When students envision a career in event management, their minds often gravitate toward music festivals and high-end weddings, yet the true engine of the industry—business and professional events—is where the most profound economic and societal transformations occur. Mike Duignan, Editor of the Event Management journal and Founder of the Centre for Events & Festivals, invites fellow academics to reorient event management education to honour business and professional events. Through an academic partnership with The Iceberg, presented by the Joint Meetings Industry Council, universities can access a wealth of curated content, research, and storytelling to seamlessly integrate the business events narrative into their programs.
The Iceberg’s 10-year project, curating the data and creating the case studies that illustrate the value of business events beyond the tourism-related consumption of travel & hospitality supply, has gathered over 10,000 sources now accessible to hone and refine the search for content through The Iceberg Hub, its AI tool. Universities that sign up as Ambassadors can share access to The Iceberg Hub with students, and the professor is also featured as an Iceberg Ambassador, receiving regular updates and news letters from the platform as well as being welcomed to the industry’s advocacy community.
A prime example is “TRANSFORMING RURAL HEALTH: A Tale of Three Meetings” case study, which illustrates how a grassroots discussion among local doctors regarding rural health inequality evolved into an international conference that ultimately influenced World Health Organization policy. This is the caliber of impact the next generation of event professionals must be trained to facilitate, operating with a strong theory of change and tracking outcomes from day one rather than treating evaluation as an afterthought.
Prof. Mike Duignan: “I would get students to really think critically about what’s going on here and why events really matter, so they can always advocate for the industry as much as possible.”
For an annual investment of £375, institutions can provide their academics and students with open access to IcebergHub. This AI-powered search platform allows educators to rapidly find and integrate resources from The Iceberg, including compelling case studies, academic research, and video storytelling that bring the true economic and societal weight of business events to life—empowering the next generation of industry leaders to look beyond the main stage and shape the future of global events.
Universities wishing to have access to IcebergHub, and putting forward their chosen Professor as the Ambassador, please contact admin@the-iceberg.org
About Prof. Mike Duignan
Dr Mike Duignan is Founder and CEO of the Centre for Events & Festivals (CEF), the international professional body for the events industry. He is Professeur des Universités at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Editor-in-Chief of Event Management, the leading peer-reviewed journal in the field.
Widely regarded as one of the leading scholars of events, he was previously a tenured professor at the University of Central Florida, Head of Department at the University of Surrey, and Director of Research and Education at Trivandi, a global events consultancy founded by the senior leadership team behind the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
He advises national and regional governments, destinations, and event organisations on event strategy, impact and evaluation, and regularly commentates across TV, radio and print media on the economic and social sustainability of large-scale events.
