Skift Take
While a range of destinations from Manchester to Melbourne have developed their own road maps toward the future of business events, there is no overarching vision steering the larger meetings and events industry forward.
The Skift Meetings Innovation Report is a weekly newsletter defining the future of business events by deciphering disruptive strategies that improve engagement and knowledge sharing. Subscribe.
The Future of Meetings + Events
Skift presented a manifesto for the future of conventions this week based on a macro industry perspective to shape strategy around engagement and business outcomes. While a range of destinations from Manchester to Melbourne have developed their own comprehensive road maps toward the future of business events, there is no overarching vision based on academic research and business case studies steering the larger meetings and events industry forward. Our framework is positioned around three pillars: Community (Network Effect), Collaboration (Value Proposition), and Content (Digital Engagement). Read the full story here.
Content is finally becoming more top-of-mind for convention bureaus in their strategy to engage meeting and event planners. In 2015, we spoke with a lot of DMO execs who said they were working on meetings-specific content on par with their leisure-themed content. This year it’s actually happening at convention bureaus of all sizes in places like: Las Vegas; Monterey County; Columbus, OH, and others.
“We did a focus group with meeting professionals coming in and talking about what they need from us, and the conversation was really around attendance, attendance promotion, and how we can help them be successful in Vegas,” said Cathy Tull, SVP of marketing at Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, in our interview this week. “One way to do that is through this whole idea of content. When we talk to the clients that we’ve had in recently, they really felt that would help drive the success of their programs.”
— Greg Oates, Senior Editor
Social Quote of the Day
“The end of #eventtech means the dawn of a new era for marketers. Read more from @LawrenceCoburn here: http://ow.ly/uX6y3003IMI #liveMKTG”
Next Generation Event UX
The Manifesto for a New Generation of Meetings and Conventions: The meetings industry doesn’t really have a cohesive vision moving forward. All of the individual pieces are there, so we designed a framework to bring everything together in a succinct unifying theory focusing on community, collaboration, and content. Read more at Skift
A New Gold: The Transformative Outcomes of Business Events: Governments are aggressively seeking the outcomes and legacies of meetings and conventions, above and beyond direct tourism spend, to better understand their contribution to a creative society and knowledge-based economy. Read more at International Meetings Review
The Dawn of Live Engagement Marketing, and the Death of Analog: According to DoubleDutch, events and conferences make up about 30% of most enterprise marketing budgets. Therefore, “the analog event experience is dying,” because event attendees are engaging with digitized live events, which enable more customized experiences and generate more engagement data. Read more at DoubleDutch
Research Puts Some Science Behind Scientific Meetings: While 95% of physicians surveyed in this study said they expect that medical meetings should be engaging and impactful, 39% said they didn’t have a positive experience at recent industry events. So where’s the disconnect? Read more at MeetingsNet
BizBash Launches Annual Innovation Issue: Check out the top 10 global brands driving consumer engagement with high-tech, high-touch experiential marketing. Read more at BizBash
The Gunslinger and The $16 Billion Dollar Man: Highlights From Collision’s Final Day: The water filter company Rorus Inc. won best startup at SXSW and it won again at the Collision conference in New Orleans. More news from Collision: The Slack messaging app and WeWork co-working company are changing how we work, and women tech entrepreneurs only receive 10% of seed capital. Read more at Collision
Tourism + Hospitality
Skift CMO Interviews: Las Vegas Invests in Virtual Reality, Lifestyle Content to Attract Conventions: Destinations have traditionally undervalued the ability of meetings-specific website content to drive convention attendance, but Las Vegas is attempting to do just that with an integrated, high-tech content delivery platform. Read more at Skift
Business Events Sydney Pivots to Video Storytelling to Promote its Meetings Product: Syney’s convention bureau just posted the third video in a 6-part series diving into the context behind the city’s massive redevelopment of its downtown and convention facilities infrastructure. Read more at BESydney
Subscribe
The Skift Meetings Innovation Report is curated by Skift senior editor Greg Oates [[email protected]]. The newsletter is emailed every Wednesday.
Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch
Tags: meetingsiq
Photo credit: SEO visionary Rand Fishkin was a headliner at the Collision conference in New Orleans. Collision