Meetings – Incentives – Conferences – Events (or Exhibitions Industry) – this is the full definition of the MICE industry. It is the meetings and events industry, encompassing event organizers, conferences, training sessions, meetings, event agencies organizing incentive trips, the HORECA sector, and conference and congress facilities. The MICE industry is often interchangeably called Business Tourism, as it is a segment of the tourism sector primarily used in the business market.

Sounds intimidating? Like anything new 🙂 Meanwhile, MICE elements have been used in Poland since the early 1990s (seriously!), and in Western European countries or the USA, business tourism has long been a staple of cooperation between companies, their employees, and clients. Although MICE already has some history in our country, it is often equated with business travel, where the trip’s purpose is related to the traveler’s work or professional interests. However, the industry’s development has proven that MICE primarily serves to achieve business goals. It is an integral part of event marketing in communication with clients and building relationships with employees.

Company meetings, conferences, and events are ways to connect with contractors, partners, employees, and even the economic environment. Incentives are tools that motivate, reward, and integrate both clients and employees and their families. Large group meetings and incentive trips aligned with the company’s strategy are today’s innovative methods of effective marketing.

Since 2013, Poland’s meetings and events industry has been developing at a dynamic pace… accelerating year by year. How should event agencies, conference and congress centers, hotels, and restaurants respond to keep up? As always in this industry, the starting point, the “above all” point, and the anchor point is personalization. Starting with a detailed analysis of the client’s needs, through an individual approach at every stage, and finishing with an analysis of participants’ emotions. After personalization come other points, which may be used interchangeably.

Venue Hunting – the search for the best venue dedicated to a specific event. Until now, booking a hotel or conference room, obtaining information about available attractions, logistical or technical facilities required personal contact. Now, it is desirable to have a comprehensive platform through which the entire event can be organized with just a few clicks.

Culinary Support. Culinary arrangements are gaining increasing importance. To give a meeting an extraordinary flavor, it is worth organizing it, for example, combined with cooking workshops. A coffee break can be replaced by wine or whiskey tasting. The event industry is constantly evolving, so one cannot expect the infamous lunch break to always be what participants expect from an event.

Have you heard about Beacon? It is a technology that allows sending personalized information to each participant’s phone – a trend in global conferences. We want to emphasize the need to use new technologies in the industry – such as those mentioned above, dedicated apps, and 3D presentations. Furthermore, social media platforms are the most frequently chosen means of communication between organizers and event participants. And since they are also the most effective, it is worth leveraging the potential of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Keeping an Eye on the Competition. Business tourism generates increasing profits for cities and regions in Poland. Data from a report by the Polish Tourism Organization indicate that in 2015 the number of business events and conference spaces increased, and consequently, budgets allocated for hotel bookings, catering, logistics, and cultural-recreational services grew. What do we want to say? Competition in the MICE industry is continuously growing.

By the end of this year, new reports will appear, and in the new year – 2017 – new trends. Let’s not expect stagnation in this industry. Facing new challenges, we believe it is worth seeking new travel directions… that inspire 😉