The BTC 2012 professional education programme, unique in Italy in terms of accessibility, breadth and topics covered, offers content relevant to all stakeholders of the meetings and events industry. Among this year’s highlights, the findings from the new Italian Conference Market Report.

This year, BTC, the Italian trade show for the events, meetings, conferences and incentive travel industry, to be held on 21-22 June at the Fiera di Rimini Exhibition Centre, is again organising a rich professional education programme that is unrivalled in Italy, and designed to meet the needs for updates and debate of all stakeholders in the meetings and events industry.

There are two main factors behind its unique appeal: firstly, BTC alone in Italy provides a specialised education programme for the industry which is open to all and completely free of charge; the second reason is the wide selection of topics covered, ensuring content of interest to all types of participant, whether corporate, association, agency, destination, hotel and event venue or service supplier.

The BTC 2012 seminar programme will open with Rob Davidson, industry analyst and senior lecturer in Event Management at the University of Greenwich, who will present the most recent market trends, the new relationship between demand and supply in the sector that has emerged during this period of economic crisis, and the new behaviour of international buyers.

Alex Bellini, adventurer, extreme athlete and solo yachtsman, will then talk about personal motivation and the management of success and failure in the seminar Your adventure, a challenge to be won. The theme of how to choose destinations and venues based on the event’s objectives and content will be covered in the panel discussion The meeting planner meets Genius Loci: exploiting the destination’s “personality” for an event, organised by Enrico Rainero from BY Innovation; specialist Stefania Conti Vecchi from Eventagist will explore events and the web in the workshop Mobile applications and web tools for event organisation (participants are asked to bring their laptops, tablets or smartphones with them), and the seminar Hybrid Events: theories and techniques to extend the reach of an event.

Relevant topics for corporate professionals will also be covered in the seminar opening the second day, Corporate reputation in the digital era: listening to the market, held by Fabio Lazzarini from Cribis D&B, and in Digital PR: principles and tools of conversational marketing with speaker Michele Ficara from Assodigitale.

Operators will then find some interesting points for discussion in the seminar Association Conferences: insights into associations for effective bids, with Annalisa Ponchia, Executive Officer of ESOT (European Society for Organ Transplantation).

Industry associations are also making a contribution to the programme: Federcongressi&eventi will bring the seminar Italian labour market reform: tools to promote job market flexibility, and SITE Italy will organise the session What corporate clients look for: are invitations to tender really the most effective tool to select the right supplier?

Finally the highlight, the Italian Conference Market Report [Osservatorio Congressuale Italiano], back after a two-year absence, in the new version designed by BTC (commissioned by Federcongressi&eventi) and conducted by Attilio Gardini, professor of econometrics at the Faculty of Statistical Sciences at the University of Bologna. The presentation concerns findings for 2011: the number of events hosted at Italian venues and their type, number of conference delegates in attendance, conference attendance days, market trends according to demand type, events by type of hosting venue and duration.

“The packed education programme reflects BTC’s commitment to offering hosted buyers, exhibitors and visitors high-quality professional content” commented Paolo Audino, chief executive of Exmedia (BTC). “Knowledge of the market, understanding the trends at work within it and sharing experiences and expertise are key to the industry’s growth and development. We are therefore extremely proud of the fact that BTC is not only the sole Italian trade show specifically focused on B2B for the meetings and events industry, but also an event that offers high added value in the educational opportunities it provides to the whole meetings community”.

The complete seminar programme is available on the BTC website: hosted buyers, exhibitors, visitors and press who have already registered may enrol in individual seminars through the reserved area of the website.