Questions

1. What events do meetings include?

2. What is a conference?

3. In what way are issues discussed at a forum?

4. What two components does a seminar include? Who is a seminar guided by? What’s the number of attendees?

5. What’s the original meaning of the word “symposium”? What’s the difference between a symposium and a conference?

6. What does the term “colloquium” indicate?

7. What type of meeting is a workshop?

8. What does the roundtable discussion symbolize?

9. What is the difference between a roundtable discussion and a panel discussion?

10. What are the reasons for having a meeting?

11. What are the main types of meeting setups?

Incentives

Incentive tourism is usually undertaken as a type of employee reward by an organisation for targets met or exceeded. Unlike other components of MICE industry, incentive tourism is usually conducted purely for entertainment, rather than professional or educational purposes. The preferred venues for incentive travel are upscale resort hotels or cruise ships that offer unique amenities and leisure programs. Imagine sunbathing on a beach in Jamaica or snow skiing in the Alps. Then imagine that your trip is completely free. Many companies use incentive travel as a marketing tool. These trips can range from a week in an exotic location to a weekend getaway in a nearby resort. Most of the time all of the expenses are paid by the company including food, hotel, airfare and in some cases a car rental.

Conferences

The term conference can be used to describe any meeting of people to ‘confer’ (exchange views) on a certain topic. These are generally larger meetings.

Conferences may take many different forms, including:

• conventions – the largest type of conference, which is usually a gathering of delegates from various groups

• videoconferences – which involve using video technology to enable communication between people who are geographically separated

• teleconferences – which involve using telephone conference-call links to enable communication between people who are geographically separated.

Exhibitions and trade fairs

Exhibitions are events that bring together sellers of products and services at a location (usually a convention center) where they can show their products and services to a group of attendees at a convention or trade show. Exhibitors are an essential component of the industry because they pay to exhibit their products to the attendees. Exhibitors interact with attendees with the intention of making sales or establishing contacts and leads for follow-up.

A trade fair is a marketplace for commercial suppliers of products or services that are of interest to a specific profession or market segment. Trade fairs are occasions in which corporations of a certain industry gather to display their latest products and innovations.

Trade fairs are usually held during the same period in the same location each year. There are closed trade fairs that are only open to the professional trade, and open trade fairs that are targeted to a sector of the general public (e.g. home and garden shows, bridal shows, auto shows). Large trade fairs and exhibitions are usually held in purpose-built centers.