Certified International Convention Executive (CICE)
Stand Out in the Business Events Industry with Your CICE Designation!
The Certified International Convention Executive (CICE) is a globally recognised advanced certificate program, ideal for mid to senior level managers with at least 3 years management experience in the international association business industry.
This programme provides a strategic leap into advanced event management techniques, strategies, and legacy impacts that will sustain industry business units.
The curriculum will enable you to:
- Strengthen your strategic bidding and business growth skills through practical work on bid strategy, competitive positioning, market trends, destination marketing, and long-term planning.
- Learn collaboratively from peers and industry experts by tackling real-world challenges together, expanding your professional network, and exchanging actionable ideas and best practices.
- Develop the leadership and people skills needed to succeed including stakeholder management, negotiation, analytical thinking, problem solving, communication, adaptability, and creating meaningful impact through sustainability and DEI.
Course Eligibility: Is the CICE Right for You?
Who is this course for?
This programme is designed for mid to senior level managers looking to future-proof their knowledge and skills.
Eligibility is based on a combination of:
- Are you working in a DMO, AMC, CVB, PCO, convention centre, hotel or other professional venue?
- Have you actively led or been involved in attracting and winning at least 4 international association conferences to your destination? Can you share a portfolio of evidence?
- Do you have 5+ years of industry experience?
- Do you have 3+ years of management experience?
- Do you hold the CICS designation?
- Do you have clear learning goals?
To help ensure the right fit, participants may complete a short pre-course assessment, with a post-course survey used to support learning evaluation and development.
Course Formats: Learn Your Way
You have the following options on how to gain your certification:
- Access the online LMS platform to start learning ahead of the class.
- Come together with international peers for 3-days of active learning with two expert instructors to guide and challenge you and bring the content to life. Through peer problem-solving, strategic case work and a final bid simulation, participants will learn how to connect market intelligence, association needs, stakeholder mobilisation and credible impact thinking into stronger convention strategies.
- Continue learning via the online learning modules in the LMS platform.
- Prepare, take and pass the online exam within one year after the in-person class.
- Access the online LMS platform to start learning ahead of the class.
- Come together with international peers for 6 webinars spread over 7 weeks. Each webinar runs for 3.5 hours (including breaks) and is led by an experienced instructor who will guide and challenge you and bring the content to life.
- Continue learning via the online learning modules in the LMS platform.
- Prepare, take and pass the online exam within one year after the in-person class.
By completing the CICE, you will win more business for your company and equip yourself with the skills, credibility, and confidence to succeed in a rapidly evolving industry.
Course Content: What You'll Learn
Are you building the right systems and communities for success? Do you have the vision, enthusiasm and know-how to take yourself, your team and your organisation to the next level?
This module provides a comprehensive examination of the global meetings, conventions, and events industry, emphasizing how it intersects with tourism, destination development, association management, and the broader economy. It explains the motivations of clients, value propositions of international conventions, supply chain dynamics, and emerging global trends.
Across all chapters, the book equips learners with the knowledge needed to understand the meeting industry’s structure, stakeholders, impacts, and operational requirements.
This module focuses on the end‑to‑end process of bidding, selling, and securing meetings and conventions for a destination. It introduces sales fundamentals, account research, partnerships, ambassador programs, bid brief development, bid strategies, bid promotion, and the design of impactful bid presentations.
The book prepares learners to understand and execute the competitive processes that determine whether a destination wins or loses major events.
This module focuses on convention marketing, market segmentation for business events, and the structure of the international supply chain that supports the global meetings industry. It also includes a full chapter on media relations and crisis communication, ensuring learners understand how to manage marketing communications in both normal and high‑pressure situations.
Overall, the book equips learners with essential knowledge on marketing strategy, segmentation, distribution channels, stakeholder roles, and media engagement.
This module provides a comprehensive overview of the core suppliers and organisations that make up the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) ecosystem. It covers convention bureaus, venues, hotels, PCOs, DMCs, EMCs, exhibition service companies, and the essential destination product factors that shape competitiveness.
The book prepares learners to understand the roles, operations, and interdependencies of these organisations, as well as how destinations structure and differentiate their product offering to attract business events.
This module focuses on three core pillars essential to modern destination marketing and business events management:
- Sales & Marketing Planning: How destinations develop strategic and tactical plans that guide their sales, marketing, and promotional activities.
- Technology Systems & Infrastructure: The digital tools, platforms, and systems that support event delivery, marketing operations, customer data, and stakeholder engagement.
- Sustainable & Regenerative Events: Current sustainability practices, regenerative principles, and destination strategies for future‑focused event management.
The book prepares learners to plan strategically, apply technology effectively, and adopt responsible and regenerative practices in the meetings and events industry.
This module examines the future of convention destinations, focusing on how data, environmental scanning, futures research, and evolving industry roles shape long-term strategic direction. It highlights how convention destinations must adapt to shifting global trends, stakeholder expectations, technological change, and sustainability pressures.
The book equips learners with the foresight and strategic planning tools needed to build “future‑fit” convention destinations capable of competing in a rapidly changing environment.
This module explores how conventions drive economic transformation, focusing on the shift toward knowledge‑based economies, intellectual capital, and sustainable development. It explains how business and professional events act as catalysts for innovation, talent development, and policy advancement.
The chapter also highlights the evolving role of convention bureaus as capacity builders and examines practical examples, such as Sydney, to demonstrate how destinations can leverage conventions for long‑term societal benefit.
Overall, it positions conventions not just as tourism drivers, but as strategic tools for economic, social, and intellectual advancement.
Ready to Stand Out in the Business Events Industry?
Get in touch
ICCA Education Team: education@iccaworld.org
Alpha Tower, De Entree 57, Amsterdam 1101 BH, The Netherlands
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