Medical central

Dublin’s conference centre is attracting more than its fair share of medical conventions

THE CONFERENCE Centre Dublin (CCD) was officially opened on Saturday night by President Mary McAleese for its first international conference. Appropriately, given the business it has attracted to date, it was a medical conference.

The CCD was only a shell of a building when the European Dialysis Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association (EDTNA/ERCA) elected to host its annual conference there. There were 1,600 nurses in attendance from 46 countries at the weekend for the first of what is hoped will be hundreds of such events in the coming years.

The absence of a purpose-built conference centre stymied attempts by the local committee to bring the conference in 1986 and 1990. “This time all the conditions are right,” says Tallaght-based renal nurse Anne Murphy, who has been working part-time on the conference for two years. “The whole renal industry has come because of the strength of the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector here.”

Some people might have a jaundiced view of conferences in general, but the EDTNA/ERCA gathering at the weekend was all work, and what play there was happened in the delegates’ own time. Sessions began at 8.30am, attendance went towards course work for those studying, and there were excursions into Dublin, but only for the partners of delegates.

The opening of the CCD could not come at a better time for the local tourism industry. CSO figures show the number of foreign visitors to Ireland is down 20 per cent in a year and Dublin is disproportionately more dependent on foreign visitors.

Promoting the CCD as a medical conference venue has been “absolutely paramount”, says Fáilte Ireland’s business tourism unit manager Keelin Fagan.

Fáilte Ireland has provided financial support to bids for 23 medical conferences and seven medical science conferences this year, with a combined total of 28,000 visitors and potential revenue of €42.2 million.

Medical conferencing has the added advantage of being relatively recession-proof at a time when many corporate shindigs have been cancelled for financial reasons. “Our thinking is that these medical conferences are going to happen anyway, so why not Ireland? We are getting a disproportionate number of medical and medical science conferences,” Fagan says.

Fáilte Ireland has sought conferencing business by recruiting “conference ambassadors” – home-grown experts in the field to go out and lobby for conferences on behalf of their associations.

Of its 74 ambassadors last year, 22 were from the medical or the medical sciences field. Half of those conferences have been secured to date. Others are pending. A total of 29 have been secured for Ireland this year.

Research carried out by Fáilte Ireland has found that this country is a particularly attractive venue for conference delegates. Where the average conference stay internationally is three days, delegates to Ireland stay for six, suggesting that most make a holiday of it. In addition, a higher than usual average of 28 per cent bring their spouses.

Medical conferences are usually secured years in advance and are decided by committees of the international associations involved. Bidding for them is “like the Olympics”, according to Catherine Newhall-Caiger, the director of international sales of the CCD.

International associations tender, cities bid, a shortlist is drawn up, delegates come to view the facilities and then make a decision.

She describes competition for the larger conferences as “ferocious”. Every major city in Europe has a similar venue. Some decisions are made with the head, she says, based on a detailed analysis of facilities, cost and accessibility. Others are made with the heart based on the persuasive powers of local organising committees and the general attractiveness of the destination.

She claims Dublin scores well on both accounts. The CCD has given Ireland a world-class conference centre for the first time, there are excellent air links and the decline in hotel prices has made Dublin a mid-ranking city in terms of cost.

Medical conferences are also coming to Ireland because of the prevalence of so many pharmaceutical companies here, and having two universities, UCD and TCD, with such a big tradition in the medical sciences, has also helped.

“When I talk to people about Ireland and Dublin, people have great affection for this country. There is a lot of pent- up demand for a facility like the CCD because many of these organisations couldn’t come here before,” she says.

Well-known geriatrician Prof Desmond O’Neill was instrumental in getting the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society Conference to the CCD at the end of the month, the second conference that will be held there.

The first conference had President Mary McAleese, the second will have her predecessor, Mary Robinson, as a guest speaker along with Nobel Prize- winning poet Seamus Heaney and the National Symphony Orchestra. In a novel touch, 300 members of the public will be invited to join the 1,200 delegates in a public seminar about ageing.

Prof O’Neill says had the CCD not been there, they would not have got the conference to Ireland. Dublin’s attractiveness as a venue is reflected in the numbers, up 25 per cent on the previous conference in Copenhagen, while he has been “taken” by the number of people bringing their spouses.

ON THE WAY: UPCOMING MEDICAL CONFERENCES

European Union Geriatric Medicines Society Conference: Sept 2010. 1,200 delegates.

Fertility 2011: Jan 2011. Biennial conference of the UK fertility societies, with support from the Association of Irish Clinical Ebryologists (ICE) and the Irish Fertility Society (IFS) 1,000 plus delegates.

The British Orthopaedic Association: Sept 2011. 1,000-plus delegates.

European Seating Symposium: Sept 2011. 700-plus delegates.

The Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland: July 2012. 900-plus delegates.

The International Conference of Emergency Medicine: June 2012. 2,000-plus delegates.