ICCA Members gathered at the General Assembly in Porto received an important update on how our global leadership and sector structure will evolve as we enter the next chapter of our association. These changes are designed to improve representation, align our work more closely with the needs of the business events community, and support stronger knowledge exchange across all regions and sectors.
Members also endorsed several updates to ICCA’s Articles of Association. These were presented and voted on during the General Assembly, where the community showed strong support for adopting the proposed revisions. The updated Articles are now available in the MyICCA portal.
We also introduced refreshed sector names that better reflect the scope of our industry:
- “Destination Marketing” becomes “Destination Management”
- “Meetings Management” becomes “Meetings and Events Management”
- “Meetings Support” becomes “Meetings and Events Solutions”
- “Venues” becomes “Venues and Hotels”
The most notable structural change is that the Transport Sector will discontinue and now fall under Destination Management. This shift brings mobility related expertise closer to city and destination planning.
Alongside these structural updates, several Board transitions were confirmed:
- Christoph Tessmar is the new “Treasurer”
- Diana Rodrigues becomes “1st Vice President”
- Lindiwe Rakharebe becomes “2nd Vice President”
- Melissa Riley becomes “3rd Vice President”
- Mubarak Al Shamisi will be succeeded by Khalid Walid Al Zadjali as a “Board Member”
- Jaap Bakker will be succeeded by David Chaumont as a “Board Member”
- Glenn Duncan will be succeeded by Virginie De Visscher as a “Board Member”
These changes are intended to bring more clarity, connection and representation across the ICCA community as we move into the next phase of our work.