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…
Dr Emma Delaney from the University of Surrey explains how the “psychic income paradigm”, a concept well established in sports events, offers a credible way to capture the overlooked social and emotional value that is delivered by business events. From Centre for Events & Festivals…
Traditionally, tourism and economic development were treated as two distinct functions, but this model has evolved over recent decades, as destinations recognise that these are two sides of the same coin. Visitors, investors, talent and residents are responding to the same fundamentals: quality of life, connectivity, innovation, culture, sustainability, and opportunity. From City Nation Place…
In this episode of The Meeting Room podcast, James Lancaster, Editorial Director at Northstar Meetings Group, and Iceberg Ambassador, discusses the latest implications of Trump travel policies suggesting a silent revolution on the part of event organisers and international visitors is well underway…
Iceberg Ambassadors Melissa Riley and Kai Hattendorf, along with Rodney Cox argue the case for business events as a strategy for accelerated destination development, place leadership, capacity building, and the realisation of broader policy agendas. “Where’s the message,” asks Cox, “to government that if you want to fast-track your city to [becoming] a hub of…
VisitScotland’s Rory Archibald outlines the ambitious thinking behind Scotland’s new business events strategy: deep conversations with association clients to understand what knowledge is being generated and exchanged, long-term data-gathering plan, fast and flexible integration of past mistakes, strong alignment with policy goals for Scotland and its aspirations for citizens’ wellbeing.
Industry leaders gathered in Barcelona during 2025 IBTM World to address key advocacy issues facing the industry, and to identify what collective actions could be taken at high-level and what work needs to be done at the local level where business event impacts are most visible and relevant to policymakers and other place leaders.
Where some destinations see only a glamorous sporting event, Singapore leveraged the most recent edition of its Formula 1 race to host and in some cases to originate and organise 25 strategic international business events. Carrie Kwik, Executive Director, Conventions, Meetings & Incentive Travel, Singapore Exhibition & Convention BureauTM (SECB), explains how Singapore’s advantages as…
For the fourth year in a row, ESAE (European Society of Association Executives) curated and organised IBTM World’s Association Leadership Forum in Barcelona last November. International and European association leaders explored ways to design their meetings strategy in a less transactional way, and instead to use these events to drive forward the Mission and Vision…
From Exempla: Exempla Management & Consulting, based in Brussels, Belgium, and Meet4Impact, based in Montreal, Canada are excited to announce a strategic partnership, creating new consultancy services designed to enhance the impact of mission-driven international associations. This collaboration brings together the complementary strengths of both teams to offer a unique, integrated value proposition.
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