Poland Convention Bureau POT is launching a new educational and inspirational initiative for the meetings industry with Ciara Feely – Poland MICE Masterclass. The programme is designed to bring together POT-recommended DMCs and PCOs, as well as local and regional Convention Bureaux, around a shared objective: to position Poland even more effectively in the international meetings market.
Poland has an increasingly strong offer for international event organisers, combining modern infrastructure, diverse regions, professional partners and growing experience in delivering events on an international scale. The next step is to make even better use of this potential in sales, communications and relationship-building with international clients.
This is precisely the purpose of Poland MICE Masterclass – a practical series of workshops designed for Polish meetings industry professionals.
A shared objective
The programme is designed to provide practical knowledge to representatives of POT Recommended Incentive Travel Companies (ITCs), POT Recommended Professional Congress Organisers (PCOs) and city and regional Convention Bureaux. Although each participant represents their own company, city or region, on the international market they all contribute to the image of one destination – Poland.
How do event organisers buy today?
The way meeting planners make decisions is changing. Simply presenting a venue, a city or a catalogue of attractions is increasingly no longer enough. What matters is understanding the client’s needs, asking the right questions, building trust and demonstrating how a destination can help achieve the objectives of a specific event.
This is the philosophy behind Ciara Feely’s Steps to WIN™ programme, which focuses on building valuable business relationships, having better conversations with clients and winning more profitable business.
Poland MICE Masterclass will help participants look at sales from the client’s perspective and address several fundamental questions:
- what international event organisers expect today,
- how to stand out from competing destinations,
- how to move from presenting an offer to having a valuable business conversation,
- how to build long-term relationships with meeting planners,
- how to increase the chances of winning higher-value and more profitable business,
- how to strengthen Poland’s position together as a destination of first choice.
From trade shows to familiarisation trips
The workshops will be practical and interactive. Rather than traditional lectures, participants will work with real-life situations encountered in international MICE sales.
One of the topics will be lead generation at trade shows and industry events – from preparation before a meeting, through conversations with hosted buyers, to effective follow-up and developing relationships after the event.
A separate part of the programme will focus on familiarisation trips and site inspections. The aim will be to move away from the traditional approach of simply showing clients around venues and towards designing an experience that responds to their specific needs.
This is an area in which Ciara Feely has extensive experience from both the seller’s and buyer’s perspective. Her session on designing unforgettable familiarisation trips during Smart Monday at IMEX America attracted more than 150 participants, approximately 40% of whom were meeting planners. One of the key conclusions was that a familiarisation trip should be treated not as a presentation, but as a collaborative process with the client.
A third important element will be building the competitive advantage of Polish cities and regions. Participants will explore how to identify those elements of their offer that provide genuine value to international organisers and how to communicate them in a way that differentiates their destination more clearly from other European destinations.
Ciara Feely to lead Poland MICE Masterclass
The programme will be led by Ciara Feely – an international sales strategist, trainer and creator of the Steps to WIN™ programme. She has more than 20 years of experience in sales, business development and client relationship management. She developed her career in hospitality, progressing from Sales Coordinator to Sales Director, before running her own agency for ten years.
Today, she works with sales teams, leaders and organisations across international markets, specialising in the meetings and events sector. Her clients include DMCs, event agencies, hotels, conference venues and Convention Bureaux.
Ciara is also actively involved with Meeting Professionals International (MPI). She serves as President-Elect of the MPI UK & Ireland Chapter and is a member of the MPI European Council, where she contributes to the development of the community and initiatives designed to increase the value of MPI membership. Her approach is based on a simple shift in perspective: an organisation should not be seen merely as a supplier, but as a partner that understands the client’s objectives and helps to achieve them.
Ciara Feely is also the author of the book “Steps to WIN” and delivers training for organisations and professionals working in the international meetings market. Her programmes combine extensive sales experience with practical knowledge of the international MICE industry. She has been recognised as a thought leader and was awarded the title of Business All-Star Thought Leader in Sales Leadership 2025 by the All-Ireland Business Foundation.
Similar comprehensive training programmes have already been delivered for meetings industry professionals in destinations including Flanders, Slovenia, Estonia, Iceland, Mexico and the United States.
Further information is available at ciarafeely.com and on LinkedIn.
The programme for the Polish meetings industry has been adapted to its specific needs based on a survey conducted at the end of 2025. This will ensure that the workshop topics directly address the real needs of Polish DMCs, PCOs and Convention Bureaux.
