Rethinking the Impact of Events on Destinations — Meetings Innovation Report

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

A big discussion is emerging in the meetings and conventions industry focusing on measuring the business outcomes of events, beyond the traditional metrics detailing their economic impact on the tourism supply chain. Impact numbers relating to hotel occupancy, tax receipts, and tourism-related jobs are important, of course, because they convince government leaders to fund meetings-related infrastructure and the efforts of convention bureaus.

However, there’s a growing awareness that the legacy business outcomes of meetings have an equally valuable impact on local communities in host destinations, in terms of knowledge sharing, city branding, outside investment, talent relocation, academic research, and new business relationships. A greater appreciation of this among meeting professionals could create a big shift in meeting design and strategy, where the quality of event content is defined, measured, and shared, as much as the quantity of event participants.

We discussed some of that in Skift’s Manifesto for a New Generation of Meetings & Conventions last week, which James Latham at International Meetings Review expanded on this week. See below for his story.

— Greg Oates, Senior Editor

Social Quote of the Day

“#ICCAWorld captures record number of international association meetings in 2015: http://bit.ly/1TX3MW5”
— @ICCAWorld on Twitter

Tourism + Hospitality

The 50 Best Global Meetings Destinations in the World: Cvent expanded its annual top 50 lists to include Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Most of the top cities are expected, such as Orlando, Las Vegas, and Chicago maintaining their top three spots in the U.S. rankings. Dubai is the big mover surging up to #11 in Europe/Middle East. Read more at Skift

Medical Meetings in Melbourne: Why Intellectual Capital Matters: Meetings media expert James Latham reviewed and added commentary on Skift’s “Manifesto For a New Generation Meetings and Conventions.” Theme here highlights how a city’s intellectual capital is increasingly the determining factor for event owners when they’re selecting a host destination Read more at International Meetings Review

Bidding Wars: DMO Executives On How They Sell Their Cities to Planners: Rachel Benedick, VP of sales/services for Visit Denver, says, “The competition’s crazy, especially in the convention center market. When you see the cities that are investing in their infrastructure, both from a convention center and a hotel perspective, it’s staggering.” Read more at Convene

Next Generation Event UX

5 New Travel Startups Making Meetings and Events Smarter for Attendees and Planners: This week’s five startups are helping drive the next generation of global events by assisting event planners with key elements of their jobs, from connecting them with suppliers to analyzing social media engagement throughout their event. Read more at Skift

3 New Apps Reimagine the User Experience for Event, LGBT and Cultural Travel: In a world with so many travel apps of suspect value and necessity, these three platforms deliver real improvements for meeting attendees in a variety of different categories. Read more at Skift

The Founder Of TED Shares What It Takes To Build The World’s Most Popular Conference: Richard Saul Wurman discusses how and why he created TED to bring together the rise of converging trends in technology, entertainment, and design during the 1980s. Good stuff here for all meeting planners interested in micro and macro event strategy, philosophy, and design trends. Read more at Fast Company

MasterCard CMO Shares 9 Passion Points That Shape the Brand’s Event Strategy: Raja Rajamannar explains how MasterCard is a technology company first and foremost that aims to deliver unique consumer experiences through experiential event marketing. Read more at Marketing Land

How to Drive Retention and Loyalty for Your Events: A new report from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research suggests that repeat attendees to exhibitions and trade shows come back for very specific reasons. The top factor is the desire to shop and to learn about new products and trends. Read more at BizBash

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The Skift Meetings Innovation Report is curated by Skift senior editor Greg Oates [[email protected]]. The newsletter is emailed every Wednesday.

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