Evaluation of the Global Conference of the Alliance for Healthy Cities
Introduction: The Healthy Cities approach was initiated and has been promoted through the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region (WPRO) since the late 1980s, and its implications have been rapidly realized. The Alliance for Healthy Cities together with the WPRO and member cities organize global conference every two years. The 7th Global Conference of the Alliance for Healthy Cities (AFHC) was held in Wonju, the Republic of Korea, from 29th August to 1st September, 2016 with the main theme of “Our Cities, Our Health, Our Future.”
Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate the outcome of the 7th Global Conference of the AFHC intern of participant’s satisfaction and economic effects, and to provide future direction of Healthy Cities conferences.
Methods: This study applied a self-reported questionnaire survey for participant’s satisfaction survey. Questionnaires with Likert-type scales were distributed among the conference participants on the last day of the conference. Independent sample t-test was used to see the difference in the satisfaction level between Korean and foreigners. Economic effect was also evaluated using six indicators of production effect, income-induced effect, labor-induced effect, induced value-added effect, induced workers effect, and indirect tax repercussion effect.
Result: The conference provided abundant opportunity for innovative learning and experience sharing between countries, member cities, and academia with a multi-linguistic approach. Satisfaction survey showed that most of the participants were satisfied with contents and organization of the conference. Average satisfaction was more than 4 for most of the aspects except for food and organizational arrangement. Overall cost-effectiveness, including secondary economic-effect, was more than 2.6 million USD.
Conclusion: The satisfaction of the conference was evaluated as a successful case of conducting a global conference with an attraction of participants over the World. The conference had good outcomes in term of participant’s satisfaction and economic impact.
