MCI End-Year Review

MCI's financial results, growth, new product offerings, awards and corporate social responsibility

Geneva, Switzerland – November 30th, 2010. MCI reports greater pre-tax earnings for 2010 and looks to 2011 with confidence. MCI’s gross margin forecast for year-end 2010 is €75 million. Gross margin growth of 9% can be attributed to an organic growth of 4% and 5% through acquisitions with the integration of Event Planners in Australia and Eurocongress in Amsterdam. MCI’s projected pre-tax earnings for 2010 is in fact higher than the initial objectives of €5 million. 2011 looks promising with an expected organic growth of 20% and an excellent pipeline of confirmed business, exceeding projections from around the same time last year.

Continued growth of MCI follows mergers with Eurocongress and Event Planners in The Netherlands and Australia respectively and the opening of a new MCI office in Korea. In May 2010, an agreement was reached with Eurocongress International to merge their company with MCI and integrate the current MCI Amsterdam operations to form the leading Congress & Event Management company in The Netherlands.

Event Planners Australia (one of the leading meeting and event companies in Australia with offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide) also merged with MCI in the same month. In August 2010 MCI Korea was established in joint venture with leading destination management company Kim’s Travel, whose meeting & events subsidiary, M&C Planners, will be rebranded into MCI Korea. Furthermore, MCI Korea will make a significant investment in FAMC, the first and only association management company (AMC) in Korea, established in October 2009 as a pioneer in the Korean meetings industry.

New MCI product offerings include a cruise events service available through a strategic alliance with Landry and Kling. MCI and cruise events specialist Landry & Kling, announced a strategic alliance in May of this year designed to deliver seamless event management within the cruise meetings and events market. The partnership includes Landry & Kling’s company Seasite.com, the first cruise portal dedicated to the cruise meetings and events. Within the new alliance, MCI will promote the use of cruise ships for group meetings and events accessing Seasite.com services and resources including cruise sourcing, contract negotiations, and valuable planning tools. In addition, MCI will request Landry & Kling services for its clients who require cruise logistics custom planning services - from the pre-event planning phase through on-site event implementation.

MCI in the UK wins prestigious MIMA Marketing Award. In October 2010, MCI Petersfield were awarded a bronze category award in the annual MIMA Meeting Industry and Marketing Awards. Aimed at recognizing high standards of marketing expertise in the meeting and event industry, MCI in the UK submitted their “Get Creative” mailshot in the ‘Best Direct Marketing Campaign’ category where they achieved bronze status. The campaign was used to promote the in-house creative design and production services that support our clients’ desire to create meaningful connections with their audiences.

A demonstrable CSR commitment from MCI as COP15 wins IMEX Green Meetings Awards 2010, MCI organizes United Nations Global Compact Leaders’ Summit in New York and MCI Stockholm receives prestigious CSR award. MCI Copenhagen served as the housing bureau for the COP15 event in December 2009, managing almost 100’000 room nights for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. MCI provided sustainability consulting services to the government, municipality, venue and tourism authorities. In June 2010, the GMIC (the Green Meetings Industry Council) awarded the COP15 team with the IMEX Green Meetings Gold Award for outstanding environmental performance in such a large event.

MCI organised the United Nations Global Compact Leaders’ Summit in New York in June of this year. As the world’s largest UN-Business meeting to date, the summit brought together 1’400 C-level executives from business, government, civil society and academia to work together on building a “new era of sustainability”. A multi-office team from MCI Brussels, Dorier and Sustainability Services were responsible for summit strategy, sustainable event management and a creative production that raised the bar on previous UN events.

MCI Stockholm was named “Company of the Year” by The Mayflower Charity Foundation for Children in recognition of their continuing support and contribution to The Mayflower’s annual fundraising campaign. Bo Magnusson, Managing Director of MCI in Scandinavia, received the award from Her Majesty Queen of Sweden at The Royal Palace in Stockholm in October 2010.