Dear Meetings industry professional
I've attended AIBTM 2011 in Baltimore and here comes my feedback.
Overall it was an interesting tradeshow with ups and downs (as usual). As the 2011 edition was the first of its kind I would like to congratulate the organizer for a well organized trade show. Of course the format and style was similar as EIBTM and other trade shows organized by the same group but with a very interesting co-seminar organized by PCMA it was nevertheless more interesting.
As a hosted buyer at AIBTM we were not allowed to attend PCMA seminars but as control was not existent I went into some seminars the first day and I liked it.
AIBTM 2011 offered a large variety of North- and South American suppliers and even some "rest of the world" suppliers. I had some very interesting and some less interesting meetings. And some meetings I had absolutely no interest in as I will not have any business for them...
I had to ask again and again to translate sft into sqm as I am not familiar with the US sizes. When will US companies start to realize the world doesn't stop at their boarder?
But for me the main question was: why Baltimore? This city doesn't offer much (nice said) for MICE organizers and the venue as well as hotels are discutable. In one hotel (which belongs to a well known chain) there was no electricity and no water in the guest rooms and in another one from another well known chain did the elevators not work and the guests had to carry their suitcase etc up to their room (which might have been on the 18th floor).
There was no drinking water available on the welcome reception so I had to take a glass and go to the toilette to get some...
Another wish from my side would be to allow us organizer to select the travel dates as many of us would have liked to extend our stay and do some more buisness in the US while being there already.
To summarize, AIBTM should go to another city, get some of the small issues corrected and go on with what could be the best US trade show organized by an European company
