The commitment that Firenze Convention Bureau (FCB) and the congress structure of Florence have addressed, both in Italy and abroad, to publicising the advantages that a destination like Florence can offer has brought many prestigious international events to the city in the three-year period of 2006-2008. The congress structure of Florence has thrown its collective weight behind the FCB’s message in working to attract international events to a destination whose undeniable fascination worldwide needs no generic promotion. Avant-garde technology, quality services provided by members of the FCB, prestigious accommodation facilities and public response are bringing Florence to the fore as a natural choice for international event organisers to locate scientific and specialised cultural congresses. The Fortezza da Basso, Palazzo Congressi and Palazzo Affari are Florence’s main congress venues and constitute a natural conglomerate in the heart of the city. These three facilities together can house up to 20,000 attendees over a total area of 60,000 sq mt of covered exhibition space. Firenze Fiera is planning to renovate these three centres. The Fortezza halls will be renovated, and avant-garde equipment installed while Palazzo Affari will be equipped with halls also designed for corporate clients. The accommodation in Florence is broad and varied with 538 hotels for a total of 16,585 rooms. For making itself known internationally FCB has a network of international contacts, and its advisors comprise several Italian opinion leaders, and its stated objective is to set up authentic promotion centres abroad as can be seen in its joint project with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in London for promoting and developing the idea of Florence to the congress and corporate markets in England. This project will see the opening of a series of new FCB representative offices in 2006 for making direct contact with foreign associations and companies. Affiliation with important international congress associations such as MPI, ICCA, EFCT, and FCB’s constant presence at the most important trade-fairs on congress tourism worldwide place it within a network which is well equipped to give the highest profile to events brought to Florence. The commitment of the FCB today is to provide a on-going guarantee of top quality in the product and professional services it offers in what is one of the favourite destinations of congress-goers as seen in the Mice statistics for the number of delegates confirmed for their destination. The FCB is continually working to strengthen its services to add quality and technology to a destination brand which is already very strong at international level.

The following are the upcoming events in Florence:

27-30 April 2006 Therapeutic Patient Education 2006
9-13 May 2006 Aqua 2006
19 July-5 August 91° World Esperanto Congress
27-30 August 2006 Wonca Europe 2006
4-7 October 2006 7° National Congress of Pneumology
6-10 March 2007 The Fourth International Conference on Tumor Microenvironment
27-31 May 2007 6th Biennial Isakos Congress
15-17 June 2007 15th Annual Congress of European Association for Psychotherapy - EAP
9-13 September 2007 World Congress of Perinatal Medicine
14-18 September 2007 36th International Conference EDTNA/ERCA
30 March-2 April 2008 Annual Meeting Eur. Group Blood and Marrow Transplantation
13-16 September 2008 30th Congress of the European Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition - ESPEN ‘30