How Can Universities Serve as Strategic Partners for Your Destination?

In a significant step for Prague's MICE sector, the Faculty of International Relations of the Prague University of Economics and Business (PUEB) and the Prague Convention Bureau (PCB) have entered into an exclusive cooperation agreement, marking a new chapter of opportunities for students and professionals in a dynamically evolving local industry.

In our industry, universities can provide various opportunities for collaboration. For example, emerging professionals can benefit enormously from the learning opportunities of a conference, while at the same time providing industry representatives with the chance to network with future leaders in a particular field. This memorandum of cooperation consolidates the joint work between Czech academia and the practical experience of the meetings industry, offering students unique opportunities for internships, practical training and involvement in research and education projects in direct partnership with industry professionals.

“The collaboration between PUEB and PCB started already back in 2016 when a joint project of the course called Introduction to the Event Management started,” tells Roman Muška, PCB Managing Director. The course aimed to provide students with theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to organise all sorts of events, with a special focus on the organisation of international congresses and conferences. “As this course was optional only and there was no possibility of internal promotion at the university, there were just a small number of students attending it in the past. With the new leadership at the Department of Tourism in the Faculty of International Relations, we agreed to deepen our previous collaboration in order to increase awareness about business events and their importance.”
 

Raising awareness about the MICE industry and business events is crucial not only because many people left the sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also because MICE is an important cog in the engine of Prague’s economy − an industry that is a priority for Muška over the tourism sector: “We have a long-term collaboration with some universities in our Ambassador Programme, but in this case the main goal is to create a new generation of young professionals through quality education, an internship programme and greater cooperation in research and other projects with professionals in the meetings industry.”
 

Key aspects of the cooperation:

• Exchange programmes and internships for students: Students of the Faculty of International Relations will have access to exclusive internships and job opportunities within the meetings industry sector, offered by the PCB and its member organisations.
   
• Joint research and educational projects: The collaboration will focus on joint research and the development of educational programmes that reflect the sector’s current needs and trends.
   
• Expert lectures and workshops: Industry leaders and experts from the PCB will regularly contribute to the educational process at the Faculty of International Relations through guest lectures and workshops.

When assessing the attractiveness of a destination, one of the key factors is public-private collaboration, and universities can provide enormous credibility in this regard. Often, the instigator of a bid to host a conference is a university or research centre; they are usually key partners at the start of the bidding process, and the vitality of change-makers and innovators contributes enormously to the success of a bid. “One of the great examples of collaboration with ambassadors from different universities was our recent candidacy for the 52nd World Chemical Congress of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. For the first time in the history of the event, two national chemical societies – the Czech and the Slovak – submitted their candidacy for the world’s most important congress in the field of chemical sciences together,” adds Muška. “Moreover, on the Czech site was the bidding team created by representatives of the Charles University, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (UCT Prague) and The Czech Technical University in Prague. Right after this successful collaboration, we presented this case study at the seminars for potential congress ambassadors at the UCT Prague.”
 

Prague Registers an Increase in Meetings and Conferences Compared to 2022

The stronger the university’s policy on supporting conference applications, the more successful the destination will be in attracting an event. Especially since by encouraging teachers and researchers to actively participate in organising events and getting involved in various committees, they are also promoting the university as such. “Our universities organise conferences of different kinds on a regular basis. When it comes to international conferences of a larger scale, specifically those that cannot be accommodated within universities, we, as the convention bureau, are usually involved. Nevertheless, not all university professors are aware of our existence and all kinds of support they can get either from us or the city of Prague. Therefore, we regularly organise seminars for the current or potential future congress ambassadors at our local universities. The best supporters on these occasions are our already existing ambassadors, who share their experience in bidding and congress organisation with their peers.”
 

Within this conference culture, companies are also playing a more active role in training talent and adopting an educational perspective as an active training centre. In other words, an alternative to universities in terms of training human resources. “The current memorandum also includes internships in companies related to business events, such as DMCs, PCOs, congress venues, conference hotels and any service providers involved in the MICE sector. The main aim of this activity is not only to show the attractiveness of our industry to university students, but also to explore and further develop young talents who will stay in the business and respective companies also after their internships,” concludes Muška.