Following the tradition of organising high calibre conferences and events for more than a quarter of a century, the Rodos Palace Resort Hotel and Convention Center, on the threshold of the new century, continues its long term commitment in serving the needs of the ever demanding meetings industry by hosting a series of association congresses, corporate meetings and companies’ incentives.

The Rodos Palace wrapped up the year 2000 season with nothing less than the annual conference of Interpol, the second largest organisation in the world after the United Nations. The Interpol 69th General Assembly took place in the first week of November, with the participation of 800 delegates from 178 countries. It focused on such top priority current issues as crime on the Internet, terrorism, illegal immigrants, financial crime and illegal CD reproduction.

The star of the event was British actor Roger Moore, who has become a role model not only for Interpol's officers around the world but for all fans of the popular James Bond film series in which he starred as the legendary Agent 007. Interpol's choice of the Rodos Palace for its conference, and the fact that actor Roger Moore was hosted there for a second time, was perhaps befitting of a season in which the resort hotel-cum-conference center topped the list of choices for the southeastern Mediterranean region. It proved that under the continuously changing needs of the dynamic meetings market the venue paves the way towards providing creative solutions for an effective combination of business and pleasure, which is regarded essential for a successful conference or event.

Continuing its long relationship with medical associations, on July 15-19 the Rodos Palace hosted the 2nd International Congress of Hormones, Brain and Neuropsychopharmacology, with the participation of 800 scientists from around the world. It should be noted that the first congress was also held at the Rodos Palace, leading the organisers to consider it as their permanent annual venue. On September 23-27 there followed the 41st annual meeting of the European Society of Pediatric Research, with the participation of 350 delegates and the presentation of the latest research developments.

The first general conference of the newly created Network of European Union Island Chambers of Commerce took place October 5-7, organised by the Dodecannese Commercial and Industrial Chamber of Commerce.

The 25th International Conference for Lighting Protection, which took place between the 18th and 22nd of September, focused on the unusual theme of the protection of buildings with the use of lightning conductors. Jointly organized with the University of Patras, it was attended by 300 distinguished scientists from 37 countries.

Earlier in the season, Goody's, Greece’s leading quick service food chain also chose the Rodos Palace to host its 8th Annual Meeting on the 25th and 26th of May.

Immediately after, from May 26-28, Greek and Turkish media representatives gathered for the 1st Forum of Journalists on means of improving relations between the two once hostile countries through the services of the media.

In the field of finance-related conferences, one of the highlights of the season was the third successive hosting of the ERICSSON MONEY SHOW, on October 7-8, which focused on presenting local enterprises with the latest developments in credit, finance and business management.

This was a particularly busy season in the field of incentive travel, meaning that many enterprises realised that the island of Rhodes in general, and the Rodos Palace Hotel and Conference Centre in particular, offer an ideal environment to combine business with pleasure. The venue gained a large share of the market this year, hosting incentive travel for major insurance companies such as Metrolife and Interamerican, Abbott Pharmaceutical company, Smithkline Beecham of Italy, Astra Zeneca of Germany, Novartis of Austria, and Jannsen-Cilag. Also on the long list was the incentive travel of COSMOCAR S.A., the importers of AUDI cars, during which the company launched the new AUDI A2 model in the Greek market.

Therefore, the Rodos Palace entered the new millennium successfully. And it is bound to make further headway in the coming year as well, above all through a radical renovation of its reception areas and exhibition facilities so as to cope with one of the biggest conference challenges the island in general has had to face. Namely, in June 2001 it will host the 5th EFORT-European Congress of the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology. The latter event is the largest and more complex the Rodos Palace has organised and taking five years lead time, and will require the most demanding conference and holiday facilities to meet the needs of no less than 5,000 delegates.

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