Kenes Group plans to branch out into the U.S. in early 2013.
In an effort to draw more medical meetings to Houston, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau has announced a partnership with Kenes Associations Worldwide, the association management arm of Geneva-based Kenes Group, a professional congress organizer focused on the medical meetings market.
Kenes Associations Worldwide signed its first U.S. association client, the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management (ASRA), in November 2011, which marked the beginning of the medical meetings giant’s push into the U.S. market. “We expect to officially launch our U.S. office in January 2013, with the name Kenes USA,” said Leonard Mafrica, CAE, senior association manager at Kenes Associations Worldwide and the executive director at ASRA. “Kenes USA will be an extension of Kenes Associations Worldwide, recognizing that in the U.S. association market, medical societies are the drivers of medical conferences.”
From Houston’s perspective, the goal of the new strategic partnership is to bring more of Kenes’ international medical association meetings to Houston, said Jorge Franz, vice president of international group sales and tourism for GHCVB, who announced the partnership at a press conference at IMEX America in mid-October. “We’re very excited,” Franz said, noting that while the relationship is not exclusive, it is unique in the U.S.
In return, the bureau will provide Kenes with access to medical professionals at the Texas Medical Center as they work to expand into the U.S. “Kenes USA’s primary market in the U.S. is medical and scientific societies with small or no staff, in need of full-service management,” said Mafrica. However, he noted, any size medical society that wants to deliver programs internationally could benefit from Kenes USA’s global reach.
