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Welcome to join us for the 6th Nordic Association Expert Forum, where association experts and experienced suppliers get together to exchange knowledge and best practices.

The goal of our meeting is to better understand what association’s challenges and obstacles are regarding hosting conferences, how we can assist and how we can work together to attract European and International association meetings to the Nordics.

The international competition amongst destinations to host association business events grows fiercer year on year. Likewise, the competition to attract delegates to conferences is more complex today with the new virtual and hybrid formats as well as delegates being more selective in what conferences they attend and where. It is our belief what by joining hands we can ensure that our Nordic countries and associations stand out from the crowd.

This meeting is for Nordic association representatives and Nordic convention bureaux, PCOs and venues only.

The ICCA Nordic Association Expert Forum working group

  • Anna Lindström (Destination Uppsala, Uppsala Convention Bureau)
  • Annleyg Lamhauge (Visit Faroe Islands)
  • Arve Lindgren (Visit Bergen, Bergen Convention Bureau)
  • Hildur Björg Bæringsdóttir (Meet in Reykjavik-Iceland Convention Bureau)
  • Kirsten Rudbeck (Destination Fyn Convention Bureau)
  • Pia Helminen (Visit Tampere, Tampere Convention Bureau)

Registration

Association representatives
Free of charge

REGISTER HERE

Nordic convention bureaux/PCOs/venues, who are ICCA members
730€ (incl. VAT)

REGISTER HERE

Accommodation

We have an allotment at Lapland Hotels Arena for a special rate 119€ /single, 139€ / double per night.
Accommodation reservations from the allotment for Lapland Hotels Arena can be made at https://www.laplandhotels.com/EN using the code ALLICCA.
You can also make a reservation by phone (+358 3 383 0500) or by email (arena@laplandhotels.com). You can get the offer price for your accommodation by mentioning the code ICCA when making the reservation.

Reservations from the allotment at promotional prices by March 24, 2023, after that at the day’s price and reservation conditions.

Travel to Tampere

Directly to Tampere-Pirkkala

Tampere-Pirkkala International Airport is located 20 minutes from Tampere city centre. The airport hosts one of airBaltic’s four bases, and the airline offers direct flights to Riga, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich, Rhodes and Malaga.

Travel via Helsinki

If you prefer to fly to Helsinki, it is easy to catch the bus or train from the airport directly to Tampere city centre.
Take a local train from the airport to Tikkurila station, where you change to a train to Tampere. Trains to Tampere go every hour. Please see timetables and buy tickets here.

Buses to Tampere leave outside the airport and run less frequently than trains. Please click here for bus timetable search. The airport is called Helsinki-Vantaa.

Programme

The purpose of the Association Expert Forum is that we together build up a programme that helps us solve the problems we may have. The below programme is preliminary and may change according to topics and ideas that come up.

Monday 17 April – Lapland Hotels Arena, meeting room Kajo

10:00 Guided tour of the city – meet-up in hotel lobby at 9:50
11:30 Registration open in Lapland Hotels Arena
12:00 Lunch at Restaurant Saivo (at Lapland Hotels Arena)
13:00 Nordic Deep Dive into Nordic Meetings, Anna Lindström, Uppsala Convention Bureau
13:30 The role of a Convention Bureau today and tomorrow, Miikka Valo, Enter Espoo
14:30 Introduction to the topic What is legacy / outreach, Arve Lindgren, Bergen Convention Bureau
15:00 Coffee break
15.30 Legacy – how could your association achieve more and reach your goals by engaging the local inhabitants? We will look into previous good examples outside of the Nordic Countries for inspiration, and collectively work on possibilities for some of the associations present in the room. – Arve Lindgren, Bergen Convention Bureau
16.30 Congress stories from Tampere – presentations and panel
• Professor Katri Lindfors, Tampere University
• Professor Atanas Gotchev, Tampere University
• Marketing Manager Ulla Haapanen, Modulight
19:00 Leave for dinner on foot
19:30 Dinner at Sauna restaurant Kuuma
21:00 Possibility to try out a Finnish sauna & dip in lake – remember to bring your swimsuit!

Tuesday 18 April – Tampere Hall, meeting room Maestro

8.30 Workshop: Grant availabilities, Kai Troll, Associationworld
9.30 Workshop: Event Marketing, Kai Troll, Associationworld
11.00 Lunch (packed lunch for those leaving early)

See what previous participants have to say about the forum

“I was delighted to participate in the AEF forum in Torshavn in September 2021. It was inspiring to be together across countries and organizations to share experiences and ideas. I was impressed with the expertise that the agencies possess.”
May-Britt Skoradal, Football is Medicine and Diabetes Association

“It was very valuable for me to visit the Association Expert Forum in Gothenburg in 2020 and to have the opportunity to bond with the Convention Bureaus in the different cities in the Nordic countries. It gave me a lot of new ideas and it was enjoyable to experience the emphasis on sustainability”.
Ólafur Hjálmarsson, President of Nordic Acoustic Association (NAA)

“I attended ICCA Scandinavian Association Forum in Tampere 2019 and felt that we had a lot to learn from each other. My own experience is that the city’s convention bureaus, are an important link in the early planning of congresses. I therefore warmly recommend other representatives of professional organizations who are planning to arrange meetings to attend this multi-professional conference”.
Johan Hellgren, Former President of Nordic Association for Otolaryngology