When EIBTM kicks off Nov. 29-Dec. 1 in Barcelona, Spain, the China Meetings Summit will debut for the first time.

The summit is intended to give EIBTM attendees insight into how China is poised to capture high profile business events. With economists predicting 70-percent growth during the next five years, if businesses expect to grow in the future, China is an important market to pay attention to.

The China Meetings Summit will look at the meetings industry from a first-tier destination perspective and from a meeting planner perspective, bringing an interactive session with live debate and presentations from some of China’s key industry leaders, showing how they are competing for business with the rest of the world.

“The IBTM portfolio of events includes CIBTM – the annual event for the meetings industry that was launched in Beijing in 2005,” said Craig Moyes, group exhibition director, IBTM Portfolio.

He added, “Year on year, this event grows from not only an international, local and regional exhibitor base, but also from a Hosted Buyer and trade visitor perspective. Strategically located in the capital city of China, and the getaway for government and industry, the influence that CIBTM has on the industry sector, both inbound and outbound from China, gives us the opportunity to bring this perspective to our biggest event, EIBTM.”

The panel will be facilitated by Eric Rozenberg, non-executive chair of the IBTM Portfolio and president of Swantegy, and it will assess the new business mix in China and the increasing importance of meetings to in the success to secure business, according to EIBTM officials.

Discussions also will consider the impacts of national and domestic business giants and their impact on the outbound meetings markets, as well as the impact major events such as the Olympic Games in Beijing have had on the success of their economy.

Other topics for discussion will cover anticipated growth for the industry, the development of the domestic meetings industry and the ways in which the local trade and infrastructure is helping to meet the perpetuating needs of a meetings industry which is expanding at an exponential rate.

The panel will include Golfer Gao, deputy director of High-end Tourism Department, Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development; Patrick Chen, deputy director of International Tourism Promotion Department, Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration; William Wei, deputy general manager, China National Convention Center, George Qiao, deputy director of Department of International Cooperation, China Electronic Chamber of Commerce; Les Sinclair, director, regional accounts, Global Synergies; and Sally Greenhill, managing director of the Right Solution.