Focusing on the remit to enhance, maintain and improve standards

ABPCO never lost sight of its remit to enhance, maintain and improve standards within the events industry.  ABPCO believed that a nationally recognised qualification,  specifically in conference and event management, was the only way to bring recognition to a small section of such a diverse industry.   In 1993 a sub-committee was formed to undertake a systematic research programme within the tourist industry (with which the events industry had always had close links) and an approach was made to the University lecturers in Tourism Management and Colleges of Higher Education to find out more about their modules at both degree and the Higher National Diploma levels and to seek advice on the best way to proceed.  Other educational bodies were also approached.

The response was encouraging but the results of the research showed that although there were many courses which purported to cover conference and event management, closer inspection revealed that the majority were biased towards conference management within venues, tourism, hotels and catering.  Some of the Universities did incorporate Conference and Event/Exhibition Management as an elective module in their courses in Business Management (Tourism) and Hotel & Catering. It transpired that Fife College ran a SCOTVEC HND in Promotions & Events Management which came the closest to ABPCO’s own objective.