Germany on the move

The German meetings, convention, incentive and event industry invests in the future.

Frankfurt on Main, 11 April 2005. The German meetings, convention, incentive and event industry is and becoming ever more attractive for national and international planners. Major financial investments and comprehensive innovations will not only be realised by traditional meeting centres but also by many new German destinations and service providers. Hotels and convention centres are expanding their capacities and modernising existing facilities both technically and architecturally.

Moreover, Germany's communication infrastructure is expanding rapidly, soundly and comprehensively. W-LAN, Internet and Intranet, telephone and video conferences are standard. German convention centres and meeting hotels offer their guests exceptional technical facilities with the latest and fastest communication systems.

From 19 to 21 April 2005 event planners can inform themselves personally about new meeting and convention facilities in Germany. Many hotels and convention centres will exhibit at the Germany stand A100 – A180 at IMEX – incorporating Meetings Made in Germany, The World-wide Exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events at Frankfurt Fair. Those interested will find more details about the exhibitors on www.imex-frankfurt.de.

The following examples go to show how much Germany and its meetings, convention, incentive and event industry are in motion:

Convention centres:

Amberg Congress Centre ACC has received the "Gipfeltreffen“ (Summit Meeting) quality label from Bayern Tourismus GmbH and can now count itself among the top league of convention centres. In addition, the ACC is the first venue of its region to grant its guests cable-free Internet access with HotSpots.

The International Congress Centre Berlin (ICC Berlin) has already received bookings for up to 2014 with 250 top-level conventions and events that will be attended by over one million people from all over the world.

The International Congress Centre Bundeshaus Bonn (IKBB) will add a 3,500-sqm multi-purpose convention centre in 2005, offering space for up to 3,500 people (in rows), plus a 5-star hotel with 200 rooms. The project is slated for completion by 2008.

The AWD Dome Bremen has been renovated for 47.5 million euros, raising its total capacity by 3,500 to 14,000 seats – including additional VIP boxes with 20 seats each. The inauguration took place in December 2004.

DüsseldorfCongress. will start building its 7th location in April 05 – a multi-purpose arena in Rath (capacity: 11,500 seats). Additionally, a new lighting concept has been implemented at CCD. South, to enhance the visitors' well-being.

Freiburg Fair has a space of 13,500 square metres. A new fair hall and exhibition area with 7,500 square metres of additional space are under construction.The fair has merged with Freiburg Wirtschaft und Touristik GmbH & Co. KG with the aim of generating synergies between the two organisations and marketing conventions and fairs as a one-stop provider.

2005 will be a special year for Frankfurt Fair Congress Centre with three highlights: It will stage its one-thousandth event and it expects its one-millionth visitor.

Over the next two years Congress Center Hamburg will invest a total of 25 million euros in a cutting-edge infrastructural expansion of its meetings area – adding a new 7,000 square-metre multi-purpose exhibition hall.

EXPO XXI Cologne will open on 30 April 2005 and plans to add a 1,400-sqm Event Loft that can be used for various events. The Event Loft will be a unique addition to the almost 8,500-sqm, private event centre in the heart of metropolis Cologne.

In a record time of 15 months Cologne Fair plans to complete four new halls by late 2005. The new site will comprise an open-air space of 75,000 square metres and around 80,000 square metres of gross exhibition space.

Congress Centre Mainz will add a 1,800-sqm hall and a foyer with 1,700 sqm of exhibition space to Rheingoldhalle. The Gutenberg Hall offers space for 1,340 people in theatre seating. In total, the centre will provide 3,200 sqm more of gross space. The expansion will be finished by autumn 2006.

m:con Congress Center Rosengarten Mannheim will add 8,000 square metres up to 2007 for an investment of 50 million euros, enlarging the exhibition space in its existing foyers by 3,000 to 5,000 square metres. Ten new conference rooms and three new congress halls will be added, the largest with 1,500 square metres of space. This capacity expansion is to improve facilities for large conventions in Mannheim.

Münster was the winner of the United Nations LivCom Award 2004. Halle Münsterland is the biggest venue for events in the region. The centre offers rooms for congresses, fairs and other MICE activities and events for up to 3,300 people in theatre seating.

On 16 April 2005: Then Nuremberg's CCN CongressCenter will open a new meeting centre: CCN Ost. The 60-million-euro construction in the eastern part of Nuremberg's exhibition site offers space for 3,200 delegates and is tailor-made for mid-sized conventions.

HotSpots in Culture+Congress Centre Rosenheim (KU’KO) now enable guests anywhere in the venue to access the Internet easily. An infrared transmission system built into the hall microphones allows the hearing-impaired to follow all events with infrared headphones from their seat.

With the new ICS - International Congress Centre Stuttgart – to be opened in autumn 2007 - a convention centre will be created together with Stuttgart's new fair that will be among the biggest and most modern facilities of its kind in Germany. The ICS will offer space for up to 9,300 people. Stuttgart's new fair will have 100,000 square metres of exhibition space in 9 halls.

In May 2007 Kurhaus Wiesbaden will celebrate its 100th anniversary. From mid-2006 Kurhaus guests will be able to park their cars in the planned underground garage under the bowling green with 430 parking spaces.

Hotels

The new InterContinental Resort Berchtesgaden was opened early this March. Conference guests can book 138 rooms with panorama views – including 12 suites (some with two storeys) – in various categories. The modern conference area has two ballrooms (with natural lighting and views of the mountains) for up to 200 delegates.

In early 2005 the Crowne Plaza Berlin City Centre introduced W-LAN/high speed access in the entire hotel area, in all rooms. Its ten conference rooms hold up to 1,000 people.

Comprehensive renovation work started in early 2005 on the Estrel Hotel & Convention Center Berlin: All rooms and suites in wing 4 will be restructured according to a new, modern but timeless design. Also the Orangerie of the 2,800-sqm atrium with its glass roof will be renovated and refurbished.

In summer 2005 Maritim Hotel Berlin will open in Berlin-Mitte as Berlins’ largest four-star superior meeting hotel with 505 hotel rooms and suites. Two function rooms, 15 conference rooms and separate meeting rooms will offer capacity for over 5,500 people on approx. 8,200 square metres of event space.

Up to February 2005 the Hotel Palace Berlin modernised the 106 rooms of its western wing. In March 2004 the hotel had expanded its event area to a total of 2,400 sqm. 19 multi-purpose rooms with natural lighting are available for events of all kinds with up to 800 people.

Park Inn Berlin-Alexanderplatz has nearly completed its modernisation and now features 700 strikingly exclusive rooms with elegant furniture and excellent amenities. From May 2005 the four-star superior hotel will boast a new mirror glass-facade worth 2.8 million euros.

The lobby of the five-star Steigenberger Hotel Berlin was completely renovated in 2004. The hotel spent around 1 million euros on this modernisation. Further investments are planned for 2005.

The ten historical theme suites of the Berlin luxury hotel The Westin Grand have been newly renovated and are suitable for very intimate meetings. The hotel's 3,000-sqm roof garden is an unusual venue for meetings and events.

Maritim Hotel Düsseldorf is slated for completion by late 2007. The hotel will have over 533 rooms including 30 suites. With event capacity for up to 3,500 people it will be the city's largest conference hotel. Its biggest hall will offer space for up to 2,400 people and a smaller hall for up to 1,100 people. Nine other meeting rooms (120 – 390 sqm) offer space for 50 to 360 people.

The 10-million-euro renovation on the 301 rooms and suites, conference area and reception hall of Hotel nikko Düsseldorf has been completed. Conferences and meetings for up to 350 people can be held in the four conference rooms that are 34 to 410 square metres large.

The ArabellaSheraton Grand Hotel Frankfurt will receive a new telephone system in 2005 and then 75% of all rooms will have high-speed Internet access. The Business Centre will be enlarged and refurbished. The suites and 40 rooms will be renovated, as well as the boutiques.

The new Radisson SAS Hotel Frankfurt is slated to open at the Opel roundabout near the exhibition centre in autumn 2005. The futuristic building will be visible from a long distance thanks to its height of 20 floors. It will offer 420 rooms and suites with modern amenities and nine flexibly partitionable meeting rooms with space for up to 600 people.

The Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel & Towers Conference Center, Europe's biggest airport hotel has completed its large-scale modernisation and refurbishment programme worth 70 million euros. One of the highlights is the newly created “TowersFloor”, where a separate luxury area has been opened.

By spring 2006 construction work on the new Grand Elysée Hotel in Hamburg will be completed. The expansion cost 100 million euros. The hotel will then boast 215 new rooms and a banqueting and meeting hall with capacity for more than 1,000 people.

The Kempinski Grand Hotel Heiligendamm offers ten conference rooms and a historical ballroom for meetings with up to 200 people. A conference centre will be added in 2007, in time for the G8 summit meeting in Heiligendamm.

The Westin Leipzig with 447 rooms and 32 meeting rooms is the largest meeting hotel in Central Germany. In addition to a large-scale conversion of 14 suites and one grand deluxe floor in 2004, two guest floors have just been refurbished according to top quality standards. In April 2005 the exclusive Falco fine-dining restaurant will open on the 27th floor with a walk-in wine cabinet.

The Mainz Hilton, right next door to Congress Centrum Mainz, has 433 rooms. The business rooms and all eight in-house conference rooms were recently standardize with W-LAN. The Golden Hall with a capacity of 750 people has been refurbished.

Munich's Marriott Hotel finished renovating all its 13 meeting rooms in January 2005. Its 14 suites will also return to their former splendour in late March 2005.

All hotel rooms, conference rooms and the lobby of Swissôtel Düsseldorf / Neuss now feature W-LAN. The Jupiter hall with capacity for 1,500 people, the adjacent Diana hall and 14 modern conference rooms offer excellent meeting facilities.

On 1 July Yachthafenresidenz Hohe Düne will open in Rostock-Warnemünde, as a very special kind of hotel. Next door to a marina with 750 berths and white sandy beaches, the meeting-goer can choose between 22 conference rooms with space for up to 780 people – overlooking the Baltic Sea. The hotel with 368 rooms and suites also has a spa area of over 4,200 square metres.

Together with the adjacent Stuttgart SI Amusement Centre, the Millennium Hotel and Resort Stuttgart has one of Germany's most interesting leisure parks. All hotel rooms, meeting rooms and the lobby are now equipped with W-LAN.

ArabellaSheraton Hotelmanagement GmbH will take over the management of the hotel tower in Schweinfurter Straße in Würzburg, which is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2006. The future 58-metre hotel tower with 150 rooms and suites on 17 floors is being marketed as the ArabellaSheraton Hotel Würzburg.

The InterContinental Group of Hotels will add eight new hotels to its portfolio in 2005: Express by Holiday Inn Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof, Holiday Inn Nuremberg, InterContinental Berchtesgaden, InterContinental Düsseldorf, Holiday Inn Kaiserslautern, Express by Holiday Inn Neunkirchen, Express by Holiday Inn Hamburg Altona and the Holiday Inn Frankfurt on Main Westhafen.

SEMINARIS-Hotels & Meeting Resorts in Lüneburg and Bad Honnef have completely refurbished their rooms and meeting areas and equipped them with W-LAN. All seven Seminaris Hotels & Meeting Resorts offer modern interiors and a professional meeting and conference centre according to DIN 19506 plus a great culinary experience "all in one location“.

Excellent meeting facilities and smooth organisation combined with a multifaceted social programme comprising culture, sports or special countryside experiences: All that makes meetings, congress and incentive destination Germany more and more attractive also for international events.

Germany is an important and easy-to-reach international and economic centre in the heart of Europe. It leads the way in communicating economic and scientific know-how. Hence, Germany – thanks to its economic and educational activities and excellent travel infrastructure – is an ideal location for conventions.

The excellent accessability of venues in Germany is a clear advantage for the meeting destination in the heart of Europe: Germany's airports – first and foremost Frankfurt Airport – ensure excellent connections with all corners of the earth. And the well-established infrastructure and ease of travelling in Germany itself and its cities encourage an efficient execution and logistics for all kinds of events.
Many associations have already realised the potential and advantages of Germany. Many international conventions will be staged in Germany in 2005,including major events of the medical sector (see congress calendar on www.germany-meetings.com).

The GCB markets Germany both nationally and internationally as a destination for conventions, meetings, events and incentives and is the place to contact for anybody planning an event in Germany. Its 200 members include leading hotels, convention centres and destinations, car hire firms, event agencies and service providers of the German meetings and convention industry. SevenCenters and Maritim Hotels are Preferred Partners of the GCB.

The GCB interfaces between organisers of meetings and conventions and suppliers of the German meetings market, offers advice and support for planning and organising events, and provides contacts and addresses. Its website http://www.germany-meetings.com features an online search facility for meeting venues, Newsletter, a Germany guide and a lot more.

Further information and press releases about the German Convention Bureau (GCB) on www.germany-meetings.com.