Meetings and Events Industry News

The three primary trends in meetings in 2017 revolve around the growing convergence of different communities collaborating together, the festivalization of business events, and the role of conferences as experiential brand-marketing platforms.

The meetings industry is evolving beyond its preoccupation with event technology and the impact of Millennials over the last five years. The new focus for 2017 revolves around developing more multidisciplinary business events, integrating education and entertainment, to engage attendees in new ways on different levels.

Destinations are determining the need to focus more on the impact and value of meetings on their cities over the long term.

Competition is stiff for attendees and for clients. It’s hard to “get heard” in today’s world. You have to do something to stand out and beat the competition. Here are a few ideas.

The BestCities Global Alliance and Dubai Business Events are focusing more on how convention bureaus can collaborate with association conference organizers to create a longer legacy impact of business events for both the organizations and host destinations.

Using event technology and artificial intelligence to build and customize community engagement is the biggest meetings trend heading into 2017.

When convention bureaus develop their own meetings industry research, it positions them as leaders in event tech and meeting design innovation, and it differentiates them from their competitors. It takes a lot of work, resources, and experimentation to do it effectively, though.

Germany has one of the most innovative business strategies and fresh content models to attract more international conferences by focusing on extensive research development and sector-specific industry expertise. But managing and delivering on those effectively and consistently comes with its growing pains.

While meetings and events are cross-pollinating more sectors in their programming, the industry at large needs to expand how it defines and measures the value of that convergence.

With Vista already owning Lanyon, the writing was on the wall for this merger.