The first IBIS Conference was held in Brussels, Belgium in 1971, at a time when, as IBIS founder Bruce Spencer recalls, "the general public didn't know what a pension was." Today, nearly 41 years later, the IBIS Academy is the most respected and longest-running international conference for global human resources and international employee benefits professionals.

In 1971, some 85 employee benefits specialists from the United States, Canada, and most of the western European countries gathered in Brussels to discuss the various trends and practices of the nascent global employee benefits industry. Mr. Spencer said that it "was really a gathering of people who wanted to be part of the discussion and who wanted to share their ideas and opinions on the issues and concerns we were all facing."

At that time, there were only six member countries in what was then called the European Community, but they already had problems in coordinating social security benefits for the people in those countries. Annette Bosscher from the European Commission, who was responsible for the coordination, came to the IBIS Conference to explain how the system worked. Another speaker at the first conference was Fred Sloat, chief actuary with Lybrand, Ross Bros & Montgomery, a division of Coopers and Lybrand, who was also an ardent supporter of IBIS. He spoke about a new accounting provision in the United States (APB Opinion 8) which was the first time in the world that accountants required pension costs to be reported on company accounts.

Human resource executives would continue to attend the IBIS Conferences, gathering each fall in various locations for the next ten years. In 1981, the dates for the IBIS Conference switched from autumn to spring, inaugurating the seasonal shift in Hamburg, Germany.

Looking back over the past years of IBIS Conferences, Mr. Spencer recalls how IBIS also organized several meetings from time to time devoted to special subjects. Of the most memorable was one held in November of 1989. "The meeting began when Walter Kruijswick, who worked with Jacobs Suchard, took the podium to speak. He looked over the audience, threw away his notes and instead began to speak about the historic event which had just occurred the previous night, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and what that meant to the world. Mr. Kruijswick was old enough to have witnessed the communist take over from the Second World War on out, and his observations and reflections made for a very memorable experience."

IBIS Institute came into being during one of the earlier Conferences when Mr. Spencer and his partners John K. Dyer Jr. and Vincent Simone thought it would be a good idea to offer a training session for human resource executives who were just starting to be involved with employee benefits. That session grew into what is now known as the IBIS Institute, a three day program designed for the training and certification of employee benefits specialists.

Recalling the first IBIS Institute, Mr. Spencer remembers: "It was at the Grosvenor House in London, and I remember that because the hotel had lost all heat in the meeting room and we were all sitting there freezing to death in January. They brought these huge heating fans into a ballroom even though there were only 25 or 30 people there. And while it was not exactly the best of circumstances, we all stuck with it."

Mr. Spencer also recalls a rather funny incident that involved Max Horlick, a prominent editor with IBIS. As Mr. Spencer tells the story, Max and his wife used to come to the IBIS Conference every year. In 1992, the IBIS Conference was using two hotel properties in Dublin, located side by side. When Mr. Spencer went to check in with the other hotel prior to the Conference, he saw and heard a large group of young women clustered around the hotel's iron fence. When he inquired about the young women with the hotel management, he was told that they were groupies for the rock band Guns N Roses, who were also guests at the hotel. But the hotel assured him that the band and its groupies would be gone long before the start of the Conference. "Well, not only did they stay through the Conference," says Mr. Spencer, "they were staying on the same floor as Max and his wife. And it was a pretty hectic time to say the least."

But what makes the story so funny is that the next year, when Mr. Spencer and Mr. Horlick arrived in Athens for the IBIS Conference, who was staying at the same hotel and on the same floor again? None other than Guns N Roses. "After that," says Mr. Spencer, "Max and his wife continued to attend the Conferences, but Guns & Roses stayed home."

Richard Polak, a specialist in international benefits who founded his own human resources consulting firm some 20 years ago, acquired IBIS (International Benefits Information Service) in 2003 and with it the IBIS Conference and IBIS Institute. Believing that experienced human resource executives and those just starting out in the global employee benefits field could benefit from interacting with one another, Mr. Polak brought the IBIS Conference and the IBIS Institute together into one meeting, renamed the IBIS Academy in Paris in 2007.

Today, the IBIS Academy is the most respected and longest-running international conference for global human resources and international employee benefits professionals. The two-track event-comprised of the Institute (for training and certification) and the Conference (for industry leadership discussions-aims to promote industry growth and provide multinationals with knowledge and resources on international pensions and employee benefits in markets around the world.

The tracks of the IBIS Academy offer unrivaled learning opportunities and an invigorating symposium experience. Participants register for the track of their choice and, during overlapping periods, Conference participants have the freedom to attend sessions, participate in case studies, and attend workshops in either track.

Delegates from around the globe attend the conference, including members and staff of the American Benefits Council, which has held its annual International Committee meeting at IBIS Academy since 2009.

2011 Vienna, Austria

2010 Lisbon, Portugal
2009 Madrid, Spain
2008 Dublin, Ireland
2007 Paris, France
2006 Berlin, Germany

2005 Budapest, Hungary
2004 Antwerp, Belgium
2003 Copenhagen, Denmark
2002 Prague, Czech Republic
2001 Edinburgh, Scotland

2000 Cascais, Portugal
1999 Stockholm, Sweden
1998 Budapest, Hungary
1997 Sophia Antipolis, France
1996 Helsinki, Finland

1995 Barcelona, Spain
1994 Salzburg, Austria
1993 Athens, Greece
1992 Dublin, Ireland
1991 The Hague, Netherlands

1990 Flims, Switzerland
1989 Bologna, Italy
1988 Cannes, France
1987 Cascais, Portugal
1986 Brighton, England

1985 Oslo, Norway
1984 Flims, Switzerland
1983 Brussels, Belgium
1982 Madrid, Spain
1981 Hamburg, Germany

1980 Toronto, Canada
1979 Monte Carlo
1978 Copenhagen, Denmark
1977 London, England
1976 Zurich, Switzerland

1975 Brussels, Belgium
1974 San Francisco, United States
1973 Rotterdam, Netherlands
1972 Barcelona, Spain
1971 Brussels, Belgium