Coinciding with the Farnborough International Air and Space Show, So Toulouse, the new representative agency for the region launched their new offering for MICE on 11th July 2016 at the Residence of the French Ambassador in London. Its mission is to ensure the promotion of the Toulouse area in this highly competitive environment and to develop its attractiveness across all sectors.

First major international event since the establishment of the agency in February 2016, the event was attended by guest from economic and tourism sectors. London was the natural choice to host the launch event due to the staging of the Farnborough Air Show, but also because of the strong links that connect UK and the Toulouse area.

Sylvie Bermann, French Ambassador to the United Kingdom opened the event to welcome over 200 guests and her talk was followed by Jean-Luc Moudenc, President of So Toulouse and of Toulouse Métropole and the Mayor of Toulouse, and Charles Champion, President of Airbus Operations SAS to give an overview about Toulouse as an innovative and forward thinking business hub. Local partners from Muséum, Quai des Savoirs, Aéroscopia, Cité de l’Espace, Club Hôtelier and EasyJet also attended the event.

Alain Di Crescenzo, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Toulouse, commented that “Toulouse benefits from an extremely favourable economic environment, a number of unique advantages and genuine potential for growth. A world leader in the aeronautics and space industries, the Toulouse metropolitan area (1.2 million inhabitants) nowadays can boast the healthiest growth rate in France in terms of employment and population. This, most notably, is a result of a very strong industrial tradition and its identity as a hub for job creation. The Ville Rose has therefore been able to attract internationally renowned businesses from a very diverse range of sectors, such as Airbus, Thales, Pierre Fabre, Sanofi, Assystem, Rolls Royce and Capgemini”.

Major announcements was that in 2020 a new convention centre will open in Toulouse to attract new conferences and major events to the destination, but also to further grow and develop the number of existing events. The new exhibition centre will be located near the airport and close to production site of Airbus and ATR, so delegates can benefit from the large hotel capacity in the area as well as science and aeronautic industry know-how of Toulouse. The Aéroscopia museum is also nearby, a unique venue that can be used for social programme or smaller events. The new exhibition centre will be able to accommodate up to 11,000 delegates during exhibitions and will have additional conference rooms for up to 800 delegates.

In October this year Toulouse will launch an ambassador programme and in 2017 will follow Manchester as the European City of Science. This will increase and strengthen their position and awareness for MICE business and promote the city for scientific congresses.

Photos by Eleonore de Bonneval