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Talking congresses
With the GCC witnessing a pandemic of type 2 diabetes over the past 30 years and one in five people living in the UAE now suffering from the disease, it was only a matter of time before the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) staged its congress in the region.
However, with the World Diabetes Congress, which is held every three years, growing rapidly in terms of both numbers and exhibitions, the IDF could not consider the Gulf to host the event until it had the adequate infrastructure in place.
“We hadn’t been to the MENA region in the IDF’s 60 years of existence because there was no suitable congress centre for a very long time,” explained IDF director of congresses and governance Luc Hendrickx.
“We came here for the first time in 2002 to check out the venue for a possible congress in 2009 and at the time there were mostly four- and five-star hotels and no public transport, so the board decided against Dubai or Abu Dhabi.”
But Dubai was kept on the IDF’s radar and in 2008, the destination was finally selected for the 2011 congress, primarily because the MENA region was a diabetes “hotspot”, said Hendrickx.
“The region became a real priority in terms of raising awareness. So that fact, apart from Dubai’s infrastructure, was essential in terms of the criteria considered.”
Hendrickx admitted the IDF found some of Dubai’s hotels awkward when it came to negotiating accommodation for the congress.
“The hotels here have their way of doing things and it took quite some effort to make them realise they needed to come to the party with reasonable rates,” he said.
It’s just as well they did “come to the party” because as Hendrickx warned, those who didn't cooperate could “burn their future” in terms of attracting further congress business.
“Congress organisers know one another, so when the city messes up in this respect or another, it only takes about a week for the world to know about it,” he said.
It is important hotel general managers take congresses seriously and think long term for the sake of a destination’s ability to win future congress business, he continued, “and if a city wants to grow as a congress destination, then someone needs to see the bigger picture and get the hotels on board.”
Fortunately the Dubai Bid Alliance (DBA) negotiated with Dubai’s hotel community two to three years in advance of the congress to ensure it provided discounted rates for delegates and met IDF expectations and criteria.
“Although initially they (the DBA) were not prepared for it, we sat with them and made them understand how differently associations work and that their expectations were more demanding than say a corporate or leisure group,” said Hendrickx. “We explained the bigger picture; we’re not looking at one, two or one or two hundred individuals, but several thousands.”
It’s also a matter of educating hotels about the reliability of congress organisers, stressed Hendrickx.
“They may think our booking will not materialise, but we have a good track record and our congress will happen,” he said.
Accommodation challenges aside, Dubai’s infrastructure impressed the IDF team with the new Zabeel Hall at the Dubai International Conference and Exhibition Centre (DICEC) – the construction and completion of which was a key deal-clincher for Dubai when securing the congress – and met expectations. Hendrickx said it allowed delegate and visitor numbers to the congress exhibition to hit the 15,000 mark.
The congress featured 100 exhibitors covering 10,000 square metres of space – the largest participation in the event’s history – while visitor numbers also reached record highs with 1,500 attending on the last morning of the congress.
Hendrickx said many delegates used the Dubai Metro to travel to the DICEC although many took taxis and both proved efficient, but providing a tip for the future he said there should be designated and labeled congress taxis charging fixed or standardised rates.
“We did that in Cape Town because people were wary of security issues and afraid of taking taxis, so we labeled all the taxis with the congress logo, which put people in their comfort zone,” he explained.
It was for similar reasons, such as first-time visitors to the Middle East feeling uneasy on arrival, that measures such as clear IDF logo signposting and dedicated IDF immigration desks were set-up at Dubai International Airport for the 2011 congress.
Room for improvement
In terms of what areas could be improved, Hendrickx noted that while DICEC senior management were “very professional and dedicated”, service standards amongst the centre’s lower ranks were hit and miss.
“There is a different sense of urgency here and a different sense regarding the quality of congress that needs to be produced,” he said. “It took quite some time and effort to make people realise that the bar was fairly high and what they think is good enough may not necessarily be good enough for a congress organiser."
Hendrickx added: “If Dubai wants to be an international congress venue of an international standard, these are issues that definitely need to be addressed.”
Dubai also needs to work on how it is perceived globally, continued Hendrickx, because “perception is reality”.
“People do not know the region very well and think the countries are much closer to one another than they really are and when they see the bombs in Libya, Egypt and Syria, they say ‘on this occasion I will take a rain-check; I will come to Melbourne but I will not travel to Dubai’,” he explained. “So there is insufficient geographical knowledge, and that is something for the convention bureau to work on.”
Other perceptions that are not necessarily true, but need to be addressed, which are hangovers from the past, include the idea that Dubai is expensive and that room rates are high.
However, there were issues that were real rather than perceived, including the “enormous amount of laws and regulations”, which Hendrickx said from a European perspective, were “unreasonable”.
“There is an enormous amount of red tape involved in order to get things organised and people are very afraid of breaking even the smallest of rules, but then in reality they do things differently anyway and with influence, anything is possible,” he candidly stated.
Hendrickx said he also underestimated the importance of the face-to-face culture as a means of getting things organised.
“We needed to come many more times to Dubai [than we would other destinations] in order to have a personal touch – that is something that we learned – but at the same time, the people here need to learn that international organisers cannot always come here and get straight into their mindsets,” he said.
“We are hosted here so we adapt to the culture, but it’s nice to be met half way a little bit.”
Tradition proves popular
Having said that, what really impressed the IDF were the traditions of the Arab culture.
“What stood out for me, which I think is number one and which we have never experienced before, is the commitment to the event of the rulers of Dubai and the royal family. This was quite exceptional,” said Hendrickx.
“Previous congresses had the patronage of the heads of state but of course, these people never show up.
“Here in Dubai, things were very different. His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who was the patron of the congress, attended and spoke at the opening ceremony, which apparently is something that is not very usual, and he also visited the exhibition to do the ribbon cutting.
“And then Sheikh Mohammed came, interestingly incognito and unannounced and whisked through the exhibition, followed by the Crown Prince on the following day, so yes, we had quite some attention.”
Delegates also appreciated the presence of royalty, said Hendrickx, along with the cultural aspects of the leisure programme such as the desert camp night for 1,000 people that was organised by Congress Solutions International (CSI).
Delegate feedback to date, he said, has been positive and people think Dubai is an “impressive city”.
Successes
With the World Diabetes Congress 2011 attracting the biggest number of delegates in the event’s history – more than 15,000 attendees – there is no doubt the event will be hailed a success. Hendrickx said the congress also achieved its aim of raising awareness of diabetes in the UAE.
“This country desperately needs to know about this disease because there is obviously a problem due to the lifestyle here and this could lead to a major diabetes problem in the next decade,” he said. “It is like a silent killer that has entered the UAE.”
From a delegate point of view, Hendrickx said they gained “a better understanding of the Arab culture and realised it is very different in the Gulf from what you see in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
“The congress has also laid down a legacy for future diabetes events,” he said. “I’ve been approached already by organisers based outside of the Gulf who want to arrange an event.”
But when all’s said and done, meetme asked Hendrikx the big question: Will the IDF bring its congress back to the region?
“Absolutely, but not before 2021 because we have other venues confirmed. We do run smaller niche congresses so coming back to Dubai or other places [in the Gulf] like Qatar is definitely a possibility”.
