By Scott Steinberg, from Meetings International: If artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) seem everywhere, remember: From Open AI’s ChatGPT to Google’s Bard, Microsoft’s Bing, and Amazon’s offerings, the party is just starting. Soon, meeting and event planners (not to mention attendees) won’t just be able to leverage smart and self-aware technology assistants to…
AUSTRALIAN BOAT RACE: If you want to row your own boat, you’re in the wrong boat! Listening to the Business Events Sector of Australia leadership at the AIME Leaders Forum, and subsequently in interview, it became abundantly clear why Australia’s leading industry associations have decided to merge. Four bodies – the Business Events Council of…
Matt Pearce, Director of AIME held in Melbourne in February joins fellow attendees of the Leaders Forum to illustrate the role of events in sustaining post-COVID economies and societies. Social License: “In God we trust, but everyone else must bring data.” One significant takeaway is the heightened need for impact data, not just…
Kassandra Linklater, chief operating officer at The Frontier Collective, has been at the epicentre of Vancouver’s emergence as an intellectual capital in ‘Frontier’ technologies. Speaking at the BestCities Global Forum, Linklater explains how industry has been actively encouraged by government to assume license to lead in promoting the city as a hub for start-ups, scale-ups…
By Shawna McKinley, from AMI Magazine: I miss the good old days when spotting greenwashing was easy. ‘Natural’ claims on a catering menu? Sounds like a vague term. Green branding on ‘eco-friendly’ promotional products? Likely creating a false impression. While concern about greenwashing is higher than ever, it also seems harder to assess environmental claims…
Last year, VisitBritain unveiled its Legacy & Impact Toolkit as a start to catalysing the social and other growth impacts which can be derived from business and professional events. As a follow up, social consultancy #MEET4IMPACT and the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Movement were brought in to provide the sustainability and impact design and management…
As Labor and incumbent Liberal politicians including then premier of New South Wales (Australia), Dominic Perrottet, traded policy agendas in front of a packed audience of Sydney leaders ahead of this month’s state elections, The Iceberg enjoys a double-bill with the Committee for Sydney Chair, Deputy Chair, and Sydney’s event sector top brass about the…
From the Cambridge Union debating chamber Michael Dominguez, President & CEO of Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI), charts the leisure-led recovery of the travel sector but warns that commitment and consistency are key to successful government relations, advocacy, and support. The source code to the recent $1.7 trillion 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act including the appointment…
At ‘The Great Industry Debate’ hosted in January by the Cambridge Union, UKinbound CEO and former Visit Britain chief, Joss Croft, echoes fellow speaker Michael Dominguez regarding the importance of consistency and relevance to government in communicating a new narrative. Croft confirms the need to elevate the ‘Gross Value-Add’ (GVA) in order to appeal to…
The BestCities Global Forum delegates in Vancouver were exposed to the social procurement and environmental activities developed within and by the city of Vancouver which can be applied to association meetings. The example of Ocean Wise, a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower communities and individuals to take action to protect and restore our…
The 12 BestCities Global Alliance partnership convened in Vancouver in December to once again drive legacy and sustainability standards for association meetings. In a sequel to the Capilano Impact Study Report, the attending associations react to the Vancouver experience. The next edition, in January 2024 will be in the medical city of Melbourne. The…
Iceberg Partner VisitFlanders has implemented a Legacy & Impact Program to ensure that the value creation derived from events is aligned to the destination’s vision for 2050. Leveraging the region’s academic, start-up, and key sectoral assets, the DMO is aggressively targeting events which can leave a positive social or economic impact across the region. In…
As we enter a new year, #Meet4Impact’s Geneviève Leclerc, assesses the progress the sector has made in relation to value creation. “We’re close to the tipping point,” she says. Destinations are recognising the need to embed impact strategies into their marketing alongside their sustainability programs. Professional societies and associations (as illustrated by the International Liver…
The 61st International Congress and Convention Association Congress was held last month in Kraków, Poland. The four days of content programming concentrated on three key industry topics: diversity, equity and inclusion, sustainability and legacy. Some of the legacy speakers also contributed to this Iceberg video Feature, here presented together with video of five of the legacy sessions….
The 36th edition of the CityDNA Summer School was hosted in late August. This year the Iceberg partner educational meeting graduated 43 students from Europe and South Africa. As well as video about the Summer School itself from Turin, Italy, this feature looks at participating medical associations and their meetings, sustainability and also hybrid meetings….
Washington may be the oldest, largest and busiest global hub of associations working in different professions, trades and social endeavours. Associations are at the heart of city strategy, both in hosting meetings in the capital, and in locating headquarters there. In this video feature, Destination DC explains how change is being made through business events….
This May the BestCities Global Alliance community of convention destinations welcomed Guadalajara, Mexico, as its twelfth member. The city earned its place through a shared commitment to support meetings that create a positive impact. Guadalajara went through a stringent process to join the Iceberg partner, including a detailed site inspection and tour of the city….
Virginie De Visscher is Senior Director of Business Development – Economic Sectors at Destination Canada. She is also an Iceberg ambassador. In two video viewpoints, she outlines Canada’s economic sector-specific approach to destination marketing and the increasing focus the organisation is now placing on both leaving business event legacies and on measuring their final impact….
The 2022 Annual Congress of Iceberg partner AIPC was held this July in Budapest. In a video triple bill, AIPC CEO Sven Bossu introduces both his association and its event. Two further videos explore the AIPC Future Shapers program, with two teams of emerging leaders presenting solutions at the congress to leave lasting legacies in the sector….
Australia is a hotbed of business event excellence, the country’s cities and states both competing and collaborating to win events for the destination. In this high-powered video double bill, The Iceberg hears once again from BESydney CEO Lyn Lewis-Smith, and also from Tourism Australia’s Robin Mack, about the role of meetings in diversifying destinations’ economies….
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