Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau held the FY2012 2^nd Convention Committee on December 5^th, featuring reports on the “2012 Tokyo Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.” The panelists included Reiko Kubota, Managing Director of Congress Corporation.

Mr. Hiroshi Naka, Secretary General, The Japan Secretariat for the 2012 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, Ministry of Finance, Government of Japan, kicked off the reports with his speech entitled “Looking back on the 2012 Tokyo Annual Meetings of the IMF/World Bank Group.” Mr. Naka highlighted the fact that despite the extremely short lead time of only 15 months, the 2012 Tokyo Annual Meetings were successfully convened without any major incidents, and summed up the achievement with his comment; “we proved to the world once again that ‘Japan can do it.’” Mr. Naka also let the audience in on the efforts behind-the-scenes of such a large-scale meeting; “The Japan Secretariat was entirely comprised of members under 35, focusing on the younger generation, and I endeavored to delegate more and more responsibility to them and built up a solid relationship of trust with the IMF/World Bank team.

Next, a panel discussion took place on the theme of “What are the future issues for the international conference industry?” Congress Corporation’s Reiko Kubota, who was the overall director of the operations for the Annual Meetings, joined representatives in charge of preparations from each venue; Tokyo International Forum, Imperial Hotel and Hotel Okura Tokyo. Each company reported on their responsibilities for the Annual Meetings as well as what they gained from the experience and future issues. There was unanimous agreement on the panel that the most valuable gain was the “opportunity for the entire company to experience actually working together as a team to operate this kind of large-scale international meeting, which served to foster our human assets.” The discussion closed with all participants expressing their resolve to make best use of this experience for future international conferences convening in Tokyo.