Results to date

The scheme's success has been applauded across the industry, with significant interest from international event planners since its launch in May 2021. To date, 242 congresses and corporate conferences (both national and international) have already received preliminary funding approval from the Vienna Convention Bureau (VCB), amounting to nearly €2.5 million promised in aid. This equates to more than 60% of the €4 million funding pot already being utilised. 

Impressively, according to projections, these events will equate to an added value of €371 million for the city by the end of 2023. The basis for quantifying the added value is the Event-Model-Austria developed by the management consultant and lecturer at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration Dr. Martina Stoff-Hochreiner.

Vienna on the way to becoming a world-class conference metropolis again

To date, funding applications come to about two-thirds (67%) from the congress sector and to about one-third (33%) from the corporate events sector. According to Christian Woronka, head of the VCB, the interim results of the Vienna Meeting Fund clearly show that the funding measure has a strong leverage effect both for tourism and for other industries in the sector's orbit, such as supplier companies.  

"Summing up all events, according to the current planning status, we will physically bring around 146,000 participants to Vienna on site, with more than 40 per cent of the applications so far for 2022 and 2023. 51 percent of the events will take place with participantvienna meeting fund 2021 exclusively on site, the rest are hybrid events, i.e. a mix of face-to-face and digital participation," Woronka explains further.

Promoted events at various Vienna locations

The majority of submissions come from the fields of human medicine, business, banking and finance. The "7th Congress of the European Academy of Neurology" (EAN) has already taken place at the Austria Center Vienna with more than 11,000 mainly virtually connected participants, as did the "Eurospine 2021" in October in the Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center. or the "HR Inside Summit" with around 2,000 participants in the Hofburg Vienna. 

More information about the Vienna Meeting Fund 2021-2023, the funding guidelines and how to apply.