Marisa Marín, Head of BEC Convenciones, has been elected for the third time in succession as a member of the Board of Directors of the AIPC (International Association of Congress Centres), which brings together 162 centres from 51 countries. The Bilbao Exhibition Centre (formerly known as Feria Internacional de Bilbao) has been an active member of the AIPC since 1995. She was appointed at the Association’s 51st Annual Assembly, held this year in A Coruña, where the new make-up of the Board was confirmed. The Board meets every two years, and members may hold their posts for a maximum of three terms.

Ms. Marin’s candidacy as the representative of the Iberian Peninsula (19 congress centres from Spain and 6 from Portugal) was supported unanimously by the other Spanish members, and further reinforces the Bilbao Exhibition Centre’s strategy of involving itself in the decision making bodies of the organisations in its field of activity.

Edgar Hirt (Hamburg, Germany) was elected President, Geoff Donaghy (Cairos, Australia) Vice-President and Jonas Scharf (Basel, Switzerland) as Treasurer. Four ordinary members were also elected. They were joined by representatives of leading congress centres from all over the world at the conference held on July 4-8 to analyse the impact of the economic crisis, innovation and local power in congress-related tourism.

AIPC was founded in 1958 as an international non-for-profit association with the remit of acknowledging and promoting excellence in congress centre management. The 2010 General Assembly is scheduled to take place in Liverpool, and the 2011 event in San Diego.