At the press conference on the 2008 financial statements, the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Messe München GmbH, Norbert Bargmann,  summed up the 2008 financial year at the International Congress Center in Munich (ICM), saying: "Coinciding with its tenth anniversary, the International Congress Centre Munich generated record turnover of 9.8 million euro in 2008, which is not only the best financial performance in its history, the 170 000 visitors too were a new record."
 
As Bargmann said, this record turnover by the ICM was even more impressive when you add on the turnover of the exhibition halls for congresses being held in the ICM, such as during the cardiologists' congress 2008: For the past financial year, the ICM sales revenue amounted to over 16.6 million euro - making the ICM one of the most successful German congress centres - and vital in the continued efforts of Messe München GmbH to acquire and develop new events, which occupy the ICM and the exhibition halls simultaneously. As an example, Bargmann cited the sustained growth of the Intersolar trade fair, which set an exhibitor and visitor record at the Munich Trade Fair Centre at the end of May 2009.
 
According to Bargmann, the ICM Team surrounding Andrea Bisping, Manager of the ICM, had another reason to smile, and that is the "Congress-Oscar“! In June this year, over 25 000 event planners and specialists from the conference sector--as Bargmann emphasised--voted the ICM the No. 1 German congress centre. "This "Conga Award" is really something to be proud of" he said.
 
A reason for everyone to be even more pleased was that the ICM won an extra award in this contest: As a member of the SevenCenters, an association of seven large German congress centres connected with a trade fair site, the ICM was awarded a Special Conga for successful marketing. According to Bargmann, this Oscar from the congress sector is going to be displayed at a worthy place at the ICM.
 
Events which contributed to the record annual accounts of the ICM in 2008 included the Annual Meeting of the German Diabetes Association, the Annual Meeting of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), as well as many events and annual general meetings of long-standing corporate customers like DATE, Linde AG, MAN AG or Münchener Rück AG. The famous cardiologists' congress with 31,000 participants all on its own outshone everything though, making it one of the largest scientific congresses anywhere in the world in 2008.
 
Norbert Bargmann reported that the difficult economic situation had, of course, been felt in the congress and events sector. "The landscape in the large international congress business can be described as stable - even if, for international medical conferences, many exhibiting firms are putting some of the events under scrutiny.
 
Bargmann said that, as expected, the consequences included intensive discussions about prices and fiercer competition between trade fair centres. He went on to say that the congress pie was not getting any bigger. In other words, there was nothing more that could be squeezed out of the large congress market at present: demand for large congress rooms was covered. Competition should not develop into predation.
 
According to Bargmann, the current economic constraints were very clearly perceptible in the short-term event business: Many companies would drop large presentations, or haggle hard about prices for events already scheduled – something which many event agencies were feeling painfully. On this background, Bargmann emphasised that the International Congress Center Munich was happy to have a well-filled event schedule in such tough times. This showed yet again how well the ICM has positioned itself in the marketplace, banking on quality, service and dependability. During the first half of this year, a series of gilt-edged events had already been held at the ICM, including a kick-off event for Deutsche Telekom, the annual general meetings of Baywa, Epcos, Hypo Real Estate, Infineon, Linde, MAN, Münchener Rück and Wacker, the congress of the German Society of Surgeons, the Tetra World Congress 2009 and the international congress associated with the fast-growing trade fair Intersolar 2009. The second half of 2009 would feature many highlights such as the World Congress 2009 on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, the SAP International Utility Conference and the German Dentists' Conference.
 
The fact that the ICM was able to position itself so successfully in the events market is also due to the close collaboration of all players and partners in the congress and meeting location in Munich. "Due to concentrated marketing and acquisition strategies, we were able to score highly and set new standards as a destination in the race for large international prestige congresses. Our healthy bookings situation, which takes us way into 2014, guarantees a recession-resistant and profitable core business."
 
The hard work put in over many years in Munich to enhance the international attractiveness of the destination and continually strengthen the range of events on offer in the city has paid off. Also 2009 will see a close cooperation on the acquisition and holding of major international congresses and events between different players. Concerted marketing activities, such as the Munich Bid Book, will support the joint commitment of ICM, the City of Munich, the hotels and the airport to international customer events or trade fair participation. Impact on customers has been overwhelmingly positive: The "city marketing" theme generated a lot of interest among associations and corporate players. International event organisers want to know which city marketing packages were available and how they could be realized in the context of specific events.
 
The ICM has countered tougher negotiation on prices by emphasising its "innovation and quality" hallmark. Across the whole range of performance, the ICM banks on innovative services and top quality when advising customers. The renowned provider of conference media technology, Neumann & Müller Veranstaltungstechnik, was brought on board with effect from 1 July this year as a competence partner with an excellent reputation and international experience.
 
In conclusion, Bargmann stated that for 2010, there were already a whole series of firm bookings. The true highlights of the first half-year will certainly include the 2nd Ecumenical Church Day in May 2010, and the world's major conference in the robotics field, the International Symposium on Robotics (ISR 2010), which will be held jointly with the largest German robotics conference, ROBOTIK 2010 in the context of AUTOMATICA at the beginning of June at the ICM. The booking horizon for scientific congresses now extends into the year 2014.
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