Prague Convention Bureau’s Ambassador Program in the Sign of Education
For more than ten years, the Ambassador Program at the Prague Convention Bureau (PCB) has been connecting local experts who are actively involved in attracting prestigious international congresses and conferences to Prague and offering them comprehensive support. In doing so, the PCB also strengthens Prague's reputation as a top meetings destination, contributes to the development of individual scientific disciplines and creates opportunities for knowledge exchange on a global level.
As a part of this program, the PCB had several opportunities last autumn to present not only the available forms of support that can be used free of charge, but also, for example, to outline the possibilities of deepening cooperation with universities. Another part of the educational activities was the organization of a seminar for potential congress ambassadors from the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague.
Earlier last year, the Ambassador Program was taken over by the new manager - Lucie Jalová, who, in cooperation with the PCB team, is seeking to expand collaboration with scientific and academic institutions. "My long-term goal is to create a well-working ecosystem of congress ambassadors who, thanks to their professional experience and enthusiasm, will support the acquisition of key association congresses and conferences for Prague. Our mission is to create ideal conditions for these ambassadors to host prestigious international meetings in the Czech capital. An integral part of this effort are also educational seminars, which we have resumed organizing after a covid pandemic and through which we inform Czech scientists, doctors and other professionals about the forms of support available from the City of Prague in the field of organizing scientific congresses and conferences," adds Lucie Jalová.
The first of these educational events within the Ambassador Program took place at the Třešt' Castle on September 18 on the occasion of a meeting of the directors of institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, which was attended by more than 50 leading representatives of this institution. During the presentation, the PCB representatives presented not only the activities of the Convention Bureau itself, but also the possibilities of support for conferences and symposia in Prague offered by the PCB. Subsequently, on October 4, PCB in cooperation with RNDr. Aleš Soukup, Ph.D., Vice Dean for International Relations at the Faculty of Science of the Charles University in Prague, organized an educational seminar, where those interested learned about the possibilities of financial support for congresses from the City of Prague and about the possibilities of cooperation with professional congress organizers. The seminar also included a case study presented by Prof. RNDr. Jiří Vohlídal, CSc., who shared with the participants details of Prague's successful candidacy for the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress, which will be held in Prague in 2029.
"With the support of the City of Prague, the Czech Convention Bureau and C-IN, we have won the hosting of the congress at the end of 2023. Prague will thus have a unique opportunity to welcome several thousand experts from the field of chemistry in 2029, symbolically on the 70th anniversary of the first Nobel Prize for the Czechoslovakia that was awarded to Prof. Jaroslav Heyrovský, DrSc. for his discovery of polarography," Lucie Jalová adds: "The case studies of successful candidacies, such as the one for the World Chemistry Congress, perfectly illustrate the strength of mutual cooperation within the Ambassador Program and the opportunities we at the Prague Convention Bureau can offer not only to ambassadors but also to the organisers of international events."
As a part of the further development of the Ambassador Program, PCB also joined the Study in Prague platform, which brings together seven Prague public universities with the aim to serve as an information resource for international students interested in studying in Prague. At one of the platform's meetings on October 16, PCB presented two successful case studies of student engagement, in addition to presenting opportunities of support for congresses and conferences. The organisers of the 2023 World Road Congress (WRC) invited more than 1,750 students from 40 secondary schools to participate in the congress in order to motivate them to pursue further studies at universities with a focus on transport engineering and civil engineering. The second case study concerned the 2017 ICCA Congress, which involved 140 students from the then Department of Tourism at the University of Economics in Prague.
A year full of educational activities was crowned by the traditional pre-Christmas cocktail for congress ambassadors. This annual event is an excellent opportunity to thank the Ambassadors for their cooperation over the past period and previous years. The cocktail was held on November 28 at the Prague Congress Centre. We are very happy that most of our congress ambassadors and our local partners could attend. The evening was designed as an opportunity for a pleasant networking session, followed by a ballet performance of Swan Lake by the Royal London Ballet.