AIPC, ICCA, and UFI form global alliance

AIPC (The International Association of Convention Centres), ICCA (The International Congress and Convention Association), and UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) have agreed to launch a global alliance to foster collaboration and provide better aligned benefits for their respective members.

The alliance has agreed to begin a programme of exploring exchange and reciprocity in four primary areas: educational content, research, standards and advocacy. The group would “implement a flexible framework of collaboration between the three associations in order to achieve these benefits without compromising the focus and platform of each member organisation”.

Work on the alliance will begin by engaging in a series of educational exchanges incorporating each other’s knowledge content into their respective conferences and starting to align approaches taken to areas of common practice such as research and advocacy activities, beginning immediately. At the same time, they are initiating a regular exchange between their respective leaderships to align interests on issues like  standards, terminology and best practices.

“We are all organisations with a global membership and perspective and already complement each other’s activities in various ways”, said Aloysius Arlando, AIPC president. “However, as the business models of exhibitions, congresses, conferences, and other types of business meetings evolve, the overlap of global associations servicing the industry is growing even further.”

In addition to the immediate practical outcomes, the partners believe the Alliance also offers potential to enhance the credibility of the industry as a whole by providing a vehicle for development of greater consistency within a mutually agreed industry framework.

“By creating better integration of our efforts we will be in a position to better leverage everyone’s investment and create greater efficiencies for the use of our member’s time – one of the most valuable resources we all have these days”, says Senthil Gopinath, ICCA CEO.