For the 7th time, ACE of MICE exhibition by Turkish Airlines brought together congress, meeting and event industry professionals at Istanbul Congress Center between 22nd – 24th January 2020. The event provided the industry professionals with a unique MICE experience and offered opportunities to bring together the sector’s stakeholders to discuss the sector’s problems, solutions, opportunities and collaborations.
The ACE of MICE event was supported by Turkish Airlines as the main sponsor with TÜRSAB being the main strategic partner. The event experienced a participation from 230 International buyers and 15,000+ visitors from 54 countries over 3 days.
The opening ceremony of the event was addressed by Özgül Özkan Yavuz – Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ahmet Hamdi Usta – Deputy Governor of Istanbul, Bahadır Yaşık – Member of the Board of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, Emre Menevşe – Senior Vice President Sales of Turkish Airlines, Firuz Bağlıka – President of TÜRSAB and Pervin Zeydanlı Yalazan – General Manager of Istanbul Congress Center. In one of the statements made by Özgül Özkan Yavuz, he said we are working hard towards enhancing the tourism sector so as to achieve our goal of 75 million tourists and 65 billion dollars of tourism income by the year 2023. Bahadır Yaşık stated that Istanbul is the world famous and ancient city with many prominent features. He added that after some unfortunate events in the country, the tourism sector declined drastically. However, the country saw an increase of 40% in 2018 compared to previous years and 2020 is looking more positive.
For the first time ever in the world, production giants including Matt Steinbrenner – Art Director of Oscar Awards, Ola Melzig – Eurovision’s Production Director, and many more from all the over the globe came together on the stage of Vestel Production Talks and shared their experiences. An event designed with the motto – “Master of Production Meets in Istanbul” and sponsored by Vetsel, focused on discussing the future of production industry.
In addition, the Istanbul MICE summit conference shed light on the future of the MICE sector. Topics like “Things to do to make Istanbul a leading MICE destination” moved to the agenda for the first time in the summit. The summit was moderated by Volkan Ataman, President of the Tourism Media Group, focused on the subject deeply in 5 different sessions. In the session moderated by Cemil Hakan Kilic – General Manager of Istanbul CVB , London CVB Director – Tracy Halliwell, Geneva CVB Director – Didier Allaz and Prague CVB Director – Roman Muska shared their success stories with the participants.
Along with the business meetings, the entertainment night started with the Bosphorus tour where national and international hosted buyers, exhibitors, speakers, media, and international MICE association heads were invited. An unforgettable night was accompanied by video mapping shows, music groups, DJ, dance performance and surprises.
The 7th edition of ACE of MICE was a huge success with MICE industry participating from all over the globe. The 8th edition of ACE of MICE exhibition by Turkish Airlines will be from 10-12 February 2021. We are looking forward!
