At Florence’s Palazzo degli Affari, the tactile maps installed for VISION 2025 are still available to visitors. They help people with visual impairments navigate the venue more independently and will continue to do so at future events. It is a tangible outcome of a specific need identified for a scientific congress, now a permanent feature of the venue that hosted it. The project is featured in a new Blue Paper published by ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) as part of its ICCA Association Community initiative, entitled A Congress with Purpose: Turning Accessibility into Lasting Impact.
At the heart of the publication is ISLRR VISION 2025, the international congress dedicated to low vision research and rehabilitation, held in Florence in September 2025. More importantly, it tells the story of a collaboration that began during the bidding process and brought together the scientific society ISLRR, OIC Group, Firenze Fiera, Destination Florence Convention Bureau and several local organisations. This experience raises an important point for the meetings industry: planning a sustainable event also means considering how the resources, expertise and relationships brought together during its organisation can continue to benefit others over time.
An accessibility project four years in the making
The story of VISION 2025 began in 2021, when Florence was preparing its bid to host the congress. The nature of the event called for particular attention to accessibility. Welcoming an international community specialising in low vision research meant addressing specific needs related to mobility, wayfinding, access to information and, more broadly, the experience of people with visual impairments.
In event planning, these needs can often be addressed through temporary measures designed to support delegates during the congress itself. In Florence, however, the partners decided to explore another possibility: using those same requirements to identify improvements that could become permanent features of the congress venue. With input from ISLRR experts and the local organising committee, Firenze Fiera undertook an accessibility assessment of the spaces and services at Palazzo degli Affari. The work covered wayfinding, signage, lighting, sensory elements and the accessibility of digital platforms.
One of the outcomes was the installation of tactile maps. The fact that they remain in place is perhaps the clearest illustration of the approach taken: a solution originally designed for a congress community is now available to a much wider audience. It also demonstrates the value of involving partners early. Addressing accessibility during the bidding phase meant it could inform planning decisions and discussions with the host venue, rather than being dealt with only in the final stages of preparation.
Making the city part of the scientific experience
Working alongside Destination Florence Convention Bureau, VISION 2025 engaged several organisations across Tuscany involved in supporting, researching and promoting the inclusion of people with visual impairments. Delegates had the opportunity to learn about the work of the National Guide Dog School, the Braille Printing and Educational Centre, and rehabilitation initiatives at Meyer Children’s Hospital. These activities added another dimension to the congress experience, connecting the research and knowledge shared during scientific sessions with the work of professionals, institutions and organisations active in the local community.
For a scientific society, developing these relationships creates opportunities to advance its mission, encouraging dialogue between the international research community and the organisations working directly with the people that research aims to support. For the host destination, it provides an opportunity to connect local expertise with an international professional community.
The contribution of the convention bureau, congress venue and PCO therefore takes on a broader significance. Their knowledge of the destination, professional networks and organisational expertise become resources for developing initiatives that support the association’s objectives. It is precisely this combination of complementary strengths that makes the VISION 2025 experience so interesting.
From the congress experience to planning for impact
The concept of legacy has become increasingly prominent in discussions about sustainability in the meetings industry. It is particularly relevant to the association sector, where congresses are among the main ways scientific organisations advance research, education, professional exchange and the development of their communities.
Creating a positive legacy, however, requires work that begins long before registration opens. It means understanding the association’s objectives, recognising the characteristics of the destination, identifying available expertise and considering which initiatives could continue to provide benefits after the event has ended.
Not every initiative requires structural investment, nor can every activity produce permanent results. What matters is identifying the opportunities most relevant to the project, rather than adding initiatives that have little connection to its identity.
At VISION 2025, accessibility was not introduced as a separate corporate social responsibility programme. It was already central to the scientific society’s mission and to the needs of its community. The collaboration between partners allowed this commitment to take a particularly practical form. This approach also raises an important consideration for event organisers: responsibility extends beyond what a project delivers to understanding the effects it may have over time. This distinction matters because it allows sustainability to be addressed with greater precision, recognising what has been achieved while identifying areas for further improvement.
The OIC Impact Method: integrating sustainability into decision-making
The VISION 2025 experience reflects an approach that OIC Group has been developing over several years, focused on the role of sustainability in event planning and management. Through the OIC Impact Method, the Group has developed a framework that integrates environmental, social and economic criteria across the different stages of event organisation, connecting client needs with the characteristics of each project, its supply chain and the host destination.
Presented in OIC Group’s 2025 Sustainability Report, the framework includes stakeholder analysis, sustainable event design, responsible partner selection, operational management and the collection of indicators to monitor results. Its purpose is to make sustainability part of everyday planning and decision-making with clients, developing solutions suited to the specific characteristics and possibilities of each event. This approach is particularly relevant to the medical and scientific sector. Scientific societies work on issues directly connected to health, quality of life, access to care and people’s wellbeing. Their congresses can therefore create opportunities to engage professionals and organisations working in related fields, strengthening the connection between scientific activity and social responsibility.
There is no single model that can be applied in exactly the same way to every event. A congress dedicated to low vision presents different requirements from one focused on another medical discipline, just as each destination has its own facilities, professional networks and opportunities. For OIC, the value of a structured method lies in recognising these differences and translating them into appropriate planning decisions, supporting scientific societies in defining meaningful objectives, collaborating with partners and evaluating results. This requires organisational expertise, an understanding of people’s needs and measurement tools that continue to evolve. It is also an approach that can help strengthen the PCO’s role in creating social value through events.
Sharing the experience with the international association community
The publication of the ICCA Blue Paper gives VISION 2025 a new opportunity to contribute to the international conversation on association congresses. The ICCA Association Community has chosen to highlight the project as a case study in collaboration between a scientific association, a PCO, a congress venue and a convention bureau, sharing an experience that may offer useful insights to other organisations across its network. The Florence project does not offer a ready-made formula to replicate. Rather, it demonstrates the value of bringing together partners with different perspectives from the earliest planning stages. By working together, they can identify opportunities that might otherwise remain unexplored.
The benefits of a congress can continue to be felt in the everyday lives of people who never attended it. That possibility deserves consideration from the very first planning decisions. And it becomes far more achievable when event organisers build strong relationships with the communities and organisations around them.