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Soolnua co-founder and events industry commentator Padraic Gilligan sounds a warning note on the optimism pervading many recent industry surveys and reports, especially regarding the underlying health of the US economy: At this stage, most of the usual trend and forecast reports for the business events industry have landed. Reading through them, you can’t help…
Dr Hayley Walker of IÉSEG presents an analytical argument with challenging perspective on the effectiveness of “mega-events”, especially those originally designed as government-to-government negotiation platforms, but which have attracted the involvement of big business and different communities of interest. As an industry, shouldn’t we be advocating more strongly for “impactful & effective meetings” not “bigger…
On this recent Boardroom Association Podcast, Alex Filicevas, Executive Director of the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition, and Charley Stoney, CEO of the European Association of Communication Agencies, put forward key steps associations of all sizes can take with relation to both Board best practices and conference diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) implementation.
David Adler critiques the self-promoting, excessive-growth industry that Business Events industry awards have morphed into, praises those who have stood up to say “count me out”, and highlights the attributes and achievements we should be recognising if we wish to promote our sector in a way that resonates with the outside world. From GatheringPoint.news…
Mark O. Schloesser, Senior Venue Consultant, Gaining Edge, calls for a more holistic approach to data management within major event venues. Reliable data across all key disciplines is essential for success, but depends on having a culture of accuracy, transparency and accountability – how many venues can honestly claim to have this throughout their organisations?
Padraic Gilligan considers the implications of the intangibility of key assets that make our industry. When business models rely on events which exist briefly, with no guarantees of future revenue, and on the intellectual and experiential capital of staff who could leave tomorrow, how can accountants and venture capitalists place a value on such businesses?
Business Events Montreal argues that destinations and the business and professional events they host should unapologetically push back against censorship, DEI “cancellation,” and anti-science climate-change denialism. It says safe platforms for civilised disagreement are vital for progress and believes this stance strengthens Montreal’s appeal for international meetings, aligning business interests with a firm moral position.
David Adler profiles one of the individuals who have done the most to shape the modern entrepreneurial trade show sector, and in doing so defines essential, universal leadership attributes for success, but also advocates for the importance of having societally valuable personal objectives in such a profit-centric ecosystem. From GatheringPoint.news…
“We have many of the necessary puzzle pieces… but need a much stronger mid to long-term positioning for our industry.” Industry thought-leader Kai Hattendorf argues that the Business and Professional Events sector has thus far failed to present itself as a genuine industry, and has been only intermittently successful in communicating the full spectrum of…
Prof Mike Duignan, Founder & Chair of the Centre for Events & Festivals, argues that it’s essential to bring together the very best academic practitioners and rigorous studies with top practitioners who deeply understand the workings of the market, if we are to really gain the necessary depth of understanding to move our sector to…
The creation of ISO’s first dedicated Technical Committee on Events is an important step forwards for not only the exhibitions industry but for all event types. Chris Skeith OBE explains why global standards matter, not just for organisers and venues, but for governments, destinations, and the millions of people who experience events worldwide.
Kai Hattendorf moderated a high-powered panel consisting of Cvent CEO and founder Reggie Aggarwal, DMC Network Managing Director Aoife Delaney and IMEX’s CEO Carina Bauer on “State of the Industry: From Intention to Action”. We’ve linked to the Snapsight AI summary of the key points from their wide-ranging discussion. There’s plenty of food for thought!
Business Events advocacy veteran Rod Cameron eloquently sets out the arguments why our sector shouldn’t let the “overtourism crisis” go to waste. Business, professional and scientific events need to be clearly differentiated from leisure tourism, when communicating with the public as well as with policymakers, and now is the perfect time to do this: There…
From GatheringPoint.news, by David Adler: Thousands of event, hospitality, and tourism pros are heading to Las Vegas for IMEX, chasing the rush they create for others—the chemistry of awe, risk, and belonging that makes the world’s hardest job worth it. IMEX is not just another convention. It’s the annual gathering of an ecosystem…
The editors at Nature Mircobiology outline why they attended 27 scientific conferences last year. In short, it’s for virtually the same reasons as the researchers, students, speakers, technologists and professors who make up the rest of their attendee ecosystem! A great summary of why conferences are so vital for everyone in the scientific community.
Meetings International’s Roger Kellerman laments the failure of so many countries’ national governments to adopt transformative event strategies, and suggests a few actions the events sector can take to help solve this problem: If a country creates a strategy for events and major sports championships, only to never actually implement it, this inverted power move…
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