Next year, more than 5,000 delegates are expected to pour into the SEC Centre in Glasgow for the biennial congress for the World Federation of Haemophilia.
But as delegates found out at the events industry expo EventIt earlier this month, the securing of the largest international meeting for the bleeding disorders community did not happen overnight.
The original discussions for Glasgow playing host to the event began 17 years ago in 2001; as Kathleen Warden, Director of Conference Sales for SEC, told the audience at her venue, ‘you’ve got to get old in this industry’.
Warden was speaking at a workshop titled ‘Why Business Events Matter’ and laid out her case by speaking personally, and fondly, of her love for association conferences. Without them, she said, the scientific breakthroughs, discoveries in medicine and globally-significant industry progress would not be communicated beyond the realms of stuff academic journals. Business events were an opportunity to disseminate information of vital importance to the public and for people at the top of their professional tree to meet one another, share and collaborate.
But referencing the haemophilia conference she said it didn’t arrive at the SEC without it share of heartache.
“Part of the decision-making process [for the SEC being chosen as the venue] was that we needed to have someone living with haemophilia to determine what kind of venue this is, to demonstrate that we were an accessible venue; and we had a lovely gentleman called Robert who joined us on that particular visit,” Kathleen told the audience.
“We went off to Paris and we won the bid and we were all absolutely delighted. But a couple of months later Robert sadly passed away and that was the moment where it really struck me that what these association conferences are all about making huge improvements to the lives and to the world, and the environment we inhabit.”
She added: “This is about scientists, clinicians and researchers coming together to make a difference, to make a change; they have a common goal and they want to achieve that common goal through their combined research, and sharing that research and inspiring people to go on and do new research. These association conferences are all about cures, preventions, helping the world be a better place, making the world a cleaner place for us to live in and to me that’s absolutely astonishing.”
The SEC is working in conjunction with the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau to bring the congress to the city. Also next year, the SEC will play host to the World Down Syndrome Conference, which Kathleen explained was an opportunity for that community to have a ‘voice’ and get their message out to the wider public.
The newly rebranded Scottish Event Campus (SEC) is also reporting a big line up of association conferences following a record year of wins in 2016.
The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI), The Electrochemical Society (ECS) and the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) will all use the SEC in forthcoming events.
The National Cancer Research Institute will hold its annual conference at the SEC in 2018 and 2019 with both expected to bring in 2,000 delegates.
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