The annual Munich Security Conference is taking place in Munich for the 52nd time from February 12 to 14. The Conference is getting bigger each year, and even though the people of Munich suffer from some restrictions, the police have to cope with security plans and with protesters, many businesses within the city profit from the visits by many high profile guests and speakers at the conference.
Besides the fully booked hotels (the conference takes place at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof), restaurants and bars in downtown Munich are packed, the conference is also lucrative for the men’s clothing stores of the city, the BMW Welt counts more visitors, as do many other museums and establishments of the city and its surrounding, as the the Nymphenburg porcelain manufactory.
Even critics of the Conference can find something positive: "For us this is a challenge and an opportunity to present the other side" says Thomas Rödl, spokesperson for the concurrent Peace Conference. "If the Conference wouldn’t take place here, but in Wildbad Kreuth or in Canada, nothing would be gained," he says.
Over the past five decades, the Munich Security Conference (MSC) has put Bavaria's capital city on the political map. It has become the major global forum for the discussion of security policy. Each February, it brings together more than 450 senior decision-makers from around the world, including heads-of-state, ministers, leading personalities of international and non-governmental organizations, as well as high ranking representatives of industry, media, academia, and civil society, to engage in an intensive debate on current and future security challenges. It is the world's largest gathering of its kind.
More information about the MSC is available at its official website.
