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by Jaana Koivistoinen, Business Events Specialist, Finland Convention Bureau
Finland Convention Bureau (FCB) is one of the oldest Convention Bureaus (CVB) in Europe, established in 1974. In the beginning the name was Helsinki Congress Bureau and in 1982 it changed into Helsinki-Finland Congress Bureau, then in 2002 the name changed to its current form, Finland Convention Bureau.
FCB is part of Visit Finland which is in turn part of Finpro, a public organization that helps Finnish SMEs go international, encourages foreign direct investment in Finland and promotes travel to our country. In order to support international growth of Finnish companies, Finpro operates several growth programs whose goal is to boost internationalization of Finnish SMEs. The co-operation between Finpro and FCB has the benefit of bringing new congresses to Finland in such fields as education, medical science, cleantech, Arctic competence, just to mention a few of the areas covered.
There are 21 universities in Finland, from the south to the north of the country. The largest university cities also have their local convention bureaus, to help academics in bidding for and organizing the congresses of their own field of research. There are 1-4 persons working in each CVB and in some universities, such as Turku, Tampere and Jyväskylä, there are also congress employees within the university premises. FCB co-operates closely with Finnish meetings industry stakeholders and FCB also represents the whole Finnish meetings industry globally. FCB is a member of UIA (Union of International Associations), ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association), MPI (Meetings Professionals International) and SiTe (Society for incentive travel excellence).
Every three years FCB monitors the experiences of delegates of international congresses in Finland as well as Finland as a congress host. The survey focuses on delegate experiences, as well as the financial impact of congress travel on Finland. According to the latest survey from year 2013 a delegate spends on average 1635 euros per congress stay in the host destination. 85% of respondents gave a good or very good grade to the overall congress arrangements in the 2013 survey. Year 2016 is again a survey year and the new survey results will be published in March 2017. Annually there are over 600 congresses in Finland and approximately 70,000 delegates attending them. The most popular congress city is the capital Helsinki, followed by the cities of Espoo, Tampere and Turku.
For international associations FCB offers advice plus a first-hand introduction to Finland when planning an international meeting, event or congress in Finland. Our idea is to be a neutral, high-class and reliable source of information. We know the players in the Finnish meetings industry, but also the counterparts in different fields of expertise in Finland. We provide free marketing material for the use of congress organizers and all services provided are free of charge.
If you need more information about Finland please do contact us:
Jaana Koivistoinen, Business Events Specialist, Finland Convention Bureau
Mobile +358 (0)50 325 0760, jaana.koivistoinen@visitfinland.com
www.fcb.fi