Highlights of 2023
Posted: December 11, 2023
The once-in-a-century pandemic has wreaked such havoc on in-person meetings that it was with a tremendous sense of unease on my part when we ushered in 2023. However, hardly have I had time to catch my breath when I was catapulted into a seething, action-packed year of meetings and events.
Covid-19 completely collapsed or paralysed face-to-face meetings worldwide while giving rise to or fuelled a mushrooming of online meetings and virtual events. The momentum of change has caught us all quite by surprise but as event professionals, we were known for our ability to adapt to volatile and changing circumstances. Nowadays, international association and corporate meetings are largely conducted in a hybrid fashion with increasing number of onsite attendees along with a significant on-line presence. Whatever the future holds, face-to-face meetings are here to stay.
After a lull of 3 or more years, it is heartening to bear witness to the rebounding of meetings and business events sector.
Among the many conferences we have had the good fortune to be associated with, I’d single out the 2 following international conferences as the definitive highlights of 2023, each consisting of over 4000 or more delegates hailing from all corner of the globe:
• 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, 27 – 30 November 2023. Held for the time in Australia with the official congress languages being English, French, German and Spanish and covering 3 parallel streams held at ICC Sydney’s Darling Harbour Theatre, Parkside Ballroom and Cockle Bay Room respectively.
• The 21st General Assembly of the International Council on Monuments and Sites. (ICOMOS). 4 – 8 September 2023. The conference utilised all available meeting spaces at ICC Sydney. Simultaneous interpreting was provided in English, French and Spanish. Professional language services were also deployed for the conference registration desk as well as heritage tours to the Blue Mountains.
