Barcelona adds a new congress to its MICE sector calendar by winning the bid for the European Microscopy Congress in 2028 in Copenhagen. This congress is organized every four years and brings together 3,000 professionals from the microscopy sector, who have decided by majority that Barcelona will be the venue for the 2028 event in a highly contested bid, presented by Turisme de Barcelona, through the BCB, jointly with the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Scientific and Technological Centers of the UB (CCiTUB), University of Zaragoza, LMA - Advanced Microscopy Laboratory, BCO Congresos and CCIB.
Thus, this September kicks off the new congress season, which this month will host three medical congresses, confirming the Catalan capital as a benchmark for medical-scientific congresses: 42nd European Annual Congress of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons - ESCRS 2024 (September 6-10) with 15,000 delegates; European Congress of Oncology (September 13-19) with 30,000 delegates; and 24th Euretina and Refractive Surgery Congress (September 19-22) with 6,000 delegates.
For Christoph Tessmar, director of the BCB, "Barcelona stands out for its ability to attract large congresses and the ability to offer a flexible environment that adapts to the needs of the sector, thanks to the effective coordination of all involved institutions. This understanding and involvement of all parties involved makes us a unique model to follow in terms of organizing international events."
Francesca Peiró, Director of the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Barcelona, explains that "the European microscopy congress presents the latest innovations and instrumental development along with everything related to frontier scientific knowledge applied to life sciences, physical sciences, and advanced materials, for energy, environment, electronics, and quantum technologies among others." In this sense, she believes that "the commission to organize this event in Barcelona is a recognition of the activity carried out in this field and the economic investments in electron microscopy that have recently been made in the Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona are an example".
With the motto Zoom-in: microscopy for sustainable development goals, Barcelona will bring together the scientific community expert in electron, optical, and near-field microscopies, as well as a large commercial exhibition of manufacturers and companies in the sector. Peiró argues that "for Barcelona, it will be a magnificent opportunity to bring this discipline closer to the public since, apart from the scientific sessions, it is planned to organize dissemination activities for non-expert audiences, which will be held in parallel at the congress venue, the Barcelona International Convention Center, and in nearby areas."
Apart from international congresses, Barcelona also hosts important national congresses, such as the 37th National Congress of SERAM (2,500 delegates) in May or the XLIV Congress of semFYC 2024, in November with more than 2,000 delegates.
Additionally, this September, the city will also host the annual PCMA EMEA convention (Sep 30-Oct 2), which will bring together some 600 delegates, all of them professionals from the Business Events sector (destinations, congress and event organizers, associations, corporations...). It will also feature professionals from the American continent.
The Catalan capital holds the first position in the ranking as the destination with the most delegates and remains in the Top 5 as a MICE destination, obtaining the 5th position after Paris, Singapore, Lisbon, and Vienna. According to this ranking, Barcelona is the first non-capital city, and the first in all of Spain that has organized the most congresses in 2023, thus accumulating more than 20 consecutive years in the Top 5 of international congresses.
In 2023, the city organized a total of 1,945 meetings (between congresses and conventions), of which 1,407 were corporate meetings and 538 congresses in sectors such as technology, pharmaceutical, and medical, with an economic impact that exceeded one billion, reaching 1,063.24M€.