OPC Spain

The event will showcase Galicia’s potential to host major events

The Spanish events sector is meeting this week in Compostela at the 32nd PCO Spain Congress, which is being held in Santiago de Compostela from 20 to 22 February and will bring together the main national companies in the congress sector. Previously, in the morning of the same day 20, A Coruña will receive the participants in the MICE Forum, the annual appointment that gathers associations of companies related to this economic activity. The congress will have a more than representative sample of the national MICE sector.
The president of PCO Spain, Matilde Almandoz, and the heads of 15 regional PCO organisations will be in Compostela. The presidents of the main professional associations of the sector in Spain and Europe will also be present.

More than 300 professionals from the mice sector have already registered for the congress, in which speakers such as Mario Alonso Puig, doctor and motivational communicator, expert in motivation, creativity, communication, teamwork and leadership, Adrián Ott, ex-president of ACForum, will participate: the only networking platform in Europe established exclusively for and by associations with salaried staff and internal congress organisation, Carmen Centol, president of the National Association of Hostess Companies (ADEAZA), as well as CEOs and heads of top-level companies in the organisation of congresses, events and incentives or also heads of promotion of destinations or entities linked to the MICE sector in Portugal, Navarra, Valencia or Barcelona, among others.

Sustainability and the environment

Sustainability, safety, technology and respect for the environment will be cross-cutting themes in the programme of the 32nd National Congress of PCOs Spain, which will be a pioneer in measuring the carbon footprint of events. . In order to do so, not only the emissions generated at the venue itself will be taken into account, but also the travel of speakers and congress participants or the fuel costs required for the assembly tasks, which will be done with sustainable materials. The organization of the Congress, which is run by OPC Galicia and OPC Spain, wants this call to serve as an example for future events, since sustainability is one of the most important challenges of the MICE sector in the immediate future.

The event will allow the organisations that organise it, OPC Spain and OPC Galicia, to show the potential of the Galician community when it comes to hosting major events. With cities of manageable size, state-of-the-art infrastructures and fluid communications with the rest of the Peninsula, Galicia stands out as a destination for its enormous cultural and landscape heritage, its excellent gastronomy and its capacity to inspire.

To prove it, the assistants to the congress will be able to enjoy, beyond the interventions of first level speakers, a special dinner in the Cidade da Cultura, elaborated with certified Galician products and with denomination of origin, thanks to the collaboration of the Galician Agency of Food Quality (Agacal).

In addition, they will be able to learn more about the attractions of A Coruña (in the case of those attending the MICE Forum) and Santiago through guided tours of its historic centres; a party at the Compostela Food Market; or post-conference initiatives such as a walk along the Way of Saint James.