In terms of convention business, 2016 proved to be the strongest year in two decades, with the Congress Center Leipzig (CCL) and the Kongresshalle am Zoo Leipzig generating turnover of approximately 9 million euros. Numerous medical conferences for an international audience, corporate business events and new space arrangements for event organisers through the official opening of the Kongresshalle early in the year all contributed to the record performance.
In 2016, more than 120,000 visitors in total attended 76 events at the CCL. Highlights included medical conferences for several thousand participants devoted to the fields of urology, anaesthesia, autoimmunity, haematology and oncology as well as ultrasound and echocardiography. Working closely with relevant players locally, the CCL offers a flexible space concept. In the case of a large-scale conference with specialist supporting programme and extensive industry exhibition, for example, the CCL can be combined with Hall 2 while the adjacent Glass Hall will be used to host a range of events.
Conferences regularly hosted at the CCL (including leading German and European medical congresses) played a part in the economic success story of 2016. The traditional kick-off was provided by the Leipzig Interventional Course (LINC), which expanded once again to accommodate some 5,000 participants. Having made a successful premiere in Leipzig, the German Radiology Conference, which attracts some 7,000 participants, will be held at the CCL every year until 2020. Meanwhile the International Transport Forum (ITF) took place at the CCL for the ninth time – and the organisers have opted for Leipzig again in 2017. Other events in 2016 included the Deutscher StiftungsTag in May and the Deutscher Marketing Tag in November.
The DIVI Conference (German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine) is scheduled to be held at the CCL, with around 6,000 participants expected. The conference alternates between Hamburg and Leipzig every other year, but because of renovation work at the Hamburg site, the conference will also return to Leipzig in 2018. The German Neurological Society will come to the CCL for the first time in September 2017; with as many as 6,000 participants, the event ranks as one of the world’s top three neurological conferences in terms of visitor numbers.
In its first year of official operation by the CCL, the Kongresshalle hosted a total of 122 events attracting almost 64,000 visitors. The building provides a venue for major German and international academic conventions, and serves as a cultural beacon for the city. The Leipziger Messe itself uses the new premises for events such as the ‘protekt’ conference and trade show and Designers’ Open.
The venue provides 15 different auditoriums for up to a thousand guests.
As for next year, conferences are already scheduled in the fields of healthcare, cardiodiagnostics, clinical neurophysiology and echocardiography.