Hyderabad is the new hub for global events

HYDERABAD: Move over Mumbai and Delhi, mana Hyderabad has become a new hub for international conferences in the country. After high-profile events like CoP-11, more and more such global events are lined up for 2013. It's the high quality at low budget that helped Hyderabad emerge as a favourite venue, say organisers.
Organisers of various meetings and conventions held in the city recently, said that the cost of holding such events here was around three times lesser than Mumbai.Standing testimony to these claims is the long list of upcoming international events to be held in Hyderabad.
The list includes, Congress of the Asia Pacific Academy of Opthalmology in January with around 5,000 delegates; World Congress of the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics; and an international conference on oncology in February.
"Hyderabad is very economical when compared to other major cities in India with affordable hotels and reasonably priced venues and food," said Rajan Sankar, country manager of the UN Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), which recently held its global board meeting here.
"Moreover the quality is not compromised as the facilities here are on par with Mumbai and Delhi. Our international delegates were very impressed with the city's hospitality and Hyderabad will definitely be on the top of our list for any future events," Sankar said.
Not just the large-scale events like the bio-diversity conference, the city has become popular with even small-budget organisers. Samala Venu, convenor of the just-concluded International Magicians' Convention said while their event was organised here at a budget of around Rs 40 lakh, the same three-day event in Mumbai would have cost them around Rs 1.2 crore.
"A decent conference room in a star hotel costs just Rs 7,000 here, but the same in Mumbai or Delhi could go up to Rs 20,000," Venu said. Organisers of the recently held Indian Luxury Expo too said that while the commercial tax they paid was around 20%, in Mumbai it would be around 40%.
The convention centres and venues in the city are no less compared to Singapore or Malaysia, but the support services like transport and accommodation which make the difference, forcing many organizers to shift their venue from other metros to Hyderabad.Apart from affordability, the culture too attracts tremendous attention. "Hyderabad is culturally active with many heritage sites but at the same time, very urban with IT hub and so many scientific institutes," said Dr Suvarna Alladi of World Federation of Neurology.
"Delegates at our meeting loved the food here, the tourist sites and also the airport. Hyderabad is the right place for these events and is also much safer, which gives it an edge over the rest," she added.
International events recently held in city
•CoP-11
•Global Board meeting by GAIN
•World Allergy Organisation's conference
•World Federation of Neurology's discussion on cognitive neurology
•International Magicians' Convention
Upcoming
•Congress of the Asia Pacific Academy of Opthalmology
•World Congress of the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics
•Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Experience meeting of international insurance and financial services professionals
•International Union of Crystallography
•State has placed a bid to host Commonweatlh Youth Parliament-2013 in the city