The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) is the world's foremost conference organisation. It was founded in 1963 and has a membership of more than 1,000 governmental organisations, exhibition related companies and convention centres in more than 90 countries. Each year, ICCA prepares a report ranking the number of ICCA meetings held in each country region/city. This authoritative report is widely recognised in the industry and is also an important reference for professional organisers in the selection of ideal conference location. Macao currently has a total of seven ICCA members from governmental departments, hotels, professional conference organisers and conference service providers. There are stringent requirements for ICCA assessment: such conferences must be by organised regularly by an international association/organisation event (excluding corporate meetings), in rotation in three or more countries/regions with no less than 50 participants. . According to the latest "2015 ICCA Statistics Report", 28 international meetings held in Macao were recognised by ICCA, showing an increase of 5 events as compared to the total a 23 in 2014. As for ranking in Asia, Macao ranked 34th in 2013, 20th in 2014, and 21st in 2015. Regarding the ranking worldwide, Macao ranks 93rd in 2015, moving up by 8 and 63 places respectively compared with its ranking of 101st in 2014 and 156th in 2013.. The rise in ranking in two consecutive years has put Macau on par with cities like Auckland in New Zealand, Brisbane in Australia and Bordeaux in France and proves that Macao is a rising star in conferences and events world. Additionally, with the gradual completion of large convention and exhibition facilities, the Macao exhibition industry has developed rapidly, attracting more international conferences to Macao. The Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) officially became an ICCA member in August 2012 and has actively participated in all ICCA activities, and seized the opportunity for dialogue with meeting managers, professional meeting organisers and related international meeting institutions. IPIM has also rolled out a one-stop bidding and support service for meeting organisers that are interested in holding events in Macao. The ICCA online database, with over 17,000 international meeting data points, has also allowed IPIM to search for potential meetings and bid to hold them in Macao. This has attracted even more international meeting organisers to hold their activities in the city. According to data from Macao's Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), there were a total of 909 conferences held in Macao in 2015. Among which, 540 (59.4%) were corporate meetings, 173 (19.0%) were conferences or organisation/association meetings, 57 (6.3%) were major conference, and 78 (8.6%) were exhibitions.
