The bid team was led by Dr. Richard Russell and Dr. Richard Hansen, both based at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (Yorkhill) in Glasgow, with support from Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, the SECC and VisitScotland. The team beat off incredible opposition from world leading cities including Vienna, Istanbul and Lisbon, which culminated in a landslide victory when ESPGHAN members were asked to pick their chosen city.
“This was a tremendous team effort and is wonderful news for the city; on top of a well researched and scientifically robust bid, we also gave them a wonderful taste of Scotland; Bagpipes, whisky tasting, a great city brand and a set of kilted warriors with a passion for what they do!” commented Dr. Richard Hansen, Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. “We won the member vote by a comfortable margin of 53 votes, underlining how the delegation bought into Glasgow.”
“This was a genuine team effort from Glasgow that saw our ambassadors, stakeholders and bid team aligned behind a strong scientific bid,” commented Kathleen Warden, Director of Conference Sales at the SECC. “The bid team worked tirelessly to engage with delegates and to show them how much they would mean to the city.”
“The strength of our city partnerships, the expertise, commitment and can-do attitude of our people and the positive teamwork that exists across all the touch-points of conventions delivery – our ‘one Glasgow’ approach – is what really sets us apart from our competitors” said Aileen Crawford, Head of Conventions at Glasgow City Marketing Bureau. “We are genuinely honoured and delighted that the ESPGHAN voting delegation has put its trust in Glasgow to deliver a successful and memorable conference in 2019.”
“This was a brilliant team effort and brought to life the very best of Scotland; our capacity to hold great events, to make delegations feel warm and welcome, to give them a taste of our unique heritage and identity, and also our willingness to support major association events through our BID Fund,” comments Kerry Watson, Marketing Manager, Associations, VisitScotland. “We’re looking forward to giving the delegates a warm welcome in 2019.”
One of the key subjects of the conference will be the incidence in Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and to celebrate the win, the SECC lit up the SSE Hydro purple as part of World IBD Day on 19th May.
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