Ajay Bhojwani

An Indian by origin, Ajay has been living in the Middle East for over 25 years now of which 20+ years have been in the meetings industry. A graduate in commerce from India and a master’s in marketing from Australia, he started his career working with large market research organizations like AC Nielsen, NFO Merac looking into various consumer trends and buying behavior for various FMCG segments. He started his career in the meetings and events industry through his tenure at Informa Plc. Though for a short span of 3+ years only, he moved very quickly from being a senior sponsorship & exhibition sales lead to a conference producer developing key strategic Oil & Gas and Energy conferences in the emerging markets, building a strong and profitable business for the sector before moving on to MCI to support their regional expansion and a build a strong business in the congress and conference organizing sector.

For the past 17 years, Ajay has been with MCI and is currently working in the capacity of Regional Managing Director – Middle East North Africa looking after an operation spanning over 250+ events annually spread across 20+ countries through 5 offices and nearly 100 talents. Since joining MCI in 2007, he has led the development of the congress (PCO) business for MCI in the region and has ensured MCI remains as the top PCO player in the region holding a substantial market share. In addition, his personal involvement in building and leading teams on sponsorship & exhibition sales as well as integrated conference marketing has ensured many national and regional associations have grown over 300% since inception. He has consulted several professional associations in developing Go-To Market strategies that have helped these organisations in expanding into markets across the IMEA region.

In addition to his full-time role with MCI, he also holds a few voluntary positions, which include being the council / board member for International Association of Professional Conference Organisers (IAPCO), being the middle east ambassador for The Iceberg – an industry communication publication led by the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC) and he also is the current president for The Events Group (TEG) in UAE.

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