Recap of European Regional Meeting – April 2022

We are back in-person!

From April 18 to April 20, 2022, in Lisbon, Portugal, we had the pleasure to celebrate our first in-person event in over two years with a WTCA European Regional Meeting, co-hosted by WTC Lisbon.

This event was the perfect opportunity to reunite the European members of our WTCA family again and discover the amazing WTC Lisbon facilities in this unique panorama. The meeting, reuniting 34 guests representing 23 WTC locations, took place in the Epic Sana Lisboa Hotel in the Portuguese capital. Cristina Sbaizero (WTC Trieste) and Mehran Eftekhar (WTC Cyprus) emceed the meeting that started with opening remarks by Robin van Puyenbroeck (WTCA Executive Director-Business Development), an update from the European Regional Advisory Council and welcoming words from the host, Luciano Montenegro de Menezes (WTC Lisbon). In the afternoon, the attendees participated in the 2022 WTCA General Assembly, which was livestreamed during the programming.

For two days, with more than 20 speakers, moderators and panelists, we discussed the Future of Real Estate and how it would impact the WTC concept. We learned how TradeTech will change the supply chain of the future and international trade as a whole. We were introduced to the Portuguese market and its great potential. And we connected with the PropTech market, with which we are very interested in further collaborating at national and regional levels.

The sessions highlighted the importance of technology, innovation and sustainability for the durability and expansion of our brand, concept and business model over the coming years. We discussed how technologies such as blockchain, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) — and their combination — alongside climate emergency-driven solutions are strongly impacting trade as well as real estate on an international scale. Our WTCA network is a very unique ensemble with a role to play in this transition.

We hope to further elaborate on these topics in the coming months and years, strengthening our Association and the World Trade Center brand in Europe and globally.

If you have ideas and suggestions for future WTCA European events, please reach out to Danica (milovanovic.IC@wtca.org ) and Anaïs ( AJan@wtca.org ). 

NOTE: The WTC Lisbon license was granted in 2016, and its state-of-the-art facilities will open to the public on June 7, 2022. The three-tower complex will include 25,000 sqm of offices; and 4,000 sqm of retail and 1,000 parking spaces. A 127-room hotel will also be developed in a second phase.