The Association of Association Executives restructures its Associations World Congress

The Association of Association Executives (AAE) is raising the value of its congress for delegates with a new structure for educational content and emphasising the re-focusing the participation of suppliers at the event by introducing specific exhibitors that can solve challenges and meet the needs of the delegates provided on registration. The event name has been adjusted to the Associations World Congress & Expo and the opening times are being increased. The Associations World Congress & Expo will take place 7-9 April 2019 at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in Gothenburg.

New approach

In a new approach to the expo, during the registration process, delegates will be asked questions about their challenges and event needs and in the lead up will be introduced by the AAE engagement manager to exhibitors who can help them solve those challenges and host their events, based on their responses. Recommending solutions based on the AAE’s deep knowledge utilizing Eventfolio technology will be of great benefit to delegates and exhibitors. The AAE’s Executive Director, Damian Hutt, says: “Introducing exhibitors according to delegates challenges and needs is a whole new approach and will be of great value. There is so much time wasted with delegates having to do this research with each exhibitor themselves and we can jump that stage and make their time much more efficient as well as helping them solve challenges they wouldn’t without the investment we are making and the new technology.”

Engagement manager

The AAE has recruited a new engagement manager who will work with delegates and exhibitors to support introductions. Andrea Matthews has a wealth of experience in business events and is based at the association’s head office.

Educational content

Following research into what parts of events delegates have been attending and their educational needs, the AAE is also re-structuring the educational content of the event for 2019. Aside from the keynote sessions, the three-stream format is retired and now in each one-hour period throughout the day there will be seven parallel talks on different topics and formats so delegates can easily select according to their very precise needs and not feel they need to attend only one stream, like before. Formats of the talks vary from presentations, facilitated discussions, crash-courses, briefings, case studies, and focuses. This new approach is more flexible, includes much more choice and more speakers and topics, increasing the value to delegates. The Association World Congress & Expo will also be live webcast for remote delegates that are unable to be in Gothenburg, with a professional presenter hosting online to create a rich experience.