Discover in this article six reasons why the international sports metropolis of Berlin is the perfect destination choice for your next major congress or specialist event.
Few events energise a city as much as a major sporting event.
Stadiums and arenas, providers of live broadcasts and transportation services, hotels and restaurant owners, as well as social initiatives and communities— they all benefit from the global attention and visitor influx a city receives from such a large-scale event.
But what does this mean for event organisers who are planning to hold a congress, trade fair, conference, or another B2B event in the same city at the time of the sporting event? Does this mean merely competition for hotel room contingencies, increased prices and extra traffic? Or is there a positive side too?
Discover in this article six reasons why the international sports metropolis of Berlin is the perfect destination choice for your next major congress or specialist event.
The 2024 Berlin Summer is characterised by major sporting events.
With a city-wide public festival program during the Special Olympics World Games 2023, the city has already demonstrated the plethora of opportunities it offers to organisers, planners, and visitors of major events with international appeal.
As the host of the UEFA EURO 2024, Berlin recently welcomed over 125,000 fans from all around the world for the six matches, including the great finals on 14 July, which will take place in the Olympic Stadium.
But it's not just football fans who are drawn to Berlin this year. The capital was also chosen to host the EuroLeague Final Four matches in basketball in May, as well as the Ladies World Open and the Laver Cup in tennis this fall.
For 2025, the city is already looking forward to welcoming the star players of the DFB (German Football Association) tournaments that will enliven the city, as they did during the cup final in May of this year.
Why is Berlin repeatedly chosen to host mega-events? The global image of the city as an open, tolerant, and centrally located world metropolis in Europe is certainly one of the factors driving that decision.
However, the striking popularity of Berlin among organisers of large-scale sporting events suggests there might be more reasons worth taking a closer look at. Could the German capital not also be a potential destination for your major B2B events with several hundred or thousands of participants, too?
Here are six reasons why major sporting events make Berlin an even more attractive destination for your congresses and conventions:
Not only sports events benefit from Berlin's extensive portfolio of exceptional event locations that offer both, the space and the right atmosphere, to captivate your audience.
The Berlin Olympic Stadium and the Uber Arena (with the adjacent Uber Eats Music Hall) are undoubtedly the top addresses for organisers of sporting events. But Berlin truly has a large offering, including:
The event spaces at Tempelhof Airport
Exhibition fairgrounds at Messe Berlin
Estrel Berlin and the Estrel Congress Center
These are all superlative venues with capacities designed for large participant numbers of up to 74 thousand PAX. That makes those locations perfect for events that set out to think in new dimensions.
Besides individual venues, a city's public infrastructure must be sufficiently developed to be reliably and safely used by large crowds.
With excellent connections to the international long-distance travel of Deutsche Bahn, a well-designed citywide public transport network, and a variety of transfer and shuttle service providers, Berlin offers climate-friendly and barrier-free mobility options for your event participants to travel to and within Berlin.
The short walking distances between the various venues (all located at the city's central event centres) and the clear, intuitive signage systems also enable planners to organise decentralised add-on events in Berlin, such as dinners, parties, and networking programmes.
Mega-events like the UEFA EURO 2024, during which smart communication systems between event locations, state authorities, and public service providers are constantly improved, are the ultimate test runs for the successful execution of your congress.
What if a sports event and your event are to take place simultaneously in Berlin? No problem!
Thanks to the so-called Hotel Charta (a joint initiative by the visitBerlin Berlin Convention Office, the visitBerlin Partnerhotels e.V., and the Senate of the City of Berlin to structurally strengthen the international positioning of our Berlin congress metropolis), organisers of major congresses can rely on receiving sufficient room quotas at attractive prices in the participating hotels.
It can even be an advantage to embed your specialist event into the context of an international flagship event in sports. After all, who wouldn't find it an absolute highlight after the congress or conference to have the chance to see their favourite atheletes live, celebrating with hundreds if not thousands of other fans?
We posed this question to Petra Neye, the organiser of the UEFA EURO Festival Summer from Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH. She curated the public framework program of sports, cultural, and culinary offerings accompanying the European Football Championship 2024. She provides insight into some of the numerous possibilities to enrich your business event with an additional set of social activities, for example:
Exclusive tours of the festival grounds (e.g. as part of the BESTIVAL Masterclass INNOVATION 2024 programme)
Meet & Greet formats with star players
Booking private areas in Public Viewing zones or seats in grandstands
Numerous offers for shared eating, drinking, and celebrating at the evening public viewing of live broadcasts at public venues
The euphoria and positive buzz that are omnipresent in a city like Berlin during major sports events is likely to infect your congress participants. It can thus foster a constructive mindset for engaging in discussions, networking and conversations.
The presence of renowned sports legends might inspire reflections on the beginnings, development pathways, and success stories of true stars in their fields. Why not use such role models of discipline, endurance, and visionary spirit to inspire your event participants and encourage them to build a sustainable legacy with your event, as well?
You might even manage to win a player as an ambassador or a team as a sponsor for your own event. Best practices like the Euroleague and the UEFA EURO 2024 show how NGOs, non-profit organisations, and associations can benefit from sponsorships, additional multiplier effects in communication, and the positive image transfer of major sports events.
Many committees of international sports associations based in Berlin have a strong interest in supporting such associations that lay the groundwork for what athletes can achieve on the field. Whether it's medical research or empowering young talents to follow their dreams.
After all, both types of events promote the same values of diversity, team spirit, and solidarity - whether it's a sports competition or a major congress.
The team at the visitBerlin Berlin Convention Office is specialised on satisfying the needs of event planners from different markets who want to organise a thousand-person congress, an international trade fair, or another major event in Berlin.
Therefore, it maintains close relationships with local partners; from the Berlin MICE and travel industry, politics and culture, to security and mobility. With every event we welcome in Berlin, we strengthen these bonds and gain new expertise. This way, we can promise you the best contacts and highest level of reliability to make your major event in Berlin a win for all participants, partners and attendees.
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