A sharp re-start: Major events back to in-person format

The last part of the year is marked at AIM Group by a packed congress calendar with 35 major events with in-person or hybrid format and 15.000 participants managed overall. This intense activity involves all event type: conferences, corporate meetings, CME courses, DMC activities and incentive travels. A positive sign, which testifies a re-start point for the entire industry.

by Gianluca Buongiorno, President AIM Group International

We have an obsession: make the events happen successfully, participants be engaged and satisfied, and the change keep going on and becoming the new normal.

The last part of the summer is proving to be a real re-start period for our entire Group, with a strong commitment for our teams. This intense activity is related to a sharp restart of meetings, after the pandemic slowdown, and marked by an evident comeback to in-person events, including international conferences with large audiences. Some figures just to give an idea: from the end of August to December, AIM Group is managing 35 major events (with more than 100 participants) involving about 15.000 participants overall.

All event types are involved: medical and scientific conferences, association and corporate meetings (pharma and non-pharma), CME courses, DMC activities and incentive travels (even from overseas). These events are taking place in virtual, but more often in hybrid format, with large in-person attendance.

We are experiencing an enthusiastic response to in-person events from association and corporate clients and from the delegates, happy to physically leave for a trip, meet face to face with their international colleagues, exchange ideas, chat freely, strengthen new relationships, in a safe environment.

Safety is of course a major concern, all the protective and preventative measures are put in place, and we can notice that the delegates feel very comfortable and confident and are used to a new normality.

Important events have been recently realised with satisfaction, such as the european ESOT Congress 2021 with 1.200 delegates in person in Milan and 1.400 online (read the full press release), the Cibus international Food fair in Parma or the General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GASS) of the International Union of Radio Science. Other important conferences are planned, in all our destinations (Austria, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, etc.), and events to come, including an incentive group from Mexico to Portugal.

We are really excited for these results. Our ability to support clients in making important decisions in a very difficult context, the aptitude to change and to adapt with flexibility, the promptness and availability we demonstrated in the last year, lead us to maintain the long-term relationships and to acquire new clients and events.

Since the pandemic spread out, along with the clients we have experimented and pivoted new solutions, formats and technologies with stunning results, like the SIAARTI ICare tour or FIMP House, recently awarded at international level (read the full article). Now, we are committed to complete the change and push it forward, towards a new way of designing events and supporting clients. It is all about persistence because after we geared up the initial phase, now the challenge is to fulfil the entire process, despite the difficulties.  We are sure that the recovery of the events industry and its new face and identity will emerge only if we let’s become it our obsession with making it happen!