Abidjan, 07 May 2025
Calls for Bid to host the 6th edition of the World Cocoa Conference (2027)
The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) is calling for bids to host the 6th edition of the World Cocoa Conference (WCC) scheduled to take place during the third quarter of 2027, (tentatively in September 2027, the exact dates will be communicated later).
The WCC is the world’s premier cocoa gathering, bringing together government officials, industry and trade stakeholders, as well as civil society, to discuss and address the current issues related to the production, trade, processing, and marketing of cocoa and its various products, including chocolate.
The conference is held on a regular basis, having been launched in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in November 2012 and subsequently hosted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in June 2014; Bávaro, the Dominican Republic in May 2016; Berlin, Germany in April 2018 and in Brussels, Belgium in April 2024.
Hosting the WCC provides an exceptional opportunity for a country to enhance its visibility on the global stage of the cocoa sector. It promotes international partnerships and knowledge exchange, showcasing the host’s commitment to sustainable cocoa development and attracting beneficial investments.
All applicants should draft a submission containing extensive information on the points listed below. Preference will be given to formal bids from ICCO exporting Member countries. Importing Members and non-member countries will also be considered, in that order, should there be no bid from ICCO exporting Members.
1. CONFERENCE VENUE
The conference venue should accommodate approximately 1,300 participants and facilitate both plenary and simultaneous multitrack breakout sessions. It must include at least one auditorium to seat an audience of 1,300 participants along with a minimum of three (3) nearby breakout rooms, each having a seating capacity of around 400 participants. The meeting rooms should either have incorporated soundproofed interpretation booths or provide sufficient space to add these booths without affecting seating capacity.
The layout of the meeting rooms should incorporate flexible seating arrangements that can easily be reconfigured for interactive workshops, roundtable discussions and other collaborative brainstorming sessions.
Additional nearby rooms would also be required, to serve as Organizer/Secretariat office, Executive Director’s office, VIP speaker room, Speaker and Panellist room, Press room, etc. At least six (6) rooms of various sizes are required for this purpose.
2. EXHIBITION
An exhibition will be held during the conference. From past experiences, we expect up to 100 stands of 3 meters × 3 meters (9 square meters). This will require another large room close to the main auditorium but separated from it by at least one soundproofed wall.
3. CATERING
Buffet-style lunch will be served for all conference participants in a nearby room or rooms with an expandable number of seating places. The same or alternative spaces could be used for cocoa breaks, when cocoa, coffee and tea would be offered to participants mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
4. GALA DINNER
A formal gala dinner should be held at an appropriate offsite venue, with transportation provided. We expect an attendance of approximately 600 people.
5. ACCOMMODATION
A list of potential accommodation should be included in the bid with hotels ranging from three to five stars, near the conference venue, offering discounted rates for registered participants.
6. ACCESSIBILITY BY AIR
The venue should be close to an international airport, or at the very least an airport with good connections and accessibility for international flights from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
7. LOCAL, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL SUPPORT
Submissions must demonstrate strong evidence of support from government entities (local, regional or national) and the cocoa sector (including trade associations or individual companies). This support can be shown through a significant financial contribution to the overall conference budget, a major contribution in kind or by taking responsibility for some of the costs to run the conference (e.g., rental of the venue, subsidising delegates unable to afford the costs of attending, the Gala Dinner, catering or other major budgeted costs).
Bids from professional event organizers or conference centres will be considered, provided they are clearly supported by government entities.
8. BUDGET & COST SHARING
The bidder should commit to contributing 50% of the estimated total budget of the conference and should include a written confirmation of this commitment in the bid. The other half of the budget will be covered by the ICCO, with the proceeds of the sales of the tickets, stands and sponsoring packages as described in point 9 below.
The estimated total cost for the organization of a World Cocoa Conference is about €1.5 million. The final budget will be negotiated and agreed upon between the ICCO and the selected bidder, based on their bid and all information gathered by both parties, within 3 months following the decision of the ICCO Council to award the organisation of the WCC6.
9. PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCE ORGANIZER
A Professional Conference Organizer (PCO) will be hired to oversee the promotion, administration, and management of the event, working closely with the host country and the ICCO for collaborative success.
The PCO will be remunerated exclusively through a commission on the sales revenues they generate, which include conference registration, sponsorships, exhibition fees, meeting room bookings, and gala dinner ticket sales. All proceeds from these sales will go to the ICCO (after deduction of the PCO’s commission).
All costs incurred by the PCO in the execution of the tasks (travel, accommodation, coordination, creation and design of graphic charts and other material, promotion, marketing, sales, administration, management of the conference, of the gala dinner and the exhibition, etc.) will be covered by this remuneration.
Bidders can either hire a PCO themselves or recommend one or more PCOs for consideration by the ICCO.
– If the bidder hires the PCO, the commission must be indicated in the bid and will be part of negotiations regarding the final budget.
– If the bidder recommends PCOs, the ICCO will select and hire a PCO according to its procurement rules and negotiate the commission directly with the PCO for inclusion in the final budget.
In either case,
1) The tasks to be undertaken by the PCO must be closely detailed in the contract.
2) The PCO must contractually collaborate with the ICCO, and the details of the contract will be subject to negotiations including ICCO and the host country.
The ICCO requests bidders to address each point 1-9 in their formal submission. Any other supporting information would be welcome. The deadline for submission of formal bids to host the 6th World Cocoa Conference is Friday 1 August 2025, 11:59 PM UTC.
Bids should be sent in digital format to Mrs Laetitia ANEY, Sustainable Development Officer, International Cocoa Organization, Laetitia.Aney@icco.org, with copy to wcc6@icco.org
The International Cocoa Council will consider all pre-selected bids at its 112th regular session where a final decision is expected (29 September-2 October 2025).
For further information or enquiries about bidding for the World Cocoa Conference 2024, please contact Mrs Laetitia ANEY, Sustainable Development Officer, ICCO; e-mail: Laetitia.Aney@icco.org, with copy to wcc6@icco.org
