How the Meetings Industry Is Attempting to Redefine Its Value Proposition

Editor's Note: This story is part of an upcoming Skift Research Report — "Defining Conventions as Urban Innovation and Economic Accelerators" — produced in collaboration with Meetings Mean Business. The report is scheduled to publish April 20, 2017. There are dozens of international associations directly affiliated with the global meetings and conventions industry, but there's never been a high level of collaboration among them, especially across continents. The Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC) was established in 1978 as a communications platform connecting international meetings industry associations to share industry trends and best practices, although the organization has never been particularly active in North America. For the last few years, the JMIC has been advocating for the need to define the broader value of the meetings industry, specifically in terms of delivering business outcomes and driving economic outputs for the host communities of conven