High season for meetings in Berlin begins

Berlin, 20 September 2017 Autumn is high season for conventions and other meetings in Berlin, with above-average demand for accommodation. Almost twice as many events take place in autumn than the average for the year as a whole, according to an analysis prepared by the visitBerlin Berlin Convention Office for 2016 (see graph). In 2017, medical doctors and the digital scene have been particularly likely to meet in Berlin. Global issues are also debated here. An overview of the highlights:

Medicine convinced of Berlin as meeting destination

Autumn in Berlin’s conventions and meetings industry is dedicated to medicine and science. In October, the largest congress of the year begins: more than 12,000 experts from all over the world as well as several high-profile keynote speakers will come to Berlin for the World Congress of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. The first gathering of the congress in Germany since 1999 will discuss the impact of war and being driven from one’s home on the mental health of refugees (8–12 Oct., Messe Berlin, wpaberlin2017.com).

1,200 members of the European Society of Coloproctology will meet for the first time in Berlin (20–22 Sep., CityCube, escp.eu.com). The EPCA, a network for the global chemical industry in Europe, is coming to the German capital for the second time (30.9–3.10, Intercontinental Berlin, epca.eu). In October, 600 scientists will be attending the Alzheimer Europe Conference (Estrel, 2–4 Oct., alzheimer-europe.org) as well as 1,000 experts of the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy (17–20 Oct., bcc Berlin, esgct.eu).

3,700 people will come in November for Bio Europe, Europe’s largest life sciences conference (6–8 Nov., CityCube, ebdgroup.com/bioeurope). Meetings related to medicine represent 20 per cent of all events in Berlin, reinforcing the city’s reputation as the location of choice for such events and for conventions in general.

Conferences on the major topics of our time

Events related to innovation, IT, and the digital revolution are also coming to Berlin and discussing the great questions of today’s world. The World Health Summit, for example, is taking place for the ninth time in the German capital. This international forum for discussing the major global health issues attracts around 1,800 physicians, scientists, NGOs, politicians, and industry representatives from 90 countries to Berlin (15–17 Oct., Kosmos, worldhealthsummit.org).

Q Berlin Questions, a new conference format from visitBerlin, will see international speakers discussing the key issues facing the world in the areas of labour, governance, cultural identity, social justice, and urbanisation. The second day of the conference is called the Q Marathon and is open to Berliners and visitors alike (19–20 Oct., Schiller Theater, q.berlin; for tickets: q.berlin/q-marathon).

The Falling Walls Conference seeks to topple mental walls by bringing top scientists for Science Slams (8–9 Nov., Radialsystem and other places, falling-walls.com/conference).hub.berlin is expecting 2,500 leading opinion makers, entrepreneurs, scientists, and politicians to gather at Europe’s business festival for digital movers and makers (28 Nov., Station Berlin, hub.berlin).

Other highlights this year are Digital Life Design (DLD),Europe’s leading international digital and innovation conference (26–27 Oct., Bolle Event Location, dld-conference.com) Inclusive Innovation 2030 (Neue Mälzerei plus city-wide tours, 18–19 Oct., ii2030.com), as well as the digital conference TechCrunch Disrupt 2017, which is moving this year from London to Berlin (4–5 December, Arena Berlin, techcrunch.com). Forward thinkers will also be gathering for Nights 2017 Berlin (9–11 Nov., stadt-nach-acht.de), A Soul for Europe Conference (10–11 Nov., Radialsystem) and the Virtual Reality Conference (27 Nov., Microsoft Berlin).

The visitBerlin Berlin Convention Office has been quite successful this year winning IT and digital economy gatherings for the city. They represented 13% of the meetings held in the first half of 2017.

All meetings and conventions can be searched by topic and date at convention.visitBerlin.com.