Michael Kater is owner of German DMC, Compass Tours Incoming (CTI). With four offices across Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg the team tends to over 60,000 guests each year covering all services within the MICE industry. It’s fair to say that Michael has his finger on the pulse when it comes to incentives and meetings. 

In the lead up to AIME 2023, the team sat down with Michael to reflect on the changes he’s seen in the world of business events and how the meetings and incentives market is changing in Germany. Here’s what Michael shared…

What’s changed in your time in the industry?

Technology and the way we communicate has evolved so much – from fax to email… In the 90s each Friday afternoon would end with filling up the paper slots in the fax machine to make sure we had enough paper for all the faxes coming in over the weekend. On Monday morning the first thing we did was pick up all the papers from the ground!  Today, we’re more connected and responsive than ever thanks to emails.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the industry?

Countries all around the world – Germany included – are experiencing a skills shortage and this will continue at least for the next year or two. Increasing salaries for the service industry will make our sector more attractive for job-seekers and specialised trainings will turn all the “newbies” into experts. However, things like booking daily rooms might disappear at least for 3-4 star hotels. Breakfast in these hotels might get simpler and check in procedures may take place online only without any staff involvement. For the incentive sector these trends could make lots of hotels unusable.

What are the key trends you are seeing in your area of specialty?

Currently, we seeing a resurgence in the importance of airline connectivity and a focus on larger airports in Germany. Due to the unstable airline and flight situation, travellers try to avoid too many connecting flights and prefer direct routes. This makes our largest airports like Frankfurt and Munich and the regions they service, quite attractive to meeting and incentive agencies. Heidelberg, which is close to Frankfurt airport, and looks like a cliche German medieval town has seen a good increase in incentive travel. And cities like Wiesbaden or Mainz which are close to Frankfurt airport will also benefit from the worldwide connections.

How are you tackling sustainability within your organisation?

We changed all our offices to green electricity years ago and order office supplies from a carbon free supplier only. We also have separate waste systems and our heating system is digitally optimized, which reduces our gas usage substantially.

Inside Germany we use trains only (German trains run on green electricity) and all flights have carbon offsets.

As an organisation, we also work with transportation partners who use electrical cars – whilst this poses a challenge for larger projects, we’re on the journey to reducing our carbon footprint as much as we can.

Have you met any partners or made new business contacts through AIME?

Being a German DMC our first participation in AIME lots of years ago was our gateway to the Australian market. I was overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people at the show and the relaxed but business orientated atmosphere. Our success with the Australian market can be attributed to AIME.

It’s also a wonderful bonus to be able to enjoy an Australian summer. Coming from an icy February in Germany, the arrival in Melbourne is always great. I tend to extend my stay to explore Victoria’s regions as well – nothing better than being able to combine work and leisure.

You can meet Michael and the CTI team at AIME on Stand F9.