John H. Graham IV, President and CEO of the American Society of Association Executives, has died after a battle with cancer. Graham was both well known and highly respected across the association world. Legacies of his long tenure include more than doubling the Iceberg partner’s membership and starting the Diversity Executive Leadership Program. From MPI…
The number of corporate travel buyers forecasting bigger budgets for 2020 is now at a five-year high, according to annual research from the Business Travel Show. 41 percent of buyers said they would have more money to spend on travel in 2020, a rise from 33 percent last year. From Meetings & Incentive Travel…
Industry mega-gathering Convening Leaders has just taken place in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. The organiser PCMA, the Professional Convention Management Association, gave details of its flagship event’s impact at a press conference, just after the signing of a partnership with the Abu Dhabi Convention and Exhibition Bureau. From PCMA…
The US Congress has just voted to renew funding and thus rescue the nation’s destination marketer Brand USA as part of a $1.4 trillion budget package. The reauthorisation comes with a changed funding structure, and a rise in the cost of America’s online visa waiver programme ESTA from $14 to $21. From Skift…
Edinburgh International Conference Centre is “on track” for “record sales and operating profits” in 2019 after hosting some of the world’s most high-profile conferences. EICC has also calculated that the economic impact the venue makes on the region lies at around £55 million. From Association Meetings International…
Seoul is gearing up for a busy new year of international meetings, with six notable large-scale gatherings set to bring 17,200 participants to the city’s conference venues in the first half of 2020. The three biggest account for 10,900 of the total and are enjoying the destination’s event support programme PLUS SEOUL. From Boardroom…
Congress organisers at ESTRO, the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, are requiring host destinations bidding for their events to help them connect with local communities and create lasting legacies in cancer care. They are doing so through the running of so-called “engagement projects”. Ideas for such initiatives, typically with stakeholder involvement from cancer specialists,…
Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance has just staged its annual Forum under the theme “Exploring the Congress of the Future / Fortifying Impact”. Copenhagen Convention Bureau and BestCities published four future scenarios for congresses (see Research), and the CVB also launched its Legacy Lab. From Boardroom…
In comes another year, and with it yet another list of trends to watch on the horizon. Events will deliver personalised experiences with the aid of artificial intelligence. Plus, sustainability, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and flygskam (flight shaming) are also on the map, as is Q and A 2.0, Conversation and input. From PCMA…
Convention centres let architects push the limits of creative design and pioneer innovative solutions. With seventeen decades of venue architecture behind us, the 1850 Bingley Hall in Birmingham being the first example, here are five extraordinary modern venues. Photo: R. Elton. From Association Meetings International…
Last December Mariela McIlwraith, Director of Industry Advancement at the Events Industry Council, went to the UN Climate Conference COP25 in Madrid. There she took part in a panel discussion on the role of the meetings sector in bringing people together to act on climate. From the Events Industry Council…
For Iceberg partner MCI, seven key industry trends are emerging as the new decade begins: human-centred technology, a new meaning to “live”, the move from “event planners” to “event strategists”, the evolution of personalisation, trust and ethics in the data economy, the power of brands, and sustainability in action. From MCI…
Events always mirror society, and major trends like globalisation have transformed the meetings sector in recent years. At the dawn of a new decade, German Convention Bureau MD Matthias Schultze looks at which trends we should follow, including sustainability and new borderless multisite meeting formats. From Matthias Schultze via LinkedIn…
Last month, just prior to IBTM World’s staging, the Iceberg partner’s inaugural Global Policy and Practice Forum was held in partnership with The Business of Events. Supporting the gathering were the Barcelona Convention Bureau, PCMA (the Professional Convention Management Association) and JMIC (the Joint Meetings Industry Council, which presents The Iceberg). The forum brought together…
This year Glasgow Convention Bureau launched the People Make Glasgow Healthier campaign, taking the messages from a few key medical congresses out of the convention centre and into the community. The conferences were able to create a deeper legacy for the city, with for example 180 people receiving lifesaving CPR training, From Boardroom…
Throughout its history, Manchester has played host to many global breakthroughs, including the first stored-program computer and the splitting of the atom. These days it is rising in positioning as a global conference destination, the value of its international association events almost doubling between 2011 and 2017. From Boardroom…
Denmark has brought together its four largest meetings cities to launch a report on how to make international conventions more impactful for both associations and destinations. The starting point was a trawl of 500 publications globally on the topic, to collect the scattered legacy-driving content in one guidebook. From Boardroom…
Malaysia hopes that its hosting of the 12th Asia Pacific Conference on Biomechanics in 2023 will help grow the field both nationwide and in the ASEAN region. Partners on the bid included the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and the Ministry of Education. From AMI Intellectual Capitals…
Copenhagen CVB and Iceberg partner BestCities Global Alliance have conducted an in-depth piece of future research in a unique collaboration with future scientists and designers. Explore four immersive scenarios for 2040 that spell out potential futures for our industry. The report is accompanied by four audio narratives to make each of the scenarios real and…
Iceberg partner GDS-Index (the Global Destination Sustainability Index) and EarthCheck have signed an alliance to develop then launch special certification and services for business tourism, event and meeting cities. The goal is to let destinations become sustainable and healthy places to visit, meet in and live in. From Boardroom…
Sydney will be hosting the world’s largest machine learning meeting in 2021. The annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems attracted 13,000 experts last week to Vancouver. The data science arm of Australia’s national science agency led the bid with BESydney, supported by the NSW Government. From CIM Business Events…
Powered by 
