Reed Travel Exhibitions has announced its commitment to the American meetings and incentive market by confirming that the inaugural Americas Incentive Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition (AIBTM) will now take place in Baltimore, Maryland from June 21- June 23, 2011.
This new major event adds to the company’s established portfolio of ‘IBTM’ exhibitions specifically serving the global meetings industry marketplace. AIBTM joins EIBTM in Barcelona, GIBTM in Abu Dhabi, and CIBTM in Beijing. The portfolio also includes AIME, Melbourne and the ICCA Congress Exhibition held in a different destination each year.
Vanessa Cotton, Chair of Reed Travel Exhibitions Meetings and Incentive Events commented: “Having consulted with the industry we now feel that it is an appropriate time to announce the launch of AIBTM in 2011. When the global economic downturn hit the industry, and we had to postpone the event, it was always our intention to consider 2011 as our goal for launch.”
Tom Noonan, President and CEO of Visit Baltimore said: “This is a major coup for Baltimore. We are delighted that Reed Travel Exhibitions has demonstrated its commitment to our city and belief in the resurgence of the US economy.”
AIBTM will witness the first truly large-scale international Hosted Buyer program in the Americas enhanced by a substantial domestic Hosted Buyer and trade visitor population. Baltimore is superbly located to draw upon the world’s largest concentration of meetings planners situated in the North East USA.
AIBTM is a joint venture between Reed Travel Exhibitions Meetings and Incentives Events and Reed Exhibitions Americas. Chet Burchett, President Reed Exhibitions Americas commented, “We are delighted to be part of bringing the world’s best brand for business travel, meetings and incentive travel to our customers in the Americas and offering an extension of the value we already provide to them around the world. This venture is a clear indicator of the opportunity our customers find in Reed’s global scale.
With more than 100 tradeshows, meetings and conferences every year in the Americas, we have the resources and local market expertise to help AIBTM quickly gain traction and add value to the industry it serves.”
Dates for AIBTM from 2011 are as follows:
21 – 23 June 2011
19 – 21 June 2012