What Hospitality Means at VIECON Center

At VIECON – Vienna Congress & Convention Center, when we speak of "hospitality," we mean more than just welcoming guests, providing service, or offering a friendly reception. Hospitality is part of our mindset. It is reflected in the way we support event organizers, agencies, and partners in bringing their concepts to life within our venue in the best possible way.

This approach to hospitality does not begin on the day of the event itself, but rather during the planning phase. Technical experts are involved as early as the sales process to help shape room layouts, visitor flows, and operational workflows. Event organizers have a single point of contact throughout the entire project. Our goal is to seamlessly align the event's requirements with the capabilities of VIECON Center.

Attendees experience a congress differently than the people organizing it. They see registration areas, stages, exhibitions, poster zones, networking areas, and evening events. Ideally, the complex processes behind the scenes go unnoticed by them.

Forward-looking planning also encompasses details that rarely take center stage but directly impact guest well-being: comfortable room temperatures, appropriate lighting, easily accessible restrooms, and sufficient capacity during breaks. Only when these fundamental needs are addressed can participants focus on content, interactions, and the exchange of ideas.

An awards banquet demonstrated just how crucial the planning of attendee flows can be. Around 2,200 people left the hall simultaneously and were readmitted within twelve minutes. For such a transition to work, pathways, access points, and schedules must be precisely coordinated. These processes form the foundation for guests perceiving the event as running smoothly.

Today, international congresses often combine presentations, specialist sessions, exhibitions, networking areas, and numerous concurrent program items.

For the ESCMID Congress, 16 session halls were set up within the VIECON Center, complemented by meeting rooms, poster areas, and eleven catering outlets. These areas were interconnected to ensure easy navigation for participants and to ensure the various formats were perceived as part of a cohesive event.

For organizers, this implies one key requirement: the venue must not only provide ample space but also offer the flexibility to accommodate diverse needs within an overarching concept.

Hospitality is not the result of a single service; rather, it emerges from close coordination between the VIECON team, organizers, and partner companies. Catering, in particular, requires the seamless integration of spatial planning, visitor flows, scheduling, and service delivery. Ultimately, success hinges on all parties sharing a common goal: creating an event experience that feels effortless and natural for the guests.

Alongside infrastructure and process expertise, collaboration plays a crucial role. The Vienna International Dental Exhibition (WID) has been held at the VIECON Center (formerly Messe Wien) for many years. For Wolfgang Fraundörfer, Secretary General of the Austrian Dental Association, the key differentiator lies not just in the infrastructure, but in the collaboration itself.

“Our collaboration with the VIECON team has been professional, reliable, and—at the same time—very personal for many years. I particularly appreciate the fact that, even during the planning stages, it becomes clear that the work relies not only on structured processes and experience but, above all, on the dedicated people behind them—people who are calm, competent, and collaborative. This combination of professional assurance, reliability, and a personal touch builds trust and is a major reason why we will continue to choose VIECON in the future.” Wolfgang Fraundörfer, Secretary General, Austrian Dental Association (ODV)

Participants usually do not know the planning details behind an event. You experience the results: whether they find their way around well, whether transitions work and whether there is enough space for exchange and encounters.

This is exactly what we mean by hospitality at VIECON Messe Wien. Not as an individual service, but as an attitude: listen carefully, provide support with foresight and create the conditions for successful events together with organizers, agencies and partners. Behind it are people who organize events with experience and personal commitment and pursue a common goal: to successfully implement the respective concept in-house.

Because special memories are not only created on stage. They are shaped by many decisions that guests don't have to see, but feel throughout the entire event.

Discover the possibilities offered by VIECON and speak with our team about how to best bring your event idea to life.