TURKEY
LAUNCH OF OVATION SOUTH AFRICA
EGA IS CARBON ZERO
INCON BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING & UNIVERSITY ROME
ARINEX WIN FOUR MEA AWARDS
INCON LAUNCH NEW INCON GRAPHIC AND 2008 REVISED BROCHURE
AIM GROUP COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF “CONBALTAS UAB”
COLLOQUIUM ANNOUNCES ITS ACQUISITION OF ICEO IN BELGIUM

Resounding Success for arinex with the Global Inter-Faith Event in Melbourne
Over 6000 participants from more than 80 countries gathered at the Parliament of the World's Religions, held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in December 2009.

INCON Partner: arinex were brought on board to supply a business ethos to a community event. The essence of the event is its community approach, but commercial expertise was essential to ensure the logistics ran smoothly and that communication appealed to delegates, speakers and the media and that the budget produced the desired outcome.
‘This event was nothing like we had ever done before. To respond to the meeting’s main objective of working in harmony, the level of detail required was intense. Everything was triple checked once, and then triple checked again to ensure that all stakeholders were happy, included and given much choice.’ said Karine Bulger, Executive Manager, arinex.

Captured below are photos from the event.

INCON APPOINTS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
INCON, the global partnership of leading international conference, meeting and event organisers has announced the appointment of Angela Guillemet as Executive Director. Angela joins INCON from MCI Paris where she developed its Association Management and Consulting practice. Throughout her career, Angela has advised associations and companies on strategic marketing and communication challenges. She has also managed the global communications campaign for World Kidney Day.

Angela's experience, from managing a thriving secretariat as Executive Director of the European Renal Care Association and her public affairs roles spanning Paris and Brussels, makes her ideally placed to progress the success of the partnership to a new level. Angela’s appointment signifies the development of a new strategic direction and cohesive structure for INCON, with plans to build the brand and further the knowledge exchange between partner companies through their universities for staff members, surveys and frequent visits to cities where the partners meet and share their expertise.

Commenting on Angela’s appointment, INCON President Roslyn McLeod said "Angela brings a wealth of experience to INCON. She is a highly accomplished and respected figure in the communications industry and we are thrilled to have her on board as the Executive Director of INCON’’.

AC&C HOSTED THE INCON LEADERSHIP RETREAT IN ATHENS
The INCON Leadership Retreat and Finance University was held in Athens Greece from the 25th until the 27th of September. Anastasia Vatsika and her team from AC&C organised an excellent programme which was appreciated by all. The Finance University gathered 8 financial and operational experts from across the INCON group. They shared experiences and best practices on a variety of topics including management reporting, group consolidation, procurement strategies and managing VAT.

Captured below are photos from the event.

INCON PUBLISHES ARTICLE ON WEB MARKETING
November 2009, In her article "How to develop successful web marketing campaigns", Anastasia Vatsika, Managing Director of AC&C, brings us some useful advice on the use of web campaigns and social networks as a low-cost, far reaching alternative to the traditional conference marketing campaign.

All articles in the education series can be viewed on the Ask the Experts page.

INCON RELEASES RESULTS OF ONLINE SURVEY AT IMEX '09
A survey conducted by INCON during IMEX reveals positive trends in attendance by the corporate sector at meeting industry events in 2009 and investment therein. Click here to read press release or report in full.

INCON LAUNCH FIFTH ARTICLE IN EDUCATIONAL SERIES
July 2009: Roslyn McLeod, Chairman of INCON and CEO of her company arinex (formerly Tour Hosts), penned the fifth in our edition of expert articles. These are a series of industry related articles, written by the partners of INCON, which focus on areas of the conference industry where it is felt that the expertise of our partners will help the meeting planners in the association and corporate markets.

This fifth article is entitled Creating a High Quality Scientific Programme. The other four articles in the series can be viewed on our Ask the Experts page.

EGA AND THE G8 SUMMIT
July 09: For the G8 Summit ega has been in charge of the management of the ancillary services, part of the accommodation in hotels in Abruzzo and the housing at Guardia di Finanza Coppito Campus. The housing in particular required ega staff to elaborate e real reproduction of how a typical hotel works, in order to manage the fourteen ‘hotels’ created inside Coppito Campus: Milano, Roma, Trieste, Torino, Napoli, Pisa, Firenze, Venezia, Catania, Palermo, Siracusa, Cagliari, Olbia e Sassari. For full press release click here.



TOUR HOSTS REBRAND AS ARINEX
July 2009: From 7 July 2009 Tour Hosts, the INCON partner in Australia, will rebrand and will be known as arinex. For full details of the press release click here


INCON LAUNCH FIRST ANNUAL SURVEY
May 2009:   INCON launched its First Annual INCON Survey of the Global Association Conference Market.  This is a survey taken amongst the INCON partners to see what effect the economic downturn was having on the PCO industry.  Full details of the survey can be seen by clicking here.  A brief resume of the survey is as follows:

• 70% of INCON partners forecast managing an increased number of projects in 2010 than in 2009
• 60% of INCON partners intend to offer an increased range of event services in 2010 compared to 2009
• 80% of INCON partners have improved buying power in 2009 versus 2008
• 70% of INCON companies have retained the same number of PCO employees in the past year
• An adequate conference centre is the most important factor in destination selection for 50% of INCON partners
• Healthcare constitutes the single most active market sector for INCON partners, followed by government and corporate sectors
• Procurement and marketing are the top two new emerging trends to affect destination selection for association business

Below is pictured Roslyn McLeod, Co-Chair of INCON, at the launch of the INCON Survey

PATRICK DELANEY AND MCI DUBLIN RECEIVE AWARDS
May 2009: Patrick Delaney, Co Founder / Managing Director of Ovation Global DMC and Managing Director of MCI Dublin was honoured with an IMEX Academy Award during the recent IMEX tradeshow in Frankfurt. The IMEX Academy Awards are presented every year to outstanding individuals in four geographical regions who are judged to have served the meetings and incentive travel industry exceptionally well. Each of the winners has to have achieved consistently high standards within their chosen profession and, in most cases, candidates are recommended by their colleagues. Delaney received the award for the European region based on his longstanding commitment to driving quality standards within the industry and doing so, according to IMEX Managing Director, Paul Flackett, "with more than a little Irish charm, good humour and infectious exuberance."

Pat Delaney receiving the award from Ray Bloom	Jean Evans, Rachel O'Hare and Colm McGahern receiving award

June 2009: MCI Dublin won the award for Best Conference Organiser at the Event Industry Awards organised by the Irish Independent. Click here for full press release

SERENAS HOST THE FIRST INCON OF THE YEAR IN TURKEY
January 30 to February 1, 2009: INCON held the first Board of Directors meeting of 2009 in Istanbul, the city of our Turkish partner SERENAS Group. Our partners gathered together to enjoy meeting in this fabulous location and experience the rich heritage of Turkey through the wonderful social programme Mustafa Fethi Gürbüz and his staff arranged for us.


Pictured at the INCON Launch is Mustafa F. Gurbuz, CEO of the Serenas Group

On the evening of Friday 30th, we held a launch to introduce the concept of the INCON Group to the congress and event industry of Turkey. This was attended by the Minister for Tourism, members of the government, the hotel industry, association and corporate representatives and the press. Click here to view the original press release and then the Questions and Answers press document

The initial introduction on behalf of INCON was made by Inge Hanser, Chairperson of our Group. Three members of our Executive Committee then gave presentations on the: Congress Market in the World, Association Management and The Future of Medical Meetings.

INCON hold a University once or twice a year as part of our overall plan to have an employee base who are up to date in all areas of the industry. This year the topic chosen was Sponsorship and Exhibition and was attended by 25 senior staff from our global offices. It took place over two days in Istanbul and as always, helped to stimulate everyone attending through the exchange of information and ideas.

All our meetings took place in the WOW Hotel & Convention Center Istanbul .

EGA IS CARBON ZERO
February 2009: The Roman Headquarters of ega professional congress organisers are now CarbonZero. The carbon emissions produced as a consequence of heating and powering of ega’s office in Rome for 2008 will be in fact offset by ega’s investment in the project “Kenyan Energy Efficient Stoves – Wood Fuel”, realised by co2balance company. January 2009. Thanks to co2balance Italia® , ega has been able to cancel its carbon footprint produced by heating and powering its office in Rome during 2008 www.co2balance.it. ega has in fact joined other Italian companies and associations in the project “Kenyan Energy Efficient Stoves – Wood Fuel”, which is a collaboration that co2balance has been running with local social groups in East Africa to replace the use of open fires for cooking with energy efficient cooking stoves. African cooking is typically made open air and is very energy consuming, which means it produces a big quantity of CO2 . The energy efficient stoves by co2balance are made entirely in East Africa and utilise the ‘Rocket stove’ technology, which offers a good balance between cost, life expectancy and efficiency. In addition to the saving in greenhouse gas emissions, the reduced need for firewood and the decrease in burning rubbish leads to a corresponding reduction in the amount of time spent collecting cooking fuel. The recipients of the energy efficient technology also gain considerable co-benefits such as reduced costs and a considerably improved environment from a health and safety perspective. ega, has always been sensitive towards topics such as the care of environment and a possible eco-sustainable way to run its business. This is the reason for which it has willingly joined this project. An initiative that, beyond simple carbon saving, results also into a wide range of additional benefits to the receiving community, including health, financial, social and environmental. For full press release click here


INCON BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEEETING & UNIVERSITY ROME
September 2008: INCON held their last Board of Directors meeting of the year in the lovely city of Rome. We stayed in the magnificient Rome Cavalieri Hilton Hotel . Our hosts were our partners Ega and AIM Group who arranged a wonderful social programme for us all.
Pictured below at a dinner in Emma Aru's house are (from left):
Patrizia Semprebene, Claudia Golinelli, Christina Aru, Emma Aru, Gianluca Buongiorno



Following our policy on staff education, we held an INCON University in Rome at the same time. This was attended by a member of the sales team of each of our partner companies. The theme was Sales and the topics were:Strategic Alliances, Preferred PCO, Our Difference in a Saturated Market, Extending the Sales Team, Inspirational Stories, Sales & Technology and Motivating Sales Staff.

Below the University participants are photographed with the Dean of the University, Roslyn McLeod (far left)