The Habtoor Group hosted its largest conference yet at the Habtoor Convention Centre in Beirut this April and the company are happy to announce it was a resounding success.
This was the first time that the International Harm Reduction Conference, an annual event now in its 22nd year, was held in the MENA region. It attracted over 1,000 scientists, doctors, academics, politicians and drug-addiction experts from around the world, for a series of lectures over the course of five days, on the topics of harm prevention and reduction.
The Lebanese Minister of Health attended a press conference at the centre, making an announcement about the first phase of the legal sale of Buprenorphine , a drug used to treat addicts, in Beirut.
The event was also supported by TV Lebanese personality Georges Kordahi and the current Miss Lebanon, Rahaf Abdallah. It received media coverage across the Middle East.
The Habtoor Hotel and Convention Centre was chosen both for its size and its ability to deliver the necessary technical and catering requirements. Delegates were brought to the event each morning by shuttle bus. They attended a series of lectures and press conferences each day, making use of the dialogue space, the demonstration area and the business centre, which doubled as a speaker’s centre and a media hub. They also availed of the exhibition stands and registration desks found in the centre’s dome. All seemed delighted with how efficiently the event was run and many made use of their time in Beirut, staying on for post-conference vacations in and around the city.
“What is clear to me after spending the past week here at the Habtoor Hotel and Convention Centre in Beirut is that it is a vibrant, welcoming and safe city and one that is most definitely open for business,” says Paddy Costall, Managing Director of the Conference Consortium.
“I have no doubt that the vast majority of the delegates who travelled from overseas to attend this event have left Beirut with a very different perception of the city to the one they may have had before they came here,” he adds.