At the Year-End Press Conference for 2007, Norbert Bargmann, Managing Director of Messe München GmbH (MMG), reported on business at the International Congress Center Munich (ICM) and on the department, New Business Development (NBD). Speaking about the ICM, he said:

  “In 2007 the International Congress Center Munich (ICM) was able to further expand its leading position among the German congress centres. It hosted 160 events and 136,000 visitors.”

In 2007, for the first time, the ICM was able to overtake all other German congress centres in the lucrative business field of annual general meetings, and now occupies an uncontested first place: HV-Magazin, the leading trade publication for AGMs, voted the ICM this autumn as the top location throughout Germany for AGMs. A total of twelve AGMs were held at the ICM in 2007, which makes the ICM the most popular of all congress centres in Germany for this kind of event. Eight of these events were booked by long-standing customers of the ICM, such as MAN AG and Linde AG, but the centre was also able to attract four new customers and their shareholders´ meetings, among them Cash life and Wacker Chemie, newcomers to the stock exchange.

Norbert Bargmann emphasised that good long-term relations with customers had played a significant part in this success. Many new customers, too, as well as the regulars, had explicitly praised the high level of expertise and service among the ICM team in 2007.

As well as two new corporate clients from the pharmaceuticals sector (Sanofi and Aventis), said Bargmann, leading medical societies had also again chosen the ICM as a venue for their events. Specifically these were the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie, the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and the International Society of Chemotherapy (ISC), the latter two – for the first time – jointly inviting their members to an annual conference in Munich in April 2007 (8,000 participants). The European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) also held an event at the ICM in June 2007, to which over 7,000 participants came from all over the world.

Bargmann pointed out that the flexible space at the ICM, suitable for a wide range of occasions, had been a deciding factor for many customers. SAP, for example, found the combination of congress centre and adjacent exhibition halls very attractive, and opted to hold its SAPTeched event again in the ICM in 2007, the last one held here being in 2004. European Microwave, Medientage and the CSU Party Conference were some of the other events that had once more taken advantage of the flexible facilities at the ICM.

For 2008, explained Bargmann, there were already many firm bookings, among them several exclusive events in information technology and high-tech (WIMAX, DATE 08, European Microwave 08). The absolute highlight in the calendar of congresses for 2008 would surely be the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) at the start of September 2008, which is set to attract around 30,000 heart specialists from all over the world to the ICM in Munich.

This event in 2008 is the second ESC congress to be held in Munich, following the last one in 2004, and as such it further strengthens the position of the ICM as one of the top destinations for major medical congresses. In this context, Norbert Bargmann explained:

  “For the City of Munich and the surrounding area, the ESC Congress in 2008 brings a statistically proven influx of purchasing power of at least 70 million euros in just five days. As regards the benefit to the local area, this means that as in 2004 each congress delegate will be spending around 400 euros per day.”

In view of these figures it is all the more pleasing that only four weeks after the ESC Congress – in October 2008 – the next large-scale medical congress will be taking place at the ICM: the annual international conference of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), which is expected to attract well over 15,000 medical professionals to the city.

Bargmann also mentioned that at the start of December the ICM had officially been notified that the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe would be holding their congress in the ICM in 2010 (5 to 8 October). This trade congress, which has already been held at the ICM once before, in 2000, takes place every two years, attracting each time around 5,000 gynaecologists from all over Germany.

In winning all of these orders, the ICM had benefited greatly from the special attractiveness of Munich. Current surveys show that for congress delegates the Bavarian capital is still very much top of the list of destinations. The organisers of large international trade congresses were also factoring in the powerful appeal of Munich, said Bargmann, when they made their choice of this city as a venue for their events.

This pleasing trend was not least also the result of concerted efforts by all those involved in the congress business in Munich: the City of Munich, Munich´s hotels and retailers, Munich Airport and the ICM had for many years worked closely together highly successfully in promoting the city to international congresses. At the heart of this destination marketing was also the highly modern infrastructure of Munich and the cultural and scenic attractions of Bavaria´s ‘Congress City’.

The ICM team will have every reason to celebrate in October of the coming year – ten years after opening, the International Congress Center Munich has now made it to the international ‘champions league’ of congress centres. In Germany the ICM is always among the top three congress destinations, and on a European comparison it is fully able to compete with centres like Paris and Barcelona, thanks to the association with the adjacent New Munich Trade Fair Centre.

Bargmann underlined that only since the exhibition centre moved to Munich-Riem and the ICM started operations, were the necessary conditions in place for successful positioning on the international congress and conference market. Today reference customers of the ICM included three of the five biggest medical congresses in Europe. And in corporate business, too, the ICM had made a name for itself. Companies from all sectors had booked the ICM regularly for their employee and customer events.

Now, with business at the ICM developing steadily, there will be a change in top management at the centre: Ms Andrea Bisping, a dedicated marketing specialist with very good contacts in the sector, will be taking over as Director of the International Congress Center Munich as of 1 February 2008. Ms Bisping, who comes from a post as Deputy Managing Director of the VOK DAMS Gruppe and Head of the Munich office, is planning to set new accents in customer relations management and further expand the leading position of the ICM through a differentiated service offering.

In order to secure the success of the ICM and all other independent profit centres (e.g. M,O,C,), Messe München is constantly looking to develop and acquire new events. As Bargmann explained, the dedicated New Business Development Department (NBD) is constantly testing and developing new themes for trade fairs and content for the Munich location, turning them into solid concepts and introducing them in cooperation with the respective exhibition teams.

The work of the NBD is based essentially on three pillars – new product development, i.e. developing brand new events for Messe München; product extension, in the form of a systematic further development of content for trade fairs and exhibitions already established; and acquisition of new guest events for Munich, in cooperation with the Guest Events Department.

Bargmann stressed that for a long time special attention had been paid to constantly developing and expanding the portfolio of trade fairs in Munich – for only in this way would it be possible to continue the success story of events in Munich.

In the last three years alone a total of seven new own events had been developed, among them promising specialist fairs such as MAINTAIN and OILS+FATS, whose innovative concepts were already proving to be well accepted on the market. Six established own events of Messe München, such as BAU, C-B-R, IFAT and LASER, had been expanded to include important new content and themes over recent years. Also many guest organisers had been successfully convinced of the benefits of the location and the services of Messe München, and had opted to bring their events to Munich. Examples mentioned by Bargmann were Intersolar, Aerospace Testing Expo and the Euro Attraction Show (EAS).

Not only Messe München profited from all these activities, but also the regional economy. New events played their part in the trade-fair location of Munich being regularly listed among the world´s leading business locations. Also, new trade fairs brought more and more exhibitors and visitors to the City of Munich and the surrounding area. Bargmann underlined this statement with statistics:

“The above-mentioned own events and guest events alone will bring over 3,300 additional exhibitors and 130,000 additional visitors to the city – that´s about the same number as two large-scale trade fairs like drinktec.”

By steadily developing its portfolio Messe München is also supporting the cluster policy of the Bavarian government. By identifying key themes for the future such as alternative energies and industrial production, and then providing a platform for them in Munich, the trade-fair company is strengthening not only its own position as a leading centre for high-tech trade fairs, but also the role of Munich and Bavaria as one of the leading centres for business worldwide.
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