The big International Conference in Athens IAPCO 2026

Expected to attract the world’s leading conference organisers

Athens has been chosen by the International Association of Professional Conference Organisers (IAPCO) to hold its General Assembly and Annual Conference for 2026. The announcement of the takeover of the Greek capital was made a few days ago by the President of IAPCO, Sarah Markey-Hamm, at the corresponding event that took place in Ljubljana.

This event is of particular importance for the conference tourism of Athens, as it is expected to bring to the city more than 150 leading professionals – members of IAPCO, who are the most important “players” in the international conference market, as organizers of the largest and most important conferences in terms of duration and number of participants.

It should be noted that the This is Athens-CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau of the Municipality of Athens) has the honorary title of “Destination Partner” of IAPCO, being a key interlocutor and close partner of this Association on issues of promotion, education and development of the convention industry worldwide.

The successful bid was the result of a partnership between This is Athens and four Greek conference organisers who are also members of IAPCO: AFEA, Convin, ERA and Erasmus.

The claim file entitled “The Odyssey Reinvented” won the IAPCO Board’s approval. In the age of artificial intelligence, the Greek proposal highlighted the importance of the human factor, contrasting the Odyssey with the evolution of the conference industry. “Reinventing the Odyssey”, the theme of the IAPCO conference, will explore how the impact of technology and the transformation of our world in a digital environment can be balanced with the human values and qualities embodied by Odysseus: resourcefulness, ingenuity, strategy, patience and perseverance, leadership and decision-making ability to overcome adversity and challenges.

In a statement, the CEO of the Development and Tourism Promotion Company of the Municipality of Athens, Ioannis Georgios, he stressed: “The successful bid for the IAPCO 2026 Annual Conference highlights some basic principles that underpin the operation of This is Athens: extroversion and the strengthening of synergies. Networking with major international bodies such as IAPCO and working with local companies to bid for major events further strengthens Athens’ position on the global conference map. The IAPCO 2026 Annual Conference in Athens will promote our city even more dynamically to a targeted audience that exerts a great influence globally in the promotion of congress destinations.”

The announcement that Athens will host the conference coincides with another Greek success for conference tourism: the election of Sissy Lignos, President of the Hellenic Association of Professional Conference Organisers (HAPCO & DES), as President of IAPCO, effective from 2025.