We spoke with Iker Goikoetxea, president of APCE and managing director of Centro Kursaal Palacio de Congresos y Auditorio de San Sebastián.
Spanish conference centres hosted more than 5,700 events in 2022, including congresses, conferences, concerts and many other activities. The figure is not insignificant, especially considering the hard blow that the health crisis of 2020 dealt to this sector. At the time, many predicted the end of face-to-face meetings and gatherings. And yet, between January and December last year, almost 7.5 million people visited these spaces, 5.7% more than in 2019.
These are figures from the Association of Spanish Conference Centres (APCE), of which Fibes is a member, and which, since 1995, has been responsible for promoting the work of these venues, defending their interests and facilitating the exchange of experiences and collaboration between them. APCE is our community, but also the main source of reference for a vibrant sector in the midst of a transformation process, whose activity has a profound impact not only on the economy of our country, but also on its international projection, its innovative capacity and its social development. Today we talk to its president and managing director of Centro Kursaal Palacio de Congresos y Auditorio de San Sebastián, Iker Goikoetxea.
Question: With data from 2022 on the table, what is 2023 like? Where is the sector at?
Iker Goikoetxea: I would say that we are in a sweet moment, especially in contrast to the bitter moments we had not so long ago. I say sweet from the point of view of the volume of activity. I think it is generalised in all the palaces that make up the Association that the level of activity in 2023 is being frankly good and, I dare not say in all but in most, with pre-pandemic and in many cases record levels of activity.
So, at a good time, sweet, but also threatened by the general state of the economy. We came out of the pandemic into a context of war in Europe, with all that this has entailed, with inflation and rising costs. Moreover, in a context of high inflation, measures are being taken to try to curb it, with the rise in interest rates that this entails, and the logical thing is that the economy will cool down. That threat is there, for everyone, and also for this sector.
Q.: There will be an important challenge here…
I.G.: It is a challenge that, I would like to think, is cyclical, but not minor. I was saying that 2023 is a sweet moment from the point of view of activity, but it is not an easy time from the point of view of results. At the end of the day, we are very large infrastructures, with many square metres, which have to be maintained and have to be lit and conditioned, and there has been a very significant increase in costs. Firstly, in terms of energy, the increase in the price of electricity and gas was tough, and then there is the inflation that pulls changes in wage costs. We are an activity where the direct and indirect personnel cost component is increasing a lot and that translates into the challenge of how and how much of that increase you can pass on to the customer. Most sectors are suffering against margins. There is a common sense and a sensitivity that you don’t transfer everything and that strains your bottom line.
Q.: And all this after a pandemic, as you mentioned at the beginning. To what extent has the health crisis imposed changes on the sector?
I.G.: I don’t think there is any legacy of the pandemic in terms of our business that is particularly relevant. At the time we had some concerns about where it was going to go and what was going to be left, especially because of the risk of virtuality replacing our business, but I dare say that this fear has not materialised.
“In terms of international congress activity, Spain is number 2 after the United States”
It is true that the process has accelerated, but within a general context of accelerating digitalisation in all sectors. Today, possibly, the percentage of congresses that have a hybridisation component is higher than it was before the pandemic – because this formula of extending a congress to other geographical areas already existed before the pandemic – but without major consequences for the sector.
Q: Although digitalisation doesn’t just mean that an event is done in hybrid format; it affects the equipment of the companies, the internal processes… How are you facing the digital transformation?
I.G.: Digitalisation is a trend, a reality, that is affecting all sectors in a transversal way. I don’t think there is any sector that does not have among its challenges and strategic objectives the advancement of digitalisation in the processes, in the guts of the organisation, in the way of working, taking advantage of this type of tools to be more efficient and to work better. In our case, we can be seen by the buildings we occupy, which are magnificent, but we are service companies and there is a great flow of processes, seasoned by the uncertainty that comes with being live, in which we are going to win for sure with all these tools that give us flexibility and efficiency.
Q.: We have talked about the economic situation and digitalisation as two of the big challenges, have we left any out?
I.G.: There is another structural challenge, which is sustainability. We have been talking about this for many years in terms of how much CO2 we emit and how much our impact on the environment is. Obviously, that is one of the fundamental elements of the concept of sustainability, but it is not the only one. In this context, we also talk about economic and social sustainability and we have a lot to contribute to those elements. What most of the industry is working on is linking our goals, plans and activities to the SDGs as a whole.
Q.: Because what impact does the activity of the conference centres have from an economic and social point of view? Especially, thinking about the cities in which they are located?
I.G.: To begin with, our industry makes a very notable contribution in terms of economic impact, which has nothing to do with our profit and loss account and our turnover, and which multiplies these figures many times over. I am referring to everything that is derived to those sectors that benefit from the activity that we promote when we win that competition, sometimes international, to achieve a congress or a corporate event. It’s economic impact in tourism or commerce: in hotels, restaurants, taxis…
“Most of the sector is working on linking our goals, plans and activities to the SDGs as a whole”
But we go further. We are a lever for economic and social transformation.
This activity that we bring and that comes to our palaces is also derived from knowledge and the development of R&D&I sectors, which I believe the whole country is contributing to. Because when you bring a biomedicine congress to your city, in addition to filling hotels and restaurants and helping the economy of these sectors, you are, in a less visible way, helping companies that are trying to develop in this field in your city to have better opportunities: you are helping them to project themselves abroad, to make contacts with experts from other parts of the world to do business or open up funding opportunities, to attract talent from abroad? There are derivatives of our activity that are not so obvious but that are fundamental when we talk about what we do, what our purpose is and what our mission is.
Then there is what congress and corporate activity means in terms of the legacy that congresses are trying to leave wherever they go in terms of dissemination or raising the visibility of specific social problems.
And finally, there is something special about Spain or certain European countries, which is that our buildings, apart from the congress activity, also have social and cultural activities that facilitate the social transformation of the local fabric.
Q.: Since you mention something peculiar to our country, how is Spain positioned in this sector compared to other countries?
I.G.: In a very privileged way. Even before the pandemic we were in a leading position, and we are there again. In terms of international congress activity, there is the ICCA ranking and, in 2022, Barcelona, in 4th place, and Madrid, in 6th place, re-entered the top 10 of the main cities for the organisation of congresses. And Spain as a country is number 2 after the United States. I think this is great news and the challenge as a country is to continue to gain positions not only in the ranking of the top 10 cities, but also in the second tier. We also have important cities such as Valencia (28th), Seville (37th), Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and San Sebastian, which can aspire to enter the top 20. We have what it takes to do so.
Q.: How do you see the future of the sector? Where would you like to see it?
I.G.: Trying to have achievable aspirations and ambitions, I think we have to continue and deepen our leadership in international congress activity. Spain as a whole has top-level professionals, backed by all the international events that have been hosted in this country, and, in addition to that, we have infrastructures, of great architects, that work well and that have the technology and innovation, not only physical but also software, so that the events can be developed in an absolutely brilliant way. And most of us have continued to invest in our conference centres even in the pandemic era. So I think it is perfectly plausible to see us in 4 or 5 years’ time with more cities in the ICCA top 20, being leaders and benchmarks in that international arena not only for the number of activity hosted, but also for the quality and efficiency in the development of our activity.
