The Iceberg, presented by the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC), exists to enable its Partners & Ambassadors to advocate the transformative socio-economic and societal impacts generated by business and professional events .
The Tip of The Iceberg: A Visitor Economy
Great work by the Events Industry Council (EIC), in partnership with Oxford Economics, has quantified our industry’s measurable consumption: a US $1.5 trillion contribution to global GDP and the 26 million jobs supported through our travel, hospitality, and event service supply chains. These statistics are crucial for advocacy, positioning our sector as a major driver of tourism and related employment.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Below the Waterline: The Power & Purpose of Events
Conferences, congresses, conventions, trade fairs, exhibitions, and corporate meetings are never organised simply to generate visitor spend. Their true purpose lies in knowledge exchange, trade, innovation, collaboration, and transformation.
Attendees come together to advance science and technology, address global health or environmental challenges, form research partnerships and business ventures, and connect across disciplines and cultures. These interactions generate legacies that outlast any single event — new medical breakthroughs, investment opportunities, policy shifts, organisational success, and strengthened communities.
The beneficiaries of these impacts include patients, entrepreneurs, investors, host destinations, and society at large. These are the stories that must be documented and shared — the stories that reveal the transformative value of our industry, stories that advance government policies and agendas.
Many Voices, One Message
The Iceberg’s Partners and Ambassadors have already contributed inspiring case studies showing how business events drive socio-economic and societal change. The narrators of these stories are often scientists, healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, academics, and destination leaders, collaborating to illuminate how events contribute to progress in their professions and business communities.
But we need more advocates, more voices to share our collective message – at city, municipal, state, and federal level – where investment decisions are critical to the sustainability of our industry.
We need stories that showcase how events amplify a destination’s sectoral and academic strengths as global “Intellectual Capitals.” We need examples of events that create measurable impact — from professional development and knowledge transfer to investment attraction, innovation, talent attraction, and social impact.
These stories are vital for the advocacy of our industry and for ensuring sustained funding of our meeting and marketing infrastructure, our professional services, and our ability to maintain a vibrant business meetings and events industry.
No ambassadors, no advocacy.
Step Up and Join The Iceberg Movement
The Iceberg is calling on all DMOs, convention bureaux, PCOs, meeting venues, and industry practitioners to join as local Ambassadors in their city / municipality / state / province / country – investing £350 per year to support local advocacy in the places and power structures where investment decisions are taking place.
In return, Ambassadors gain access to a powerful advocacy content toolkit including the upcoming Iceberg IQ — an AI-driven case-making tool developed by Gevme to help you identify the most relevant evidence and examples for every stakeholder needing to be influenced.
By contributing your stories of impact, Ambassadors further help to ensure that our industry’s message is heard where it matters most — in government corridors, boardrooms, and communities worldwide.
Carpe Diem
The success of The Iceberg Movement depends upon collaboration. Identify the events and case studies that demonstrate how meetings in your destination have driven change, built capacity, or advanced key policy objectives. Share these examples so they can inspire others and strengthen our global advocacy narrative: that business and professional events are catalysts for societal progress, economic resilience, and the realisation of policy ambition.
And if you have a story that deserves a wider audience, contact James Latham to tell it through an Iceberg Video Case Study. James will be in Porto for ICCA Congress, and both he and I will be in Barcelona for IBTM World — ideal opportunities to connect.
Join The Iceberg Movement today.
Thank you.
Martin Sirk
Curator
The Iceberg
