Kai Hattendorf documents a fundamental shift in the way AI will influence the future of events: rather than primarily being a suite of tools for organisers, AI’s most impactful role will be in how younger delegates use it long before the event starts to guide their entire decision-making on whether and how to participate.
David Adler, Gathering Point News, explores the rationale for establishing the Centre for Events & Festivals as a response to a fragmented events industry, weak knowledge-sharing, and limited use of evidence. The organisation aims to bridge academia and practice, strengthen collaboration, and promote more sustainable, inclusive, and community-focused approaches to event design and delivery.
Boardroom’s Vicky Koffa and Remi Deve summarise the key issues, opportunities and challenges discussed at the recent EAS 2026, all of which provide vital insights for business events suppliers and destinations interested in better understanding the current thinking and priorities of their association clients. An important conclusion: collaboration has become a strategic necessity.
M&C Asia magazine examines the changing picture of global rankings in passport power (how easy it is for holders of a particular passport to visit other countries) and border openness (how restrictive countries are to holders of different passports), and explains the implications for destination competitiveness for international business events.
Australian-based association consultancy Mayvin Global has released a series of three White Papers packed with valuable insights from 15 international association case studies, focused on the most mission-critical strategic challenges and potential solutions, many of which have implications for the future evolution of their event strategies.
International association meetings can find themselves in the frontline when geopolitical conflicts erupt. This Boardroom feature by Pamela Wilton explores the implications of key risk factors, illustrates why associations can no longer argue that they are “apolitical by nature”, and outlines how to build a geopolitical resilience framework.
Gatheringpoint’s David Adler suggests answers to the conundrum of managing two conflicting realities simultaneously: projecting confidence to the market, whilst making real-time decisions behind the scenes. Exercising resilience in real-time during periods of high uncertainty is one of the hardest challenges imaginable, especially with only partial vision of what’s happening.
60 years young: that’s the spirit of Melbourne Convention Bureau, one of the world’s most successful and innovative DMOs. The MCEC – Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre – is a relative youngster with only 30 years under its belt, but the venue laid out its ambitions at birth by achieving a six Green Star sustainable…
Dr Emma Delaney analyses some key issues regarding subventions and other financial incentives, drawing from the perspective of PCOs. Amongst her conclusions: flexible, co-created incentive packages are more effective than rigid, conditional offers, and when aligned with a destination’s goals, incentives can facilitate sustainable, inclusive and high-quality conferences and stronger societal impact. From CEF…
Tommy Goodwin, Vice President of Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance, provides a helpful and robust decision-making framework for industry leaders attempting to understand and navigate the fast evolving geopolitical landscape we all are facing. From Exhibition World Magazine…
Scotland’s capital is set to become the first city in the UK to fund its convention bureau through a mandatory tourist tax – or ‘visitor levy’ – in what could herald the start of major changes to how cities across the country attract business events and conference tourism. From M&IT…
The launch of the MeetEngland Impact Network at Sheffield’s Cutlers’ revealed why intellectual capital is one of England’s biggest advantages on the international business events stage. It was a genuinely significant industry moment — not just another announcement, but the start of something that could reshape England’s global competitiveness. From M&IT…
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From City Destinations Alliance: Held from April 9 to 11, 2025, in the heart of Hungary’s vibrant capital, the City Destinations Alliance (CityDNA) International Conference & General Assembly brought together over 250 tourism leaders, destination experts and changemakers from across Europe to explore how cities can drive business transformation through the visitor economy. Under the…
ECA and its public policy counsel, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, have prepared the following detailed analysis of recent tariff developments and what they mean for the business and professional events industry. Please bookmark this page for future updates as circumstances warrant. On April 17, the Office of the United States Trade Representative took action…
From Smart Meetings: Four years into an experiment to replace an annual spring event in Washington, D.C., with a collaborative concentration of events organizations all gathering in the same place, Business Events Industry Week (BEIW) has built some popular must-attend features and announced that other pieces will shake off, either going away altogether or moving….
By Kai Hattendorf: 2024 was the best year ever for the trade show industry globally by revenues. 2025 likely won’t be. Uncertainties around an aggressive, tariffs-driven challenge to global trade from the new U.S. administration are shaking markets and economies around the world. If high import tariffs announced by the U.S. administration are here to…
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