The “Ambassadors for Lake Maggiore” Club is taking shape, made up of entrepreneurs, professional people (doctors, lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers…), representatives of professional associations and trade unions, teachers, sportsmen/women, and in general all those who work or live in the Lake Maggiore area and have the opportunity to recommend it as a conference destination, for events, meetings and conventions.
The initiative is part of the project “Meeting without borders”, funded by the cooperative Italian-Swiss cross-border programme and implemented by the Chamber of Commerce of the Verbano Cusio Ossola Province (the project leader on the Italian side) together with 11 Italian and Swiss partners (VCO Province, Novara Chamber of Commerce, Varese Chamber of Commerce, the Distretto Turistico dei Laghi, Lake Maggiore Conference, Verbania Town Council, the Shopkeepers’ Association Confcommercio, the Hoteliers’ Association Federalberghi, Villa Taranto Botanic Gardens, ATL Novara and the Lake Maggiore Tourist Board of Locarno).
In our area the Club’s coordinators are the Chamber of Commerce and Lake Maggiore Conference, the association that brings together all the major conference operators in the Provinces of Novara and VCO.
“The Ambassadors for Lake Maggiore are our fellow citizens, or in any case people working in the area who are prepared to invest some of their time and pool their network of contacts,” says Tarcisio Ruschetti, the President of the Chamber of Commerce. “We adopted this idea from similar initiatives in other countries and other places in Italy. In other countries in particular it’s normal for people who have a ‘public’ role to work to promote their area, a commitment that gives them satisfaction and, why not, enhances their personal prestige as well.”
The Ambassadors for Lake Maggiore are asked to undertake to promote Lake Maggiore as a possible conference venue, and to uphold its candidature with the operative support of Lake Maggiore Conference (for the Novara and VCO areas), the Convention and Incentive Bureau of Locarno (for the Swiss part of the Lake Maggiore area), and the Varese Convention Bureau, for the Lombard area.
Ruschetti goes on, “Our conference destination has the numbers – altogether the conference offer of the Lake Maggiore Meeting Industry, including the two Piedmontese provinces, the part of Lombardy touching the lake, and the Locarno area, can count on 5,400 hotel rooms (of three stars and upwards), 500 conference halls seating 50,000, served by 350 flights to Malpensa Airport every day. Conferences offer a wealth of potential for the places where they are held. In addition to being a source of cultural and professional enhancement for the local population, they are a major source of income and economic spin-offs. The complex machinery set in motion by the organisation of a conference gives work to many individuals and businesses. Apart from hotel and conference facilities in the narrow sense, there are transport and logistical services to be considered, catering, interpreting, guided visits to local attractions, shopping. Finally, conferences and conventions are usually held off-season and so help to extend the tourist season, increasing work opportunities.”
Some examples of conferences held in our area are the “Launch Skoda Combi” in October 2009, which hosted 1,600 people, the “Chebanca!” meetings, the Annual Electrolux Conference in June 2010, and Johnson Controls in October 2010, with over 1,000 participants.
Anyone wishing to apply for admittance to the Ambassadors’ Club should contact Fabiana Acciaioli of the Business Promotion Department of the Chamber of Commerce, tel. + 39 0323.912.833, email: promozione@vb.camcom.it, or Monica Cardoli of Lago Maggiore Conference, tel. +39 0323.912.826, email: info@lagomaggioreconference.com. Application forms and instructions are available on www.illagomaggiore.com and www.lagomaggioreconference.com