CONVENE 2020 Continues to Shape the Baltic Region’s Meetings and Events Industry
Vilnius is abuzz with meetings and events professionals networking at the LITEXPO Exhibition and Congress Centre for the eighth edition of CONVENE. The annual trade show organised by Go Vilnius, the city’s official agency for development, features an impressive mix of 140 Hosted Buyers from more than 30 countries.
These numbers are part of a much bigger picture that has CONVENE 2020 aiming to highlight the characteristics that differentiate the Baltic Sea Region from other parts of Europe. Over 80 regional suppliers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Scandinavia – supported by guest-exhibitors from Georgia, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine – are showing-off the fact that the entire region is highly tech-savvy, which provides a certain direction for meeting planners.
“Our team worked hard to bring a wide variety of high quality buyers to the event and provide suppliers with a wealth of potential new business opportunities, so seeing everything come together like this is a big boost for us. And for our part, CONVENE is able to strategically position Vilnius as a regional accelerator with thriving startup hubs, a collaborative spirit between businesses, scientific institutions and associations active in global networks,” says Go Vilnius Director Inga Romanovskienė.
Furthermore, the latest figures reveal that 90% of Hosted Buyers are new to the CONVENE portfolio, giving suppliers more opportunities to do business with completely fresh contacts. Plus, meeting planners coming from Benelux and the UK have increased by 5% this year. Globally renowned businesses are being represented among the buyers taking part in the two-day event, including Grant Thornton, MCI, General Motors, and Emerging Europe.
CONVENE’s organisers have also arranged an interactive introduction to Vilnius’ infrastructure on the second day of the trade show, which comes in response to buyers wanting a more in-depth experience of the city. Moreover, 50+ buyers will be attending Vilnius, Kaunas, Riga and Jurmala, Tallinn, and Gdansk on post-CONVENE tours.
This year’s Professional Academy consists of 11 comprehensive sessions filled with presentations and discussions led by 20 speakers. The sessions touch on the industry’s hottest topics, which relate largely to technology and how it can be leveraged to create significant value by long term legacy for meeting planners and better experiences for participants.
Organised annually by Go Vilnius, CONVENE is a business marketplace that provides non-stop networking opportunities for meeting professionals. The two-day trade show gathers industry suppliers from across the Baltic Sea Region and buyers from around Europe and the world together under one roof.