Marketing concept for a continuing professional development event

Nowadays, innovation is of central importance to the vast majority of companies. Thanks to their capacity for innovation and the associated key factors, companies are growing faster and achieving sustainable profitability. The topic of innovation is the focus of many conferences worldwide, which has led, as a side effect, to the development of conference tourism. However, competition between conferences is fierce; in Austria alone, an average of up to 19 conferences take place every day. In 2013, there were at least 3,341 conferences across Austria. In Villach, the Innovation Congress was successfully organised and held for the sixth time. With the accompanying aim of developing a marketing concept to position and optimise the congress even more effectively in future, the Innovation Congress and its key competitors were analysed. Based on an analysis of the current situation, a SWOT analysis and the marketing mix, the Villach Innovation Congress was assessed and proposals for improvement were drawn up.