"The Bible for anyone selling into the Congress market, [the Yearbook volumes] get bigger and better every year..."

 

The annual yearbooks of the Union of International Associations, published by Saur Verlag of Munich, are out again. They are the most notable publications of their sort - six volumes giving facts about 20,000 organisations, some of it in great detail. The Bible for anyone selling into the Congress market, they get bigger and better every year, and are updated by a quarterly calendar. UIA's computer is available to dig out still more data, should you need it. The most recent fact sheet from their Brussels office tells where Congresses went last year. Biggest news is that the UK pushed France out of second place, to become Europe's front runner, next only to the US in the whole world.

 

Last year 6232 international conferences were lists, 7.5% up on 1984. Europe (3952) had most, followed by America (1181), Asia (659), Africa (243), Australasia (128) abd 69 in limbo. I guess most of us have been at a meeting in limbo, one time or another.

Paris stays top city, followed by London, Brussels, and Geneva. West Berlin moved to 6th place at the expense of Rome and New York. Copenhagen advanced too, while Seoul jumped from 18th to 12th, and Barcelona made the biggest leap of all, from 34th to 13th.

 

Other than the capital, who figures in the UK's success? UIA point to Brighton, with 27 international and 8 national meetings with a major international content, Cambridge (25 and 9), Edinburgh (23 and 11), Birmingham (20 and 7), Manchester (18 and 9) and Oxford (17 and 7). Our other 230 Congresses? UIA don't say, but they certainly happened, and it's a credit to the UK's marketers that the figures are so healthy.