ESPEN 2024: Driving growth through strategic repositioning

ESPEN, an association registered in Luxembourg, has been a client of MCI since 1999. It emerged ahead of the 2023 congress that the event lacked clear strategic positioning. This made it difficult to realise expected targets. A revitalised growth strategy was devised to address this, implemented in 2023 and continued in 2024, with a focus on growing the congress to become the leading European meeting in its field. 

MCI conducted a comprehensive 360° strategic review, leveraging insights from its Business Intelligence Unit to redefine ESPEN’s congress positioning. The team rolled out a new growth strategy designed to elevate ESPEN as the number one European meeting in its field. 

The congress programme was enhanced with emerging topics to attract new industry partners, and the marketing strategy was extended to reach previously untapped target groups. A multichannel digital marketing campaign included an email strategy powered by the integration of the database of our partner agency, Kabloom. This added over 65,000 new contacts and played a key role in boosting conversions by 175% while driving registration and abstract submissions. The digital advertising campaign achieved a return on ad spend of 6,584%, garnering 4.2 million impressions, converting more than 1,400 registrations and significantly increasing traffic to the congress platform. 

The ESPEN Village was redesigned as a hub to showcase the association’s initiatives and membership benefits, while also offering a space for networking with key opinion leaders. 

To further drive engagement, gamification was introduced into the ESPEN congress app to boost attendee interaction and app usage.  

These initiatives demonstrate the MCI team’s entrepreneurial mindset and innovative approach, and enabled ESPEN to enhance its visibility, increase industry support and fulfil its mission to advance research, practice, education, collaboration and advocacy in to influence legislation and promote best practices in clinical nutrition. 

The ESPEN 2024 Congress saw attendance grow by more than 30% compared to the previous year. The number of exhibitors rose by 45% and exhibition space sold increased by 56% compared to 2022. Abstract submissions were up by 38%, and the congress delivered record profits.

As a result of this success, MCI secured a contract extension through to 2028, affirming its position as ESPEN’s strategic partner. This outcome showcased not only the effectiveness of MCI’s strategy, but also its ability to transform potential into sustained performance and growth.
 

Ready to drive measurable growth for your congress? Partner with MCI to transform your event strategy and deliver lasting impact. Contact us now.