(Article for Conference & Meetings World, November 2017)
The city that hosted this year's Starmus; a star-studded congress-cum-festival dedicated to life and the universe, is a sure contender for Europe's most overlooked meetings destination. And as it sets its sights on hosting new leading technology and marine events, the tranquil Norwegian city of Trondheim is on track to become a regular fixture on the global business event landscape.
So why was this eminent Starmus crowd in Trondheim and not Norway's better-known cities such as Stavanger or the capital, Oslo? Well the principle idea behind the festival is inspiration, “to inspire and bring imagination and exploration, in the hands of the best scientists” as founder and director Garik Israelian puts it. And where better to place an event such as this than a city where such inspiration has a great chance of evolving into innovation. The city placed 16th out of 220 surveyed cities in the European Commission's annual EU Innovation Scoreboard this year.
Leading academic institutions are all part and parcel of a city with a healthy conference and convention industry. They provide an accessible pool of eminent speakers, and infrastructure pertaining to intellectual exchange is often better supported by local government, which takes great pride in the education system it has created.
For the full article, click here