Japan’s capital city will host the 49th IAPCO AM/GA in 2018. The announcement came at the recent Annual Meeting and General Assembly (AM/GA) of the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers (IAPCO) held in Cape Town, South Africa.
Tokyo will welcome prominent PCOs from around the world. While Tokyo will host the IAPCO AM/GA in February 2018, Osaka will host the related IAPCO Council meetings. In addition, the Organizing Committee of Japan 2018 is planning to offer opportunities for involvement by convention bureaus throughout the country, so that IAPCO’s member PCOs could visit other prospective MICE destination cities in Japan for pre- and/or post-AM/GA activities.
IAPCO has seen significant growth in membership from the Asian region, and in 2013 a Japanese member: Ms. Kayo Nomura of Congress Corporation, was elected to the Council for the first time in 20 years. Tokyo 2018 will be the first time in 22 years that the IAPCO meeting will return to Asia (Bali, Indonesia 1996). It will be the second time Japan has hosted the event (Chiba, 1993).
Ms. Keiko Nishimoto, CMP of Japan Convention Services was recently elected to Deputy Chair & Treasurer of ICCA’s Asia Pacific Chapter. Both Nomura and Nishimoto, along with everyone in Japan’s meetings industry, are looking forward to welcoming the 2018 IAPCO AM/GA meeting to their home turf.
Japan’s bid was supported by the national and local governments, including the Japan National Tourism Organization, the Japan Tourism Agency, the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau
