Paula Fanderowska

Paula Fanderowska – a passionate, international ambassador of the meetings industry and vice president of the management board at Krakow5020 (ICE Kraków Congress Centre operator; 1.35 million visitors since 2014).

Paula’s professional experience covers the following roles: Polish Consul in Caracas (2010-2014), president of the Conferences and Congresses Association in Poland (SKKP), vice president of TUgether's Meetings and Events Industry Council (since 2021) and member of the Council of the Polish Tourism Organization.

She’s an experienced manager and team leader, MICE industry speaker, mentor and academic lecturer in business tourism, as well as expert and author behind many industry publications and newspaper articles. Always very active across Poland’s key cross-sector networks, she also regularly participates in some of the most impactful, nationwide/regional consultations for the industry, including the "Sustainable Tourism Policy of Krakow for 2021-2028".

Having established a very successful cross-sector network at ICE Kraków, she co-authored a major conference-venues agreement “POWER OF 4”, which strengthened cooperation and knowledge-sharing between 4 venues in Poland: ICE Krakow, LCK in Lublin, ECS in Gdansk and Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw.

The Eventex 2021 ranking named her one of the 100 most influential people in the event industry (another nomination in 2022). Various other rankings have listed her among the 100 most influential people in the Polish tourism industry (incl. the “Wasza Turystyka” portal in 2021 and 2022).

Paula’s achievements have also been recognized by the jury of MP Power Awards in 2018 and 2021. Finally, in 2021 she received a special recognition from the Deputy Minister for Sport & Tourism, Andrzej Gut-Mostowy "for merits to tourism" and was nominated for the UN’s prestigious Rise and Raise Others (2022).

She is a graduate of the Jagiellonian University and a scholarship holder at universities in Spain. She also graduated in Management and Marketing at the Higher School of Management and Banking in Krakow and in International Relations and Diplomacy at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, with an impressive track record in attracting large international conferences to Poland (e.g. ICCA 2022), exploring new event formats and innovating towards more sustainable/resilient, hybrid events (esp. 2020-2021).