Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Just as in football, where an interception can change a game's momentum, three international business-to-business events held at the Bahrain International Exhibition & Convention Centre (BIECC) during the first quarter of 2009 achieved their best performance ever, raising the game for professional exhibition and conference organisers in the region.
MEFTEC, the world's leading dedicated financial technology event, opened its fifth annual edition in the country to a sell-out audience whilst the delegate and exhibitor attendance at the 16th Middle East Oil & Gas Show & Conference (MEOS) was up 30 per cent on MEOS 2007.
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and UK's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, visited MEACO 2009 and met with the senior management of Bahrain Exhibition & Convention Authority (BECA).
Delegate attendance at the 10th International Congress of the Middle East African Council of Ophthalmology (MEACO) in Bahrain was the highest-ever for MEACO and exceeded its delegate numbers at its Dubai Congress in 2007.
MEACO 2009 was the first-ever international Medical Association Congress won by Bahrain with more than 2,000 medical professionals and over 500 international speakers visiting the destination.
One+, the official publication of Texas-based Meeting Professionals International (MPI), reports in its March/April 2009 issue that one of the top reasons executives say event marketing is so effective is because it brings customers and companies face-to-face.
According to preliminary findings from the EventView 2009 survey published by the MPI Foundation, Event Marketing Institute and marketing firm, George P Johnson (GPJ), the numbers concur.
