Lions World Convention: A complex mega event in a major European City

25,000 attendees, 15.000 at a downtown parade, 20 days of events, 85.000 people transferred, these are some of the features of the Lions convention held in Milan 

The International Convention of Lions Clubs is a once-in-a-lifetime event. It involved a complex arrangement of social, charitable and flagship events which took place in Milan over 20 days, from 23^rd June to 14^th July 2019.

AIM Group’s dedicated team has been working for several years on the smooth organisation of the event, especially in the following key areas:

• Social activities. We developed a personalised program, leveraging the varied cultural, artistic and gastronomic assets of Milan. 9 Gala dinners, 28 entertainment & experiential activities such as cooking classes, photographic safaris and cultural visits were among the events offered to the guests.

• International Parade of Nations. We supported the organisation of a spectacular parade attended by more than 15.000 delegates who marched through Milan’s city centre.
• Comprehensive transport plan. We managed all the logistics including keeping track of all the arrivals and departures to and from international airports; all the transfers from hotels to the congress center; and local transfers to the various events and to the Parade. Over the 20 days of events, 85.000+ people were transferred. We also provided special assistance (wheelchairs, medical walkers and scooters) for disabled and mobility impaired people.
• Accommodation. We managed accommodation for the VIP and LCI delegations and processed more than 20.000 visa requests.
• Pre- and post-convention tours. We designed tailored-made packages to visit other fascinating Italian destinations, from Florence and Venice to Positano and Sicily.

Rosangela Quieti, Managing Director Congress Division AIM Group international explains: “Our dedicated teams had to be highly responsive in order to face the multiple requests, logistics changes, last minute ideas, even crisis management, whilst simultaneously managing the planned events with so many large numbers. The key to success was flexibility and problem solving. We are really proud that we never uttered the word “NO” to any client or delegate. Each day, we received requests that were big and small, standard and peculiar and we dealt with each one with a smile and the best possible solution: that was our can-do attitude”.

All of the events were successfully managed.  As testified by Mario Castellaneta, Host Committee Chair of 102° Lions Clubs International Convention: “We are very satisfied with the results! It would have been impossible for us to organise this event without the organisational help and professionalism of AIM Group International and MiCodmc. They supported us in all the key issues. It was very important for us”.

We are also grateful to the successful bid team comprising Fiera Milano Congressi, the Municipality of Milan, Lions Club Italy and AIM Group International. Securing the world convention for the city of Milan was a great success as it was the fourth time that the event came to Europe. This result was achieved thanks to the joint effort of this fruitful local collaboration.

Read the full Impact Story about Lions convention online.