Opinions

  • Category

  • Sector

  • Host Destinations

Found 118 Opinions

Viewing all Opinions

Incentive Growth: Spending More Budget on More Attendees

Company spending on incentive programmes is growing with the evidence that they’re effective at driving productivity. But research from the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence, an Iceberg partner, has found that while budgets have increased, average spending per attendee has remained the same for most. More employees are being invited on trips. From Skift…

Read More

Middle East Meetings: New Trends and New Technology

Like many new markets, the Middle East and North Africa has its own dynamics with events, meetings, and conferences. The culture is all about personal relationships, so face-to-face is always important for business. Exhibition Director Middle East of IBTM Arabia, Danielle Curtis, shares insights on future trends and technology. From the Event…

Read More

The Watkins Report: City Rankings from Meetings Professionals

The Watkins Report for US and Canadian convention bureaux is published biennially, and Curt Watkins of Watkins Research has been conducting the study for the past 25 years. Here he shares his perspective on how the features planners are seeking in their host destinations have changed over recent decades. From PCMA Convene…

Read More

Corporations: More Events, Measurement Still a Problem

A new Harvard Business Review report called “The Event Marketing Evolution” (already available in The Iceberg’s Research section) shows that more than half of corporations place more value on face-to-face than other marketing channels, and have upped their event activity. Yet they still struggle to quantify return on investment. From PCMA Convene…

Read More

Venue Development: Follow the Money

UFI’s debut Latin American event in September is a chance to examine venue development both in the region and elsewhere. Venues tend to happen only after public sector buy-in, so it follows their development indicates governmental commitment to the virtues of a burgeoning exhibition industry. From UFI…

Read More

IMEX 2018: Three GainingEdge Legacy Case Studies

The Rehabilitation International World Congress (pictured), held in Edinburgh in 2016, fundamentally advanced approaches to accessibility and inclusion. The event’s legacy – and indeed the distinction between legacy and impact – was one of three case studies discussed at an IMEX 2018 session hosted by Iceberg partner GainingEdge. From Boardroom…

Read More

Convention Centres: How the City Benefits

A $1.5 billion expansion of Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Center is underway. The Las Vegas Convention Center is getting $1.4 billion, the Moscone in San Francisco $500 million, the Orange County Convention Center in Florida around $500 million, and the Miami Beach Convention Center $620 million. But how are decisions behind these projects made? From Successful Meetings…

Read More

ICCA CEO Martin Sirk: The Real Legacy of Global Events

When most people think about international meetings they think about bed-nights and tourism expenditure. But hidden below the iceberg surface are the impacts that really count: knowledge creation and transfer, new solutions to societal issues, and opportunities for inward investment, partnerships and business deals. From ICCA CEO Martin Sirk via TTG Mice…

Read More

GED 2018: UFI MD and CEO Kai Hattendorf

On Global Exhibitions Day the international sector joined in force to advocate for its future and also catch the attention of young professionals considering the industry. Every year tens of thousands of exhibitions are held worldwide, serving 4.4 million exhibiting companies and attracting 260 million visitors. From UFI Managing Director Kai Hattendorf via LinkedIn…

Read More

GED 2018: UFI President Corrado Peraboni

On June 6th event professionals around the world celebrated Global Exhibitions Day. Corrado Peraboni, President of exhibition industry global association UFI, offers his insights on this international celebration of a €98 billion sector, and also on the industry’s impact and legacy on jobs, innovation and investment for hosting destinations. From PCMA…

Read More

Size Doesn’t Matter: Why Small is Beautiful

According to ICCA, almost two-thirds of international association meetings attract 250 or fewer delegates. Only seven percent welcomed more than 1,000 people, and just a tiny fraction (1.3 percent) attracted 3,000 or more. Small events can indeed be beautiful, but we hear little about them. From editor’s blog at Association Meetings International…

Read More

Copenhagen: Evaluating Academic Conferences

During IMEX, Copenhagen described the image problem academia is facing: endless conference invitations alongside carbon footprint concerns and straining public budgets. Industrial PhD student Thomas Trøst Hansen has been researching how delegate academics work and receive recognition through the value chain used as a basis for evaluating academic events. From Boardroom…

Read More

IMEX 2018: A Global Perspective on Incentive Travel

Pádraic Gilligan is Chief Marketing Officer of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence. During IMEX 2018 in Frankfurt, Pádraic (pictured on the far right at SITE NITE Europe) also jointly chaired a discussion on current trends in the incentive sector. SITE colleagues from all corners of the globe contributed. From SoolNua’s Pádraic Gilligan at Padraicino…

Read More

The Cyclical Incentive Market in a Recovering Economy

Jenner Carter, Head of Marketing at Lime Venue Portfolio, believes that team building, training and incentives have a cyclical outlook. As businesses return to investment, teams are again under pressure to perform and excel in a tough market. So after the lean years, are incentives once more on the up? From editor’s blog at Meetpie.com…

Read More

Cape Town Water Legacies: “Never Waste a Good Crisis”

Despite being a coastal city, Cape Town is fighting the worst drought in its history and has come close to actually running out of water. But even before the problem turned critical, water-related conferences were identifying opportunities for creating legacies in the destination. “Never waste a good crisis” has become the apt motto. From Boardroom…

Read More

Government Bidding: Australia’s AU$12m National Bid Fund

The announcement of the Australian Government’s AU$12 million national bid fund is a major turning point for the business events industry. Tourism Australia’s unit Business Events Australia will oversee the fund, which has been made possible in no small part by Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Steve Ciobo. From CIM News Magazine…

Read More