financial excesses

GERMANY
The business year 2009
was the most successful
in the over 100-year history of
the Mannheim/Germanybased
company m:con
GmbH. Total revenues at
m:con mannheim:congress
GmbH jumped 11 percent in
2009 from not quite EUR 18
million (2008) to EUR 20 million.
In both segments of the
m:con portfolio – management
of the Congress Center
Rosengarten and external
conference organisation –
sales rose at double-digit
rates. The external organisation
business that m:con generates
by staging scientific
and academic conferences in
Germany and neighbouring
countries climbed by EUR 1.3
million from EUR 4.5 million
in 2008 to EUR 5.8 million in
2009.
Sales at the Congress Center
Rosengarten were boosted
from EUR 12.8 million to EUR
13.9 million, an increase of 1.1
million. In Mannheim this
success is attributed chiefly
to extension of the congress
centre. “In the past four
years we have succeeded in
growing sales by 30%, exceeding
forecasts by all the
experts in 2005 on the outcome
of the extension,”
m:con managing director Michel
Maugé is pleased to
note.
Expansion of the Rosengarten
is said to have given a
particular boost to the seg-
m:con
Double-digit growth
despite economic crisis
At its accounts press conference in March 2010 the company m:con GmbH presented
a gratifying set of results for 2009. Nor did it fail to add that this performance
distinguished it from many of its competitors.
m:con CC Rosengarten
ment of conferences with
2,000 to 3,000 delegates.
Trade in big-ticket conventions
is also developing positively.
In 2009 m:con generated
75% of total sales by the
Rosengarten with 28 congresses.
Audience numbers
at these averaged 3,900 and
the revenues worked out at
EUR 470,000 per conference.
Even so, m:con did feel the
pinch of the economic crisis
in the business areas concerts
and social functions –
such as Carnival festivities or
balls. In 2009 twelve concerts
fewer were held than in
the previous year, as a result
of which overall audience
numbers fell from 460,000 in
2008 to 441,000.
But this in no way detracts
from m:con’s
function as a pillar of
the regional economy.
Around 200,000 congress
and conferencegoers
attended the
237 meetings at the
Rosengarten in 2009,
highlighting congress
business as a permanent
stabilising factor,
especially in terms of
hotel room-nights in
Mannheim, while
pure-play business
travel suffered a
downturn last year of more
than 10%. Specifically, m:con
calculates that it provided hotels
in Mannheim with roughly
146,000 room-nights worth
upwards of EUR 15 million.
That is equivalent to 22 percent
of the altogether
660,000 hotel room-nights
registered for 2009 in Mannheim.
Given their own good performance,
officials in Mann-
”m:con can
be proud”
heim do not of course fail to
point out that a lot of competitors
in 2009 posted declines
– some of them substantial –
in revenues and the number
of events. “m:con can be
proud of the fact that on the
back of its exceptionally good
showing in 2009 the Congress
Center Rosengarten
Mannheim has risen to the
ranks of the top-selling congress
centres in Germany,”
Maugé is pleased to report.
With revenues of EUR 13.9
million, the Rosengarten is
second only to the ICC Berlin
(EUR 20.0 million in 2008)
and has carved itself a strong
lead over the CCH Hamburg
(EUR 9 million) and the ICS in
Stuttgart (EUR 4.1million). TF
54 2/2010
© m:con/picture Eduardo Perez