Lviv Convention Bureau started cooperation with the international consulting firm GainingEdge. The day before, the company offered assistance to Kyiv and Lviv in developing the strategy of the cities as MICE destinations.

The offer to help cities is oriented in three directions:

  • Strategy for working with international associations to attract their events to Lviv
  • Communication campaign about Lviv as a MICE destination
  • Certified training programs for the local MICE market (professional conference organizers, representatives of national associations, hotels, exhibition centers, etc.).

GainingEdge representatives paid attention that Lviv should already be building a post-war modernization strategy. The city has all the prerequisites to implement the delayed demand for holding conference events after the victory.

Attracting large conferences, forums, exhibitions, business events to Lviv is a direction that can help the economy of the city and the country. These are not only funds from the rental of conference halls, accommodation and food for delegates, but also new ideas and useful projects.

GainingEdge emphasized that they are monitoring how the international community reacts to everything that is happening in Ukraine and Lviv on the MICE market. They have some insights that present Lviv as a powerful conference destination:

  1. Even during the war, Lviv remains the center of business events. Foreign doctors, journalists, diplomats, businessmen, representatives of international organizations come to the city. In addition to helping Ukrainian colleagues on the professional front, they also participate in round tables, discussions, and mini-forums that are held in shelters.
  2. The local community is incredibly active. For example, Lviv Honorary Ambassadors during the war declared good cooperation with their international colleagues. Being members of international associations, they appealed to the leaders of the associations to suspend russia’s membership. They also secured financial support for helping Ukrainians who suffered during the war. They organized humanitarian and medical aid to hospitals, initiated projects to support Ukraine Armed Forces. At the same time, the Ambassadors are active on the scientific front – they win grants for Ukrainian scientific projects.
  3. The local MICE community, which includes professional event organizers, catering companies, representatives of large conference locations, conference hotels, transformed their work to help Ukrainians fleeing the war. In the first months of the full-scale invasion, they organized logistics at the railway station, set up shelters, and set up a network to prepare and distribute ready meals to those in need. This is the incredible power of the community, which clearly shows what can be done in critical situations.
  4. The international MICE industry is delighted to look at colleagues in Ukraine and Lviv. Representatives of large international organizations in the field of business events suspended business in russia, refused any events on the territory of the russian federation, and suspended membership. They also opened vacancies in their companies for Ukrainians, transferred sums for humanitarian aid to the victims. In addition, they want to help the Ukrainian MICE business professionally. They want to help with the training of specialists, with the search for contacts, with the development of strategies for the recovery of the industry after the war. This means that Ukrainians successfully communicated with them in private and open conversations.
  5. Lviv continues to be visible on the international scene. Lviv continues communication with partners. Colleagues from the bureau at international exhibitions tell the real state of affairs, simultaneously showing all the conference possibilities of the city. They stay in touch. At the right moment, all these contacts will return to Ukraine. And it will happen faster than you can imagine.

The first meeting with GainingEdge experts took place with the participation of Lviv conference professionals:

  • Lina Ostapchuk, the first director of the Lviv Conference Bureau.
  • Andriy Pavliv, LCB ex-director
  • Oksana Bayuk, a marketing and strategy consultant specializing in the MICE market.

We discussed the possibility of establishing contacts with international associations, in particular in the field of medicine, business and humanitarian sphere, which the city needs most now, to present them with the conference opportunities of Lviv, to invite them to hold events.

Working with GainingEdge is a great opportunity to show the professional environment of Lviv, to find ways of joint projects with international partners. And, of course, this is an educational aspect – training in certified programs of MICE market specialists.