New APCE Executive Committee on the association’s 25th anniversary
Our director, Sylvia Andrés, has been appointed as a committee member after today’s elections
Her appointment coincides with the Spanish Association of Conference Centres’ 25th anniversary
Our Managing Director, Sylvia Andrés, has been chosen as a member of the APCE Executive Committee in the elections held at the Association’s Annual Assembly, which took place today in Madrid, coinciding with the FITUR International Tourism Trade Fair.
Let us go back to November 1995, midway through the ‘golden decade’ of tourism in Spain. A group of professionals met to share their concerns about the MICE industry and decided to join forces to make the sector more competitive. This is how the Spanish Association of Conference Centres (APCE) came about, with an initial group of 21 member conference centres. Right from the outset the Valencia Conference Centre has played a key role as one of the Association’s pioneers and promoters.
Twenty-five years later, the APCE has 32 venues, all of them with stringent standards for operations and facilities. This organisation is the lynchpin of tourism in Spain, which ranks third in the world by number of international meetings, according to the latest report by the International Congress and Convention Association (lCCA).
In view of the enormous challenges posed by constant changes in the industry and a ferociously competitive international environment, the new Executive Committee elected today by the heads of the country’s leading conference centres is tasked with driving new strategies to defend the role of conference centres as specialised venues for MICE tourism which promote Spain abroad and generate significant revenue for local economies.
The new Committee is chaired by the Director of the Kursaal Centre, Iker Goikoetxea, while the Deputy Chair and Secretary are Javier Lacunza, Director of the BALUARTE Congress Centre and Auditorium of Navarre, and Belén Mann, Director of Conventions at IFEMA, respectively. Our Managing Director, Sylvia Andrés, is a member of the Board together with Yolanda de Aguilar, Director of the Malaga Trade Fair and Congress Centre (FYCMA); Carlos García Espinosa, Director of the Cadiz Conference and Exhibition Centre; and Marc Rodríguez, Director of the Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB).
