2015 MEMBER SEMINAR: POST EVENT REPORT

Nov 01, 2015

NEW YORK, NY, USA - Thank you to all WTC Delegates who joined us in New York City for the 2015 Member Seminar on October 18-20. WTCA welcomed 160 participants representing 78 World Trade Centers from around the world.

This year's Member Seminar focused heavily on WTC Member feedback and participation, with an extended WTCA Plenary question-and-answer session, two speed networking sessions, and the WTC Innovation Exchange featuring five World Trade Center presentations of best practices.

For detailed presentations of the below Member Seminar sessions, please visit the WTCA Resource Center .

SUNDAY PROGRAM

As a new addition to the program, Sunday afternoon included a "New Member Orientation" designed for new World Trade Center Licensees or new staff of an existing WTC who have joined the Association since January 2014. New Members received an overview of the WTCA Global Network, the real estate and trade service components of a WTC, as well as the basics of the digital platform, branding, trademark protection, and certification.

The event officially kicked off to the entire Membership on Sunday evening with an "Old Manhattan" black-and-white cocktail reception. WTC Delegates were transported back to the classic era of Frank Sinatra, and the likes, while networking with their peers.

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WTCA PLENARY

Rolf Draak, WTCA Interim CEO, opened up the conference by introducing the WTCA staff by department and giving an update of the CEO search and 2016 priorities. Niurka Coteron, Director of Corporate Services/Comptroller, briefed Membership of the financial statistics for the Association, and Executive Vice President Bella Heule presented a regional overview of WTC Licenses (currently 326 in 90 countries).

Senior Marketing Strategist Julia Knoke provided updates on the Reciprocity Desk (currently used by 80 World Trade Centers), the Infoshare Form (110 to date), and branding best practices.

In addition, a new online tool was unveiled: WTC Discussion Forums. Discussion Forums are open forums to exchange ideas, and can be accessed by logging into your wtca.org account. Learn more about how to use the discussion forums HERE .

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DOING BUSINESS IN ALGERIA

Mr. Ahmed Tibaoui (General Manager & CEO, WTC Algiers) and Dr. Ismael Chikhoune, M.D. (President & CEO, US-Algeria Business Council) discussed the economic benefits of doing business with Algeria, emphasizing its major industries of oil and gas, hi-tech, healthcare, construction. As the largest country in Africa, Algeria has no debt and a cash flow of USD 200 billion. The two presenters focused on how international businesses can invest and do business with Algerian companies, and encouraged them to travel to Algiers for the 2016 WTCA General Assembly hosted by World Trade Center Algiers.

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KEYNOTE SPEAKER: JOSH LINKNER

Four-time successful tech entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and CEO Josh Linkner gave an invigorating presentation on how to transform your business through innovation and 'creative disruption'. Josh focused on the five traits of successful innovators:

Get curious
Always crave what's next
Defy tradition
Get scrappy
Push the boundaries

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TUESDAY SESSIONS

Tuesday morning kicked off with the Member-driven WTC Innovation Exchange, featuring WTC representatives from Dresden, Dublin, Leeuwarden, Trieste, and Winnipeg. These five World Trade Centers showcased transferable solutions and programs they currently use that can be leveraged and adapted by other WTCs.

WTCA also announced two strategic partnerships: Kompass and Reed Exhibitons. WTCA has partnered with Kompass to deliver an affinity program enabling each WTC Licensee to provide its members, clients and business partners with highly vetted B2B company and contact information in 68 countries. Reed Exhibitions is the world's leading events organizer, with a growing portfolio of 500 events in 42 countries.

And finally, WTC The Hague Director of External Relations and WTCA Board Member, Gerard Vandraager, gave an engaging presentation on international trade and development services.

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View each Innovation Exchange and strategic partnership presentation in the WTCA Resource Center .

The 2015 WTCA Member Seminar concluded with a breath-taking trip to the newly-opened One World Observatory at World Trade Center New York, giving WTC Delegates a view of the sunset over Manhattan from the 100th floor.

We thank all of our WTC Delegates from around the world who joined us in New York City for a successful conference filled with inspiration, networking, and collaboration. We look forward to seeing you in Algiers in 2016!

If you have any difficulty accessing the Resource Center, please contact WTCA at support@wtca.org.