Having celebrated its arrival onto the world’s stage in December 2011 with 5,500 delegates and press attending the 20^th World Petroleum Congress, the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) has just celebrated its first anniversary in the company of Heads of State and delegations attending the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP18/CMP8). For the past two weeks, the Centre has been bustling with activities – from enthusiastic discussions in the halls, exchange of knowledge between peers, intellectual discourses over coffee with new found friends to the media team busy capturing stories of the day, all under the watchful eye of the QNCC team members who ensured that everything ran smoothly. The conference concluded yesterday with governments having successfully launched the next essential step in the global response to climate change. 

Mr Saad Al Muhanadi, Chairman of AMLAK, the holding company that oversees the strategy and operation of QNCC on behalf of Qatar Foundation (QF), said, “It has been a memorable year for us, The Centre officially opened last year on this day when it hosted the 20th World Petroleum Congress - the largest oil and gas gathering in the world, and today, one year later, we are playing host to the largest conference ever staged in Qatar”. 

“It is our vision to see QNCC as the preferred destination for prestigious events and all the hard work is paying off as we have received positive feedback from our clients. It will be another exciting year ahead for QNCC as we focus on attracting more regional and international events,” he added.  

Some of the high profile events confirmed for 2013 include:

• Offshore Middle East from 21 to 23 January 2013;
• 2^nd High Level Forum on Global Geospatial Information Management from 4 to 6 February 2013;
• Qatar Career Fair 2013 from 1 to 6 April 2013;
• 8th World Chambers Congress from 23 to 25 April 2013;
• iEARN – International Education & Resource Network Conference from 1 to 5 July 2013;
• 5^th World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) from 29 to 31 October 2013;
• Excellence in Paediatrics Conference from 4 to 7 December 2013. 

QNCC has played host to some of the most prominent events from across the world and the region in the last year. To date, the Centre has hosted 212 events and welcomed 155,561 delegates and visitors. The economic impact generated from overseas delegates stands at an impressive QAR 283,560,000. 

Looking back at the year, the Centre was also proud to have received the “Middle East’s Leading Exhibition & Convention Centre” by the World Travel Awards 2012; “Best Congress and Convention Centre, Middle East” by Business Destinations Travel Awards 2012; and “Best Convention Centre in Middle East” by MICE Report Awards 2012. Within its first year of operations, the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) also added a golden feather to its culinary hat at the 2012 Salon Culinaire on 16-18 October. The Centre took home four (4) medals including gold in the Arabic Mezza category.