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Hopin’s Descent Signals End of the ‘Pivot to Digital’...

By Phil Soar, Chairman, CloserStill Group and Nineteen Group, from Exhibition News: On 11 August, 2020, I wrote a piece in EN about “Hopin” and have followed this up with occasional health reports since. Hopin was, according to The Times, the future of events, a future which would be almost all online and digital…

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From Experience to Transformation

From Destinations International: Our economy is changing from one that delivers experiences to one that creates transformation. And this new way of doing business requires a shift in how destination marketers think about their role as change makers. The travel industry is uniquely suited to deliver on a pandemic-induced craving for self-evaluation, reflection and change….

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Not the End of the Legacy Road, but Time for a New Trajectory

Geneviève Leclerc, Co-Founder & CEO of MEET4IMPACT, reflects on the issues raised in Business Events World #107: The End of the Legacy Road?… It’s sad to hear that the efforts deployed by European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) – a pioneer in elevating the act of purposefully allocating a meeting to a destination based…

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Heading in the Right Direction or a Flight of Fancy?

The tourism industry is being hit by a wave of climate shocks. The crises come just as the industry has started to recover from lengthy travel restrictions following the covid-19 pandemic. However, that experience has already led some in the sector, and travellers around the globe, to think differently about tourism… From The Economist…

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Olena Pavlyuk | Destination Marketing in a Country at War

Destination Marketing Organization University (DMOU) Podcast: When the moderator went to the audience this year at the Annual Convention of Destinations International asking, “what keeps you up at night,” Lviv’s Olena Pavlyuk held out her mobile device and replayed a recording of an air raid siren. In this fascinating episode of DMOU, Olena shares how…

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The Things We Get Wrong About Event Legacy

By James Lancaster, from AMI: Has event legacy (associations and host cities working together to ensure meetings leave a lasting benefit to society) hit a brick wall? Or is it just getting started? It’s a question causing a great deal of anguish amongst meeting professionals right now. Either way, it’s hard to recall a subject…

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Associations Creating Impact – Not a Trend, the New Normal

By Maraika Black, Advocacy, Policy, and Public Health Coordinator, European Association for the Study of the Liver: Health conferences have traditionally focused on actors directly involved in the field – specialists, medical experts, general practitioners, researchers, nurses, and allied health professionals. It has long since been a source of prestige and professional mobilisation for delegates…

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Why Do We Look into the Future?

By Jack Johnson, from Destinations International: Every two years, Destinations International, as the world’s largest membership entity and resource for official destination organizations and convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs), looks into the future and releases the DestinationNEXT (DNEXT) Futures Study. It is the largest and most extensive survey of destination organizations around the world…

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Western Canada’s MICE Destinations Are Pillars of Success

By Jeff Heilman, from Meetings Today: Destination Canada’s Business Events team has a remarkable record of creating innovative initiatives, backed by in-depth market research and analysis, to promote, amplify and advance the Canadian meetings industry. This evolving program is geared principally to Canada’s priority economic sectors. These comprise life sciences, agribusiness, advanced manufacturing, finance and…

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LEGACY: The Destination / Association Disconnect

SFA Connect founder, Sarah Fleming, voices concerns at the lack of association engagement by destinations Sarah Fleming, CEO & Founder of lead-generation and bid support agency SFA Connect and Iceberg Ambassador, explains the processes involved in preparing destinations in their bidding for relevant conferences and events which support both the key sectors as well as…

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ASSOCIATIONS: Let’s Not Fall Out over Definition & Language

As destinations seek to broaden the value creation from events in pursuit of sustainability and community impact goals, Paul Mockler – the Head of Commercial Development at Failte Ireland – confirms that the new policies emerging from government are likely to widen the KPIs currently assessed when selecting which events to bid for. “We’re going…

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Goodbye to the Good Old Days

From M&IT Magazine, Kim Myhre of Xdesigned.com on why the events business needs to embrace change and ‘build forward better’ – not back: You often hear people talk about the ‘good old days’ like things were so much better back then. But you’ve got to wonder, were things that much better in the past, or…

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PRIDE: Navigating Corporate Sponsorship

In a polarized political climate, Pride sponsors are vulnerable to backlash from both the right and the left. How do Pride organizers navigate shifting social currents and bilateral backlash to maintain their corporate partnerships? From DAHLIA+Agency…

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50 Years of ‘Meetings Made in Germany’

By Matthias Schultze: In 1973, the GCB German Convention Bureau was founded. 50 Years of ‘Meetings Made in Germany’ is a reason to celebrate, to look back and, more importantly, to look ahead. Cue this three-article series, discussing key aspects that have shaped our industry over the past decade and will continue in future…

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Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Tax Revenues Are Falling!

By Jack Johnson, Destinations International: I grew up watching the television show “Lost in Space.” It was about a space colony family struggling to survive when a spy/accidental stowaway throws their ship hopelessly off course. Given my age (and being the youngest in my family and one of the last kids in my neighborhood), I…

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Taking Your Association Global

By Matty Rubenstein: When ‘taking your association global’ you have to define one thing very clearly, what do you mean by ‘taking your association global?’ We all know that the world is a big place, and that by ‘going global’ you will give yourself access to more people, more customers, more money…

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Destinations as the Driving Force of a Conference

In this podcast, Bregje Frens talks to Martin Sirk, a vibrant conversation about the biggest challenges and opportunities for associations, how the relationship between destinations and associations have evolved over the last years and about the initiative of the Global Association Hubs Partnership (GAHP). From Conferli…

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James Lancaster: AI is Not ‘Just a Tool’

Until very recently, the hype surrounding generative AI – specifically ChatGPT – was white hot. It was going to steal our jobs, take over the planet, and then, quite possibly, kill every single one of us because… look how quickly it wrote that freaking blog post! From Association Meetings International…

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Three Reasons Why AI Will Help, Not Harm, Associations

By Matty Rubenstein: Right now AI looks like good news for Associations, not the rumored enemy… why? Generative AI cannot invent – after my conversations with AI experts like Mario Brcic and Larry Todd Wilson it seems clear that generative AI is not the same as the AI Expert Networks that may one day…

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5 Things You Need To Know To Run a Successful Live Event

Ben Ari interviews BestCities’ Loren Christie: Planning an international conference involves numerous logistical challenges, including accommodation, transportation, catering, and technical support. Convention bureaus can provide valuable assistance in coordinating these aspects, ensuring smooth operations and a seamless experience for attendees. From Authority Magazine…

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IMEX ’23: A Licence to Operate?

Kai Hattendorf, CEO at UFI, past President of JMIC, and chief architect of the Net Zero Carbon Events movement reviews the post-post-pandemic era as the re-opening of China puts the sector back into turbo-charge. Appetite for events to drive institutional missions and visions through the meeting places and the marketplaces delivered by the BE sector…

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