982 attendees from 71 countries! Dramatically overtaking the previous records for an ICCA Congress

was an overwhelming success not just in these quantitative terms, but also scored some of the best delegate evaluations for organisation, content, networking and local host hospitality that ICCA has ever achieved.

Average delegate scores for the three major evening networking events that were organised by the

Italian team were an amazing 51.0% Excellent; 38.3% Good; 8.5% Satisfactory; 2.2% Below Standard.

Chairman of the Italian Local Host Committee Leonardo Sorelli from Newtours SpA reacted to this feedback: "We promised the delegates that as well as professional organisation and strong business opportunities, we would deliver a showcase for Italian passion and creativity that they would remember forever. Our ICCA friends tell us that these are the strongest overall evaluations they have ever seen for this aspect of the Congress, and this makes all Italian ICCA members immensely proud! Delegates were able to experience Italian culture and gastronomy, cutting-edge design, and the unique ambience of Renaissance Florence, as well as our professional skills and teamwork".

ICCA CEO Martin Sirk confirmed the vital role of the local partners: "We always knew this was going to be one of our most challenging congresses - the higher overall numbers, the need to use many hotels, a big increase in the number of educational sessions with more than 120 speakers to coordinate, the fragmented nature of the 40 year old main venue, all of these meant that we had to invest even more thought and innovation into the networking tools and communication plans to help delegates find one another and share business information as easily as possible, and get to the right sessions on time.

The Italian team were tremendous in helping us find solutions to all these challenges, resulting in one of our best-evaluated events of all time."