International Meetings Statistics 2008 - Press Release

Press Release June 2009

Union of International Associations

 

International Meeting Statistics for the Year 2008

By Joel Fischer

 

 

Introduction

 

For the past 60 years, the Union of International Associations has undertaken, for the benefit of its members, statistical studies on the preceding year’s international meetings. As in previous years, the report is also available for sale to the public following a period of three months exclusive use by UIA Associate Members.

 

The statistics are based on information systematically collected by the UIA Congress Department and selected according to strict criteria maintained over the years, thus enabling meaningful comparison from year to year.

 

Meetings taken into consideration include those organized and/or sponsored by the international organizations which appear in the Yearbook of International Organizations and in the International Congress Calendar, i.e.: the sittings of their principal organs, congresses, conventions, symposia, regional sessions grouping several countries, as well as some national meetings with international participation organized by national branches of international associations.

 

Not included are purely national meetings as well as those of an exclusively religious, didactic, political, commercial, or sporting nature, and corporate and incentive meetings, the survey of these specific markets not being within the scope of activities of the UIA.

 

 

Additions to this year’s report

 

The presentation of data has been revised for this edition in order to present more details on the current reporting year and to present more fully, and give more prominence to, that data which is the UIA’s specialty: the activities of international organizations listed in the Yearbook of International Organizations.

 

More prominence is also given to presenting data which, due to the passage of time, can be considered to have stabilized. The editors emphasize that the number of meetings for the current reporting year (2008) is expected to be around 87 to 90 percent of that extracted from the database three or four years hence.

 

Since the previous edition of this report, the UIA meetings database has been enriched by connecting it more closely to its sister database on international organizations, the source of the Yearbook of International Organizations. This enables historical surveys of international organization meeting activity as far back as 1850. It has also affected the rate of change in data, giving an exceptional boost to the numbers presented in this report for 2008.

 

It should be noted that UIA criteria for collection and inclusion have not changed; only the presentation has changed.

 

 

General picture

 

At the time of producing this edition (May 2009) there were 328,949 meetings in the UIA meetings database of which 316,128 (96%) meet the criteria for inclusion in this report. Of these 316,128 meetings, 297,306 took place in 2007 or earlier, 11,423 took place in 2008, and 7,399 are scheduled for 2009 or later.

 

The section of the report with figures for 2008 covers 1,664 cities and 193 countries. Other sections (figures for 1850-2913) cover 10,385 cities and 252 countries.

 

 

The worldwide breakdown (market share) for meetings in 2008 by continent is:
 

The top ten countries for 2008 are: USA, France, Singapore, Japan, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, UK.

 

The top ten cities for 2008 are: Singapore, Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Barcelona, Tokyo, Seoul, Budapest, Copenhagen, London.

 

 

Top international meeting countries in 2008 (extracted from Table 1.2)

 

 

Top international meeting cities in 2008 (extracted from Table 1.3)

 

 

 

The Table of Contents of the complete statistics report is given below.

 

Associated and complementary information is available in the Yearbook of International Organizations: Volume 5 (Statistics, Visualizations and Patterns) which contains extensive statistical information on international meetings and organizations.

For more information on UIA Associate Membership, statistical and other information products, please contact us.

 

Reproduction, whether partial or otherwise, is authorized provided clear mention of author and source is given.

 

 

Table of Contents

 

Introduction

 

Section 1: Statistics for the current year, 2008

 

Table 1.1. Geographic distribution of international meetings in 2008

Table 1.2. Top international meeting countries in 2008

Table 1.3. Top international meeting cities in 2008

 

Section 2: Five year review, 2004–2008

 

Table 2.1. Top international meeting countries in 2004-2008

Table 2.2. Top international meeting cities in 2004-2008

Table 2.3. Top 10 international meeting countries and cities in 2004-2008

 

Section 3: Ten year review, 1994–2003

 

Table 3.1. Top international meeting countries in 1994-2003

Table 3.2. Top international meeting cities in 1994-2003

Table 3.3. Top 10 international meeting countries and cities in 1994-2003

Table 3.4. International meetings: exhibitions and number of participants in 1994-2003

Table 3.5. Meetings, and meetings with concurrent exhibitions, by month in 1994-2003

Table 3.6. Number of participants in international meetings by month in 1994-2003

Table 3.7. Growth rates by country in 1994-2003

Table 3.8. Growth rates by city in 1994-2003

 

Section 4: Long-term review, 1850–1999

 

Table 4.1. Top international meeting countries in 1850-1999

Table 4.2. Top international meeting cities in 1850-1999

Table 4.3. Top 10 international meeting countries and cities in 1850-1999

 

Section 5: The future, 2009–2013

 

Table 5.1. Top international meeting countries in 2009-2013

Table 5.2. Top international meeting cities in 2009-2013

Table 5.3. Top 10 international meeting countries and cities in 2009-2013

 

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