Doha - 13th October 2008 - Qatar MICE Development Institute (QMDI) recently exhibited at the ASAE Annual Meet & Exposition (American Society of Association Executives) held in San Diego, USA, to promote Qatar's as a destination for global conventions and events. As the world's largest organization for Industry Associations, ASAE has 24 thousand members representing different industry associations from around the world; and the Annual Meet brings together more than 3000 of their top decision makers.

At the show QMDI's generated positive interest from more than 70 international associations representing the Energy, Medical and Education sectors; all of whom have global events planned for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Several associations who already have events scheduled to take place in Qatar also expressed a need to secure 'on the ground' event management services to handle operations and logistics for events.

QMDI's ongoing working with these projects includes actively calling upon local organizations and government ministries to lend their support and partner on these initiatives. The next stage is for Qatar to 'bid' for these events as a host nation, competing against other cities, not only in the Middle East but the whole world.

Mohammed Al Naama, Deputy CEO, QMDI said: "QMDI is here to help and bring support to a growing market that can benefit Qatar." Al Naama continued: "QMDI provides specialist global event bidding and tendering services and offers industry expertise to assist local organizations and Government ministries with the process from start to finish. QMDI also plays a role to bridge and facilitate relations with international associations, indentify potential events and position Qatar as a destination for hosting their events."

It is an industry fact that business tourism generates up to six times more receipts per head than leisure tourism. The economic impact of hosting hundreds of international business delegates can directly be measured. For example an averaged sized event with 500 delegates can generate additional revenues well in excess of US$500,000 worth of business for the hotel sector alone. Qatar has also invested and expanded its offering with many new purpose built venues and hotels scheduled to open shortly. With the bidding cycle for global conventions taking anything between 1-3 years, it is vital that Qatar is actively perusing events to fill these venues from the day they open.

There are also indirect benefits from hosting large scale events, as well as multipliers through the economy. Global conventions bring international spotlight and media attention which raises a country's competitive position to build a reputation and attract more large scale events. Business and trade events are also recognized for their positive impact on a generating growth within a vertical industry sector through the expansion of trade links, commerce, international relationships and the sharing of ideas and knowledge.

Complimenting the bids and tendering service, QMDI also provides a 'full service offering' to then manage and organize every aspect of the event. With the largest in-house event team in Qatar comprising of more than 50 professionals, QMDI's delivers locally based event management services to international standards. Understanding the needs of the local market and supporting this with expert industry knowledge can ensure that risk is reduced and budget objectives are met when it comes to delivering timely, professionally run, exceptional events of every scale and size.