MCE Central & Eastern Europe: First event of the year, and what a show!

The eleventh edition of MCE Central & Eastern Europe took place a month ago, from 27 February till 1 March with a consecutive Fam trip for the many interested event planners.

The renovated Radisson Blu Béke Hotel in the center of Budapest offered host to nearly 125 participants from Europe and beyond, engaging in 2.5 intensive days of business introductions and networking.

The Budapest and Hungary Convention Bureau offered two wonderful tours on Sunday and Tuesday, whilst highlighting some of its fabulous venues during the dinner program. The Museum of Fine Arts at the world-famous Heroes Square offered host to the opening dinner of the event on Sunday evening, where the three finest Hungarian chefs each prepared one of the dinner courses. All three courses were paired with some of the very best Hungarian wines. TwentySix, the Budapest urban jungle, hosted the second dinner evening program.

The venue greatly reflected the sustainable impact the event intended to have. Both evenings were filled with entertainment and lots of local highlights. Anna Bekefi, Managing Director of the Convention Bureau stated: ‘It was an important milestone for our team to have had the opportunity to organize MCE Central & Eastern Europe. It was very touching to surround our customers – who were finally able to come for the event – with premium services and an amenable atmosphere after nearly two years’ work. Meanwhile, trains with refugees from Ukraine kept arriving near the event venue; our colleagues and I tried to find the appropriate approach by holding on to the symbolic message represented in the venue’s name, Hotel Peace. Thanks to Europe Congress, numerous new connections were made between Central and Eastern Europe’s MICE market players.

We are grateful that together with Alain Pallas and his team, we could create a valuable business space for the recovery of the meetings industry.’

Monday and Tuesday were filled with pre-scheduled meetings, matching the events’ needs of the participating hosted buyers with the right services and products offered by the many participating Convention Bureaus, Hotels, Audio Visual companies, DMC’s, Congress Centers, and so on. Traditionally, Europe Congress offers a prime stage to the participating Convention and Tourism Bureaus, highlighting the regional concept of the events. Within a creative out-of-the-box concept, all of them received two minutes of stage time highlighting some of the unique features the destinations have on offer.

‘It has been great hosting so many event planners, destinations and MICE providers in Budapest at the Radisson Blu Beke. At Europe Congress, we thank all of the event partners for their cooperation and for starting the year with such a high-quality forum. We thank all participants for making their way to the Hungarian capital to enjoy these wonderful days with us, where many new business partnerships were sealed.

Whilst being able to cherish this amazing experience, our road continues with events coming up in Düsseldorf in May, Prague in June, and Madrid in October. We’re much looking forward to delivering similar experiences in these destinations and to see you all there!’ Alain Pallas, Managing Director at Europe Congress quoted.

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