On November 26 Lviv Honorary Ambassadors were nominated at the solemn ceremony in Lviv. 11 finalists received the official title of Lviv Honorary Ambassador for the considerable contribution to development of Lviv as an international convention destination. The aim of the Program is for Lviv to enter the global MICE market with the assistance of influential figures with honorary title of Lviv Honorary Ambassador who are willing to use their authority and expertise in order to promote Lviv as a destination for MICE events. The initiator and implementer of Lviv Honorary Ambassador Program is Lviv Convention Bureau.
Lviv’s mayor Andriy Sadovyi mentioned, “Conference industry provides opportunities for communication with the world’s smartest people. When Lviv is visited by the Nobel Prize Winner, they fascinate the students, and I would like us to have both a lot of Nobel Prize Winners and a lot of good students. Actually, the work of Ambassadors is a bridge that we are building and which should be used to bring all this wealth to our city”.
During the nomination ceremony Lviv’s mayor Andriy Sadovyi emphasized that, “I would like to express my appreciation to those who applied to become Honorary Ambassadors of the city, those who accept this honor from the city because being in other places you will be talking as the mayor – this is what I delegate to you today”.
The keynote speech at the ceremony was delivered by Slawomir Wroblewski, secretary general of Conferences and Congresses in Poland Association (SKKP) who presented 17 years of experience in Honorary Ambassador Program in Poland.
Programs similar to Honorary Ambassador Program are being implemented on the level of cities, regions, and countries. According to ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association), there is about 21,000 regular congresses and other meetings in the world that are held by the associations. According to ICCA research, those cities, regions or countries where Ambassador Programs successfully work are more likely to win an international congress.
Lviv Honorary Ambassadors for the years 2015-2017:
Łukasz Abgarowicz – Senator of Polish Sejm, Honorary citizen of Virmenska street in Lviv
Olexander Filtz – Director of Lviv Regional Clinical Psychiatric Hospital
Iryna Klyuchkovska – Director of International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations of Lviv Polytechnic National University
Fr. Bohdan Prakh – Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University
Pavlo Sheremeta – Head of Ukrainian Catholic University School of Public Management
Andriy Sybirnyi – Member of NAS of Ukraine and the first Director of the Institute of Cell Biology
Nikodem Szczyglowski – Chairman of the Board of the SIA Baltic Aviation Support
Paul Tomandl – President of Reisewelt Ukraine Ltd.
Myron Uhryn – President of the Ukrainian Dental Implantologists Association
Stepan Veselovskyi – CEO Lviv IT Cluster
Myhailo Zarichnyi – Dean of Mechanics and Mathematics Faculty at Ivan Franko National University in Lviv
The finalists were selected according to the following criteria:
- Tight and long connection to Lviv
- Success in business
- Leader who has a team or followers
- Respected in the professional field with a good reputation
- Public figure
- High level of morality
- Personal participation in conference management
