The latest annual Hall of Leaders honourees have been announced by the Events Industry Council, including international event-impact advocates WeeMin Ong from Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and Kit Lykketoft from Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau. The six inductees will be honoured at a ceremony held alongside IMEX America in Las Vegas on 12 October.
Every year, AIPC, in collaboration with Access Intelligence, conducts its Annual Member Survey to track the trends shaping the global convention centre industry. Covering industry outlook, business strategies, client expectations, technology, sustainability and workforce development, the 2026 survey gathered responses from 67 convention centres, providing valuable insights into the opportunities and challenges facing our sector.
SFA Connect, specialists in lead generation and strategic matchmaking in the business events industry, have reviewed over 60 research projects they have conducted over the last decade to identify key evolutionary changes to destination event attraction strategies. Where the focus was previously on identifying bidding opportunities, DMOs are now adopting more sophisticated destination policy-supporting models.
Deanna Varga, CEO & Founder of Mayvin Global, has published a series of three follow-up White Papers to her COVID and Association Toolkit papers for association leaders. The overall theme is Mission and Margin, with three strategic areas of attention: Financial Sustainability, Mitigating Risk and Innovating for Growth. Varga notes that associations frequently struggle to…
Net Zero Carbon Events (NZCE) has appointed sustainability specialist Johanna Fuhlendorf as its new Programme Director, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of the global initiative as it enters its next phase of development. The appointment is the first dedicated leadership role created specifically for NZCE since its launch in 2021. From Headquarters Magazine…
According to the results of a recent Cvent survey, while 87 per cent of event professionals are more confident in using AI-generated content, 85 per cent believe their audiences are growing increasingly sceptical of whether content is genuinely created by humans and whether information is accurate.
AMI’s James Lancaster urges caution when making all-inclusive economic expenditure claims that collate such items as flights and accommodation as well as meetings-specific spend. Instead, our arguments have a better chance of influencing policymakers if we focus on the societal value generated, and frame our industry as an enabler of other sectors’ activity.
Destinations International (DI) has announced an expanded organisational commitment to advocacy and destination policy aligned with its newly launched Advocacy & Action Strategic Roadmap. The initiative reinforces DI’s vision of positioning destination organisations as essential leaders in advancing community vitality, economic growth and long-term destination resilience.
David Adler, GatheringPoint.News, explains why big investors have decided the most valuable asset in an artificial age is a room of people who showed up, and have spent US$5 billion in five weeks to prove it. The events business has become a veracity business, and veracity is in short supply in the age of AI.
ECA’s Tommy Goodwin argues that events bringing together policymakers, business leaders, media and lobbyists to discuss key issues offer far more transparent platforms than other forms of policy influencing activity. He encourages more media companies to embrace the importance of high-quality events as part of their respective journalistic missions.
ICCA CEO Dr Senthil Gopinath argues that business events leaders must move beyond operational excellence and embrace advocacy. Sitting at the policy table is not about politics; it is about partnership. It is about ensuring that those who shape the rules understand the real value we deliver.
Planners are confronting a broader and more complex risk landscape, from violence and cyberattacks to fraud and workplace safety gaps. In response, a coalition of industry associations is working to revive and expand a security initiative designed to help convention centres, trade shows, and meeting organisers better prepare for a widening range of risks.
In just eight weeks, four of the ten largest exhibition groups in the world have been sold. This is unprecedented in the history of the exhibition industry – as are the sums of money involved. There is one common theme and that is the effect of AI. From Exhibition News, by Phil Soar…
#MEET4IMPACT is challenging destinations to rethink their role in the business events ecosystem, arguing that DMOs must move beyond promotion and become active facilitators of long-term social impact. In a conversation with their Consultant Made Raie, the organisation highlights the growing importance of legacy, community engagement and impact measurement for positive change. From HQ Magazine…
In this episode of The Meeting Room, host James Lancaster sits down with Dr Mike Duignan, founder of the Centre for Events & Festivals (CEF), to unpack the BIG problems nobody is talking about enough, from fragmented advocacy and missing economic data to why festivals, sports events and business events must stop operating in silos.
As the events industry pushes for greater inclusivity, new parents, especially mothers, are asking why so many events still turn them away at the door. For many parents, particularly those with infants who are breastfeeding or not yet in childcare, the inability to bring a child means skipping the events entirely. From Skift…
The latest edition of IMEX’s European show offered participants a glimpse of the state of the global events industry. Compared to last year, the geopolitical uncertainty was more obvious and no more resolved, but somehow the events world appears to have become used to this level of stress, on both buyer and supplier sides.
The International Research Foundation (IRF) and Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), with research partner Oxford Economics, have launched the 2026 edition of the Incentive Travel Index (ITI), the most comprehensive and longest-running annual study of the global incentive travel industry, exploring geopolitical risk, AI adoption, qualifier preferences and the future of destination management companies.
This article from the Centre for Events and Festivals analyses and summarises a new research report on long-term event impact from the University of Technology Sydney Business School, which shows governments are vastly underselling their investment in attracting conferences, justifying it purely with tourism data such as delegate hotel spend.
Global conflict, policy change and socio-political instability are having a growing and measurable impact on the international meetings and conferences industry. The findings reveal a significant shift in the operating environment for international meetings. 73.84% of respondents said global conflicts have impacted their ability to plan or host international meetings, up from 53.92% in 2025.
SITE and Maritz have released Investigating the Power of Incentive Travel Across Generations, a comprehensive study into how generations respond to incentive travel, reward and recognition. Findings show incentive travel works powerfully across every generation, but the profile of the people earning travel, assumptions behind programme design and the meaning of the reward are shifting.
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