41st IAPCO Annual Meeting and General Assembly attracts record attendance!" 

Nearly 100 members of the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers gathered in Athens on 18-21 February 2010 on the occasion of the 41st edition of the Association's Annual Meeting & General Assembly.

Taking place in the impressive Grande Bretagne Hotel, the 41st IAPCO Annual Meeting & General Assembly brought together recognised leaders in the PCO business to discuss the future of the association during an exciting program addressing some of the most crucial industry topics.

Future trends, CVBs' new era, Procurement, Sustainability, Pharmaceutical Codex, Bidding processes, Co-operation with hotels & Social Communication were some of the hot topics raising discussion among peers.

To ensure the sustainability of the 41st IAPCO Annual Meeting and General Assembly, the local host, AC&C International, together with IAPCO took some serious actions to reduce the meeting's carbon footprint including the offsetting of the meeting's carbon emissions (amounting to 58 tons of CO2 in total) through the planting of 58 trees in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, a project approved by the UK's ‘Quality Assurance Scheme for Carbon Offsetting', on-site recycling of paper, plastic & glass, car-pooling, cut-back on printed materials & controlled use of air conditioning in the meeting rooms.

Both Mr. Philippe Fournier, IAPCO President 2010-2012 and Mrs. Patrizia Semprebene Buongiorno, IAPCO President 2008-2010, congratulated AC&C International for the excellent organisation with attention to detail.

The dynamic 41st IAPCO Annual Meeting & General Assembly featured among other social events, a "Nostalgic Athens" Gala Dinner held in the enchanting "Wine Museum" estate. IAPCO members were pleasantly surprised by a traditional folklore dancing group, while a chestnut salesman and a traditional newspaper boy distributing replicas of newspapers featuring congress-related news  set the tone of a "Nostalgic" Athens scenery.

On the last evening of the Meeting, participants had the opportunity to visit the New Acropolis Museum and then admire the state-of-the-art facilities of the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre. A private concert, performed by the famous Camerata Orchestra was followed by a dinner in the beautiful Banqueting Hall.