THIS year’s EIBTM event, which takes place from November 18 to 20 in Barcelona, Spain, expects to welcome more than 3,000 international exhibitors who will come from 150 countries representing venues, hotels, destinations, technology and event services providers.
At EIBTM 2013, 97 per cent of trade visitors agreed that EIBTM was important to their businesses and a true ‘must-attend’ event. Some of this year’s exhibitors include: HYATT HOTELS & RESORTSHyatt Hotels & Resorts will feature two of its opening hotels at its newly designed corporate stand at EIBTM (L48); Hyatt Playa del Carmen in Mexico, due to open in quarter one of 2015, and Hyatt Regency Istanbul Atakoy, due to open in autumn this year. Both hotels add great variety to Hyatt’s global portfolio and help meeting planners to choose Hyatt as their preferred partner. EIBTM is expecting over 4,000 high-level industry decision makers, planners and buyers.AZIMUT HOTELSInternational hotel chain AZIMUT Hotels has opened a new business hotel – AZIMUT Hotel Murmansk, and will be exhibiting at EIBTM. Murmansk in Russia is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle. The hotel, located in the very heart of Murmansk and offers 186 smart rooms, a conference hall that can take up to 500 persons, bars and restaurants, underground parking and views of the city centre. AZIMUT Hotel Saint Petersburg has opened after a smart renovation. It is located in the historical centre of the Russian city, which is also known as the ‘Venice of the North’. It offers 1,037 rooms with amazing views of the city, 12 conference and banquet halls with the capacity up to 1,100 persons, a trendy SKY Bar on the top floor of the hotel, restaurants and other services. CONDOR TRAVELEIBTM exhibitor, Condor Travel, a renowned meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (Mice) operator in South America founded in 1977, will be presenting new experiences for the market at the show. From Treasure Hunting in the driest deserts of the world, Atacama, Chile, to luxury Inka trail trekking or Incan ‘payment to the Earth’ ceremonies to fill the members of the group with positive energy from the Andes Mountains, Condor Travel´s teams specialise in Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, and Bolivia.What’s new for 2014? Apart from a brand new innovation zone and new knowledge sessions, here are some other new features of EIBTM 2014.Exhibitors able to request or block appointments with hosted buyers: For the first time, through the new hosted buyer platform, exhibitors have been given the option to self-select appointments with buyers of their choice. Once the hosted buyers have made their appointment preferences and the buyer appointments have been matched exhibitors will be able to browse and request appointments with more buyers to fill their diaries. Hosted buyers can now provide more detail of the business they want to place: In an attempt to get buyers to provide exhibitors with more information in advance of their pre-scheduled appointments, each buyer now has the ability to add details of business they are looking to place in their online zone and provide an email address so that exhibitors can get in contact pre-show.Spanish hosted buyer programme: The Spanish National Hosted Buyer Programme qualification criteria has been amended this year to allow buyers from Spain to be accepted onto the EIBTM hosted buyer programme even if they place only domestic business – previously they had to prove that they had business to place outside of Spain, before they could qualify to join the EIBTM hosted buyer programme. My Association | My Club: 2014 sees the launch of a brand new initiative for EIBTM’s Association Meeting Planners. My Association | My Club is designed to facilitate flexibility and individuality giving freedom of choice as the priority for their time at the show. Why attend?