The Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance’s vice president of government affairs spoke with Convene about the organization’s latest advocacy efforts, including communicable disease insurance, visa wait times, and more.

The results of a recent PCMA survey of the next generation of attendees reveal what they like about business events and how they would like to interact with them going forward.

After months of limited in-person social engagement, many in the business events industry are ready to experience real things, places, and spaces. Some organizations are doing just that, even through digital events.

After 30 years in the travel and meetings industry, Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC and a PCMA Groundbreaker, is carving a path for a new generation of leaders to follow.

Zoom & Bloom takes virtual attendees through a shared sensory experience that may connect them to places and times in their lives — and leaves them with a skill for the future.

A real-life location in Chicago anchored the Uber Freight Deliver Conference in fall 2020. Here’s how event designers took online participants there.

Two online events are making Richmond, Virginia, central to their education — and diversity and inclusion — programs.

Ingram Micro’s first-ever digital conference for participants from around the world created a shared experience that felt local at the same time.

Austin had been a big draw for 2020 American College of Toxicology’s annual meeting registrants. Organizers needed to figure out a way to bring as much of the destination as possible to an entirely online audience.

Mike Gamble, founder of Tourism Diversity Matters, discusses the impetus for starting the initiative, and its goals for the future.

Here’s how an annual conference for placemaking professionals tweaked its mobile workshops to give virtual tours of its host city. 

Traveling exhibition turns ballroom at America’s Center Convention Complex in St. Louis into a Michelangelo gallery with nearly life-sized recreations of his Sistine Chapel paintings.

What have we learned over the past 12-plus months — about ourselves, our roles, and the role business events play in the world’s recovery?

International Dark-Sky Association’s first digital event takes global, inclusive approach with diverse speakers presenting from 12 different countries.

A “see-and-smell” art tour by the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis takes far-flung digital participants on a fragrant trip to the gallery — and back to the 17th century.

As organizers work through pre-pandemic contractual commitments, they are finding their supply-chain relationships tested like never before.

The heated debate over wearing face masks in public is carrying over to in-person business events, raising the question: Who is in charge of enforcing COVID-safe attendee behavior? Organizers or venues?

Digital events can never fully replace face-to-face events, says Juliano Lissoni, MCI Group Canada’s managing director, who shares the biological, emotional, and economic reasons why we need to gather in person.

With travel still largely on hold, the company’s Online Experiences are giving guests a chance to see, touch, and taste new destinations from home.

Organizations and companies are making social justice part of their event platform — and their identity.

This July, Cleo Battle will take over as president and CEO of Louisville Tourism after eight years as the bureau’s executive vice president and COO. Battle shared highlights of his 34-plus-year career working at DMOs and hotels around the country — and how he’s trying to do his part to make the industry better and more diverse.

PCMA didn’t ask generational experts to theorize what the next generation entering the workforce values about business events. Instead, PCMA asked them themselves. Here’s what they had to say.

A DHB program can get your revenue goals back on track, says Don Neal, CEO of 360 Live Media. Here’s how he believes you can get it right.

A candid and soul-searching conversation on racism and white supremacy at Convening Leaders points out the role business events can play in creating positive change on a global scale.

The in-person component of PCMA Convening Leaders 2021 held in Singapore demonstrated what it takes — including a rapid testing program — to safely gather a group of 300 during the pandemic.

In a LinkedIn post, Timo Elliott of SAP shared his tips on how to write and master a script for a screen-to-screen event.

Change won’t happen overnight, but there are concrete actions that event planners can take to educate themselves about racial equality and equity. Convening Leaders speaker Torin Perez shares his three-step action plan to help individuals achieve a more grounded perspective on race and society.

With travel curbed by the pandemic, two very different events — one in the U.S. and one in Italy — were reinvented as outdoor road shows.