Business Development
Memberships & Trade fairs
He were outline information on the organisations we are members of and the trade fairs, industry and educational events that our team attends each year.
Abbey are currently members of:
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AIPCO
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ABPCO
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IAPCO
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ICCA
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Dublin Convention Bureau
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Galway Convention Bureau
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Cork Convention Bureau
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Kerry Convention Bureau
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Visit Belfast
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Visit Derry
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Glasgow Convention Bureau
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Convention Edinburgh
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Liverpool Convention Bureau
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ITOA
AIPCO
Abbey are a full members of AIPCO (Association of Irish Professional Conference Organisers) and play an active role in the organisation. Marina Finn is Secretary, Patricia McColgan sits on the board and is a past Chairperson of AIPCO, Brian McColgan has also been heavily involved in the setup of AIPCO. AIPCO run a conference annually and approximately 4 industry events per year, we always encourage a number of our team to attend these events.
ABPCO
Greg Carew is an individual member of ABPCO (Association of British Professional Conference Organisers) and he attends 1-2 of their events per year. This organisation helps keep us up to speed on all that is happening in the UK events industry.
Failte Ireland
Failte Ireland through their business tourism brand ‘Meet in Ireland’ are responsible for all of the convention bureau in the Republic of Ireland. They are one of our main sources of business leads and it is important that we maintain a strong working relationship with them.
IAPCO
Abbey are members of IAPCO (International Association of Professional Conference Organisers) which is seen as a real badge of honour in the industry internationally. There is strict criteria that you need to adhere to in order to become an IAPCO member and to maintain this membership annually. We submit an end of year report to IAPCO outlining details of all our events throughout the year. IAPCO give us the opportunity to attend events such as IMEX as hosted buyers which is another advantage of our membership. We have recently participated in educational webinars with them also. IAPCO hold an annual conference which Patricia McColgan attended in 2017 (Dubai) and 2019 (Basel). Greg Carew also attended the 2019 conference. Our next conference that we will likely attend is 2021 in Rome.
Trade Fairs & Other Events
The events that we attend each year are primarily for educational/networking purposes rather than actual sales missions. If we attend events such as IMEX, IBTM or the M&I Forum, it is generally as a hosted buyer. We have more of a reason to attend such events now due to the increase in our international business. Below are a list of the events we consider attending annually:
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AIPCO Annual Conference.
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AIPCO Educational Events.
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ABPCO Educational Events.
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IAPCO Annual Conference.
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ICCA Annual Congress – Useful information on ICCA can be found here.
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IMEX Frankfurt – Useful information on IMEX can be found here.
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IBTM World.
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M&I Forum.
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Events Air User Conference – Generally attended by Operations Team.
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Event Industry Awards.