The International Bar Association Annual Conference

The IBA Annual Conference is the organisation's highest profile annual event, and is The CCD's largest event to date.

Delegates: 5,000
Client: International Bar Association (IBA)
Event: The International Bar Association Annual Conference 2012
Type: Conference
Date: September 2012
Days: 6

Brief

The International Bar Association (IBA) is the world’s leading organisation of international legal practitioners. It aims to influence the development of international law reform and shape the future of the legal profession throughout the world, and has over 50,000 individual lawyers, and over 200 bar associations and law societies spanning all continents as members.

The IBA Annual Conference is the organisation’s highest profile annual event, and the largest gathering of international lawyers in the world. To reflect the international membership of the organisation, it is held in major cities in different countries across the globe, and in recent times has been hosted in Dubai, Vancouver, Madrid, Buenos Aires and Singapore.

Solution

The governing body of the IBA selects which venue will host the Annual Conference through a voting process that takes place at least 5 years prior to the event. In 2008, prior to its official opening in 2010, The CCD was selected to host the 2012 Conference. At this time the venue was still essentially a building site. However, the IBA had faith in its vast potential and could see that it would provide the perfect setting for the 2012 event due to its central location, good transportation links and large conference and banqueting facilities.

Dublin first played host to the IBA Annual Conference in 1968. Today’s Dublin has a very different landscape, and delegates were impressed with the venue’s contemporary feel and use of light “The architectural design of the venue is impressive,” comments the IBA’s Press Office, “the natural light that flooded the communal space was extraordinary and an excellent attribute for a conference centre.”

During the course of the week, approximately 1,200 international expert speakers delivered over 180 working sessions that covered all aspects of international law. The wide array of topics covered included the global financial crisis, anti-corruption measures and enforcement, human rights, war crimes, and competition and environmental issues, including sustainable development and conservation.

This was the largest single event that The CCD has hosted to date, and involved some innovative use of exterior spaces to complement the flexibility of the venue. For example, some outdoor areas surrounding the building and vacant office buildings were used as fully-operational ‘satellite’ kitchens and outdoor function rooms.

To facilitate the various talks and workshops on offer, the Liffey Hall was split into five different ‘meeting rooms’. Each of the rooms were separated from each other using heavy black drape, seated 180 theatre-style and were equipped with PA systems and screens. Due to the clever positioning of the rooms and draping, sound did not easily travel from one room to another, enabling delegates to focus on the talk they were attending without disruption.

Results

As The CCD’s largest conference to date, the 2012 IBA Annual Conference brought a welcome swell of 5,000 business tourists to Dublin. Airlines prospered from the extra passengers, hotels were delighted to be fully-booked, high-end restaurants enjoyed an increase in reservations and tourist attractions were pleased with the increase in visitor numbers. Many of the international delegates were visiting Dublin for the first time and were so impressed that they left keen to make a return visit.

“Our delegates found Dublin to be friendly, congenial and convenient to get around and rated the convention centre very highly for its effectiveness for both networking and learning." Tim Hughes, IBA Deputy Executive Director