M.I.C.E.
| June 23, 2010 BestCities Global Alliance: The Power of 8 | |
| In 1999, the CEO's of the convention bureaus of Boston, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Melbourne and Vancouver met to officially discuss the formation of a new alliance. A few months later, in February 2000, the world's first convention bureau alliance was born. Ten years on, Rick Antonson, one of the Founding Fathers reflects: "When BestCities was launched, it was with the ambition to bring talented convention destinations together to learn from each other, and to provide clients continuity, focused help and the highest professional standards as their conferences moved around the world. Today, BestCities is such a solid concept of cooperative sales and shared professional development, that if it didn't exist, "we'd have to invent it." Each partner in the alliance -- Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dubai, Edinburgh, Melbourne, San Juan, Singapore and Vancouver -- is committed to sharing bid intelligence, exchanging business leads and participate in client referrals. Association client events will remain the focus of the alliance's sales activities with Vancouver and Melbourne each hosting a client workshop this year. The alliance had successfully renewed its LRQA certification in 2009, one year after being the first convention bureaux alliance in the world to have its own service standards. Ana Maria Viscasillas, the Board Chair of 2010 explained that at BestCities Global Alliance, clients can be assured that every BestCities bureau will deliver the highest level of service. The BestCities standards -- which are subject to two audits annually, one as an internal audit and the other by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) - address six key areas in service delivery -- Destination Expertise, Bid Assistance, Convention Planning, Building Attendance, On-site servicing and Post event Support, and Post event Evaluation. Lars Bernhard Jorgensen (Copenhagen), another Founding Father agreed: "BestCities bureaus care most about their clients' successes, and will readily go the extra mile to ensure this. That is the BestCities signature -- unparalleled dedication and professionalism." When working with a Bestcities Bureau, international meeting planners can be assured of not only receiving consistently high customer service standards but also that there will be an unsurpassed delegate experience for their attendees. Ten years after the alliance was formed, each partner firmly believes that BestCities is crucial to the ongoing profile of their respective destination as among a grouping of convention cities that are like minded, and committed to ensuring consistently high standards for convention organisers who operate on the world stage. | |
