Business Events World – Issue 72

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FORTNIGHTLY ROUNDUP

“Hospitality Helping Hands”: a food donation legacy to kick-start 2020.

Happy New Year / Decade and all that! 2020 began with an early meeting legacy for the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank. 150 volunteers turned out to sort and package donations before attending Convening Leaders at the Moscone Center. Bravo!

There are five new Features in this issue of Business Events World and also on The Iceberg. Our lead is the latest in our “Below the Waterline” podcast series. BestCities Global Alliance Director of International Associations Jane Cunningham joins with #MEET4IMPACT President and CEO Geneviève Leclerc and my colleague James Latham to discuss association meeting legacy. Jane and Geneviève are both friends and ambassadors of The Iceberg, and BestCities is a partner.

Also in Features, read about the knowledge sectors and approaches for targeting meetings of both Sheffield in the UK and Hamburg in Germany. There is a brilliant roundup of destinations around the world holding sustainable energy congresses, and a similar surgical dissection of medical association legacies being created in various healthcare capitals.

In News this issue, industry mega-meet Convening Leaders has just taken place in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Associations Congress UK 2019 saw the event’s highest-ever association attendance drawn to Birmingham’s ICC. Seoul is readying itself for a busy year, with six large-scale international meetings set for the first half of 2020. A further raft of associations have signed up to hold their flagship meetings at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre, less than a year before the venue’s opening. The ancient city of Nara will open a new convention centre this spring. The Edinburgh International Conference Centre is “on track” for “record sales and operating profits” in 2019, and calculates its regional economic impact at around £55 million. As bushfires continue to cause devastation across all of Australia, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre has opened its doors as a disaster relief centre.

Also in News this issue, meetings industry leaders got to address some of the big sustainability challenges facing events during a panel discussion at UN Climate Conference COP25 in Madrid. Our link includes full video from the session. The US Congress has just voted to renew funding and thus rescue the nation’s destination marketer Brand USA. The number of corporate travel buyers forecasting that they’ll have bigger budgets this year is at a five-year high, according to research from the Business Travel Show. Iceberg partner the International Congress and Convention Association has officially opened the doors of its ICCA Association Community. Finally, John H. Graham IV, President and CEO of the American Society of Association Executives, has died after a battle with cancer. Legacies of his long tenure include more than doubling the Iceberg partner’s membership and starting its Diversity Executive Leadership Program. His support was greatly appreciated here at The Iceberg.

In Opinions this issue, all twelve posts are fresh. There are an inevitable three more 2020 industry trend summaries, from German Convention Bureau MD Matthias Schultze, Iceberg partner MCI and the editors of Convene. Sustainability is on all three lists, so there’s a further roundup of industry activity there, including the recent COP25 Events Industry Council panel and Iceberg partner Positive Impact’s work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The former debate included EIC Director of Industry Advancement Mariela McIlwraith, who reports separately from that high profile event. Meanwhile, one of our publishing partners accidentally went vegan at Associations UK Congress, and has committed to do so again at all the events he’s attending in 2020 (#tradeshowvegan).

Also in Opinions are two great pieces on free speech at meetings. One examines the consequences of a speaker’s lewd remarks at a financial services conference being posted on Twitter. The other is about a star keynote (or her agent) demanding a media blackout, after reporters at Convening Leaders were forbidden to cover former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s address. There is a call to extend the so-called “Slow Movement” to the world of meetings, and an architectural digest of five stunning and unconventional convention centres. Plus, there’s more from two recent Iceberg partner events. The BestCities Global Forum in Copenhagen explored the congress of the future (see also Research). Copenhagen Convention Bureau launched its Legacy Lab there. The IBTM Global Policy and Practice Forum 2019 in Barcelona heard from Head of Innovation at the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, Sven Bossu. He explained how ESTRO is prioritising engagement projects and legacy in destination request for proposals, with video of his presentation available to view.

In Research you’ll find added the second edition of The Exhibition Industry and UN SDGs – Connecting People, Multiplying Impact from Iceberg partner UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry. This is an updated database of industry initiatives and projects that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Now here are some parish notices! Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance is measuring meetings impacts and legacies. Participate in the survey here.

Iceberg partner AIME and manager Talk2 Media & Events are supporting the Victorian Bushfire Appeal. Find out more and donate here.

Iceberg partner European Cities Marketing will hold its 34th ECM Summer School in Turin this August. Details here.

Iceberg partner the American Society of Association Executives has announced which cities will host its flagship annual meeting from 2022 to 2027. Details with video here (recorded before the death of John H. Graham IV was announced).

Congratulations to Iceberg ambassador Oscar Cerezales, Global Executive Vice President of Iceberg partner MCI, for winning the 2019 Chairman’s Award at the Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders.

Finally and as always, The Iceberg reiterates its call for you to join our Global Ambassador Program. You can see Ambassadors listed on The Iceberg homepage, Ambassadors page, and in Business Events World below. Visit Call for Ambassadors 2019 & 2020 to find out more.

Until the next time, hopefully before another decade has passed…

Robert Coren, Curator of The Iceberg