INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE YEAR
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)
ACCA is the global body for professional accountants, a thriving world wide community of 227,000 members and 544,000 future members based in 176 countries and regions that upholds the highest professional and ethical values.
Our submission for this prestigious award showcases our global credentials as champions of the accountancy profession and the value it beings to business and the public sector. We have managed through our brand stories and professional insights research to shift the conversation about accountancy and what it means in Covid-19 times, placing our members central to this conversation.
The breadth, depth and impact of what we do can be found in our annual report – but for this submission we have focussed on our capacity building projects; our brand themes for 2020 / 21 and our focus on employability for our members and future members via our jobs board ACCA Careers.
We believe these are compelling examples to show how ACCA lives up to its purpose to be a force for public good and to lead lead the global accountancy profession by creating opportunity.
American Chamber of Commerce to the EU
In 2020, AmCham EU nimbly navigated the immense uncertainty brought on by the pandemic. In challenging circumstances, we strove to maintain business continuity and swiftly adapted our value proposition and member services to fit the new reality. We have continued to deliver our key messages to stakeholders, increased our outreach and influence among high-level decision-makers, and we have furthered our reputation as the most influential voice on the transatlantic relationship.
Eurogas
Eurogas, based in Brussels, is the European association representing the European gas industry. Through its commitment to carbon neutrality earlier than 2050, it contributes to build a cleaner future at an affordable price for EU citizens. Eurogas supports the EU Green Deal which set the ambition for the EU of becoming the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050.
Eurogas, reacted very quickly to the new ‘working from home’ situation in early 2020. The team put in place, with passion and creativity, online events supported by inhouse produced trailers to bring news and information to members and interested stakeholders. We also delivered an online clean gas tech video series called ‘Gas Tech Talks’ to inform people about the clean gas technologies made here in Europe providing leadership and quality jobs endorsed by the Unions. Eurogas was able to host an online event every 2-3 weeks and received recognition from key stakeholders, policy makers and press.
Looking at what we have achieved in this challenging year, we have had phenomenal success.
Despite the pandemic we have grown the membership from 44 to 56 companies, reflecting the strong and positive determination of the Eurogas team, composed of just 12 persons.
International Association for Broadcast & Media Technology
First established in 1976, in the last 10 years IABM – the International Association for Broadcast and Media Technology – has grown from a UK-centric, narrowly focused organisation into a genuinely international operation with 550+ members worldwide together representing an estimated 80%+ of revenues in the sector. It has also hugely expanded range of support and services for members and become a fulcrum for collaboration between its members and their broadcast and media company customers. Central to this success have been its comprehensive business intelligence offering, active membership engagement, regional members’ councils, gold standard awards programme, industry Knowledge Hub, wide-ranging virtual offering, and engagement and collaboration with technology end-users.
IABM boosted its reach and reputation enormously during the coronavirus pandemic, acting early to create a range of key resources which became widely used across the industry. These included many much-used initiatives, including a Covid events tracker, Covid impact tracker, Covid resources, online lead generation for members, flagship virtual events, virtual training resources and most recently, the IABM Knowledge Project.
IABM has doubled its registered contact base in the last year, worked with six complementary organisations, enhanced its member benefits, and gained international profile and recognition, particularly for its Covid response.
International Hydropower Association
The International Hydropower Association (IHA)’s mission is to “advance sustainable hydropower” with the goal of addressing climate change and enhancing access to clean energy and safe water. We seek to deliver on our mission through global advocacy, research and policy initiatives and championing sustainable good practices.
IHA is proud to be the global voice of sustainable hydropower. As a non-profit membership association, IHA represents leading plant owners and operators, developers, designers, suppliers, research organisations and consultants operating in over 120 countries.
IHA celebrated its 25th anniversary last year on 16 November 2020. On the anniversary, IHA set out an ambitious agenda for the future of sustainable hydropower including transforming membership to a values-based model. To this end, we announced a new IHA Charter for Sustainable Hydropower. The IHA Charter states that all hydropower projects should be designed, developed and operated in accordance with good and best practice, as defined by the Hydropower Sustainability Tools which were developed by IHA and a multi-stakeholder council.
SolarPower Europe
In an unprecedented and very difficult year, SolarPower Europe continued its impressive growth trajectory, increasing our membership by more than 30%, impacting key policy areas, hosting successful events, and featuring in leading international media.
Some highlights of our successes include being appointed by the European Commission to coordinate a European Clean Hydrogen Alliance Roundtable; ensuring that investing in solar was recognised as a priority within the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy; impacting the Commission’s Renovation Wave Strategy, which committed to removing barriers to the development of Building-Integrated PV in the EU; leading the charge on solar industrial strategy, with the launch of the “Solar Manufacturing Accelerator” and the “European Solar Initiative”, together with EIT InnoEnergy.
We published a ground-breaking 100% Renewable Europe study, which received broad recognition from policymakers, with a Foreword from Luxembourg’s Energy Minister Claude Turmes. We grew our social media channels by more than 10,000 followers; and saw 2,000 attendees to our annual SolarPower Summit, where we celebrated our 35th anniversary and launched our new corporate identity and logo. All in all, it was a successful year in contributing towards our goal of boosting the EU solar sector.
