Foreign Office

Conventa, the New Europe business forum, will reopen its doors on 23rd and 24th of January

The New Europe business forum for business meetings, congresses and incentive travel will be in Ljubljana, Slovenia and present a great opportunity for Hosted Buyers to personally experience the destination.

Conventa, the New Europe business forum for business meetings, congresses and incentive travel, will reopen its doors on 23rd and 24th of January 2019. Conventa presents the first event of its kind and besides that, it is also the first industry event of every new year. We enter the new decade as a forum with above-average quality growth. This has been confirmed yet again with returning and new exhibitors from 15 countries, among which the leading destinations are regions, and with Hosted Buyers, on the other hand, that visit Conventa from 44 different countries.

The additional effort that has been put into searching for the most qualified foreign event organisers that have showed an interest in the region of Southeast Europe has paid off this year as well. Hereby, as many as 90 per cent of Hosted Buyers are new, and 10 per cent are revisiting Conventa. The organisers promise once more that Conventa will be a meeting point of New Europe, full of energy and genuine Slovenia hospitality. Additionally, we believe that more than 3000 meetings will be held, just as in previous years.

Numerous event industry experts have added Conventa to their calendar and describe it as the indispensable event of the year. Since its beginning the forum has been held in Ljubljana with the strong support of Tourism Ljubljana, the Slovenian Tourist Organisation and many other partners. Miha Kovačič, Head of the Slovenian Convention Bureau and Co-founder of Conventa, emphasizes: "Conventa has been for eleven years connecting the destinations of New Europe. It presents an example of good practice of connecting local partners, and it represents Slovenia in the best possible way. The international meetings community has acknowledged the event as one of the most important ones in Europe."

Gorazd Čad, co-organiser of the event: “The key achievement of the event is that we have succeeded in presenting the whole of New Europe to the international congress market. These are congress destinations that vary according to culture, culinary, customs and especially to business environment, but at the same time they are linked by series of connecting elements, which almost without exception convince participants of the event.” Mr Čad believes that the providers of New Europe that present themselves at Conventa are connected by following common features: The first one is an immense desire to host events. Such as you find difficult in more developed destinations. 

Accordingly, hosts will put extreme effort into making the guests happy. The second is genuine hospitality. We cannot find a hospitality like that anywhere else in Europe and after all the conflicts in the 90s, it is immensely attractive to tourists from all over the world. Mostly because it is real, it is not fake. The third, more rational one is the ratio between price and quality. At the moment, it is the best in Europe and maybe even beyond. This does not mean this is a cheap destination, but that for every euro invested into this event you will get the most out. The fourth feature common to all the destinations is that they are still rough diamonds. Each destination is missing something for its perfection.

However, this does not mean that they are less attractive, it may even mean that they are more interesting and that, with development of the industry, will become even more attractive. With the cooperation of regional congress bureaus, the eleventh edition of Conventa will yet again see to the most personal experience of Hosted Buyers. There will be 9 Famtrips organised, 6 to destinations in Slovenia and the others to Zagreb, Belgrade and Graz. Famtrips present a great opportunity for Hosted Buyers at Conventa to personally experience the destination and thus confirm offers presented at the event for themselves. Among the key novelties of Conventa 2019, the organisers set out the following: Conventa is no longer just a one-time event, but since 2018 it has included three programme designs with various events.

Each section addresses a different target group – from sales groups to marketing experts in individual companies.

- Conventa Experience is a boutique business (b2b) event, oriented towards personal meetings between Hosted Buyers and exhibitors. It will continue to be held in Ljubljana every January.

- Conventa Trend Bar is an event that travels through the region throughout the year, promoting the knowledge and connecting the regional congress industry.

- Conventa Crossover has grown from a conference into festival of events and marketing and is held every year at the end of August.