What We All Share in Common in the Global Business Events Industry

Outgoing PCMA chair Neil Brownlee addresses attendees at the Convening Leaders 2026 Global Leadership Conference. Photo by Jacob Slaton / Whatever Media Group

Neil Brownlee, head of business events at VisitScotland and Chair of the 2025 PCMA Board of Directors and Trustees, is concluding his term exactly 15 years after he attended his first-ever Convening Leaders in Las Vegas. As the first Chair based outside of North America, he has brought a different perspective to the role as well as a wealth of experience gained during his decades in the business events industry.

Now that his term as Chair is ending, Brownlee shared with Convene what he learned throughout 2025 as he met with PCMA members around the world — and how he sees the future of business events shaping up in the year ahead.

Can you share one or two highlights from your year as PCMA’s Chair?
The main highlight was getting to know the membership better in all regions. I did have grand plans to visit every North American chapter in the course of my year, but these quickly fell by the wayside as the reality of the travel and distance became apparent. I trust that I, as the first non-North American Chair, made a decent effort of getting to know people at not only CL a year ago, but also at the Visionary Awards, EdUcon in Louisville (thanks, Doug! [Bennett, Louisville Tourism vice president), CEMA Summit in Austin, and Partnership Summit in Tampa, as well as the Fashion Show in D.C. where I first braved wearing a kilt in front of one of the most discerning audiences I encountered all year. I believe this means I am done with my turn on the catwalk.

Outside USCAN, I was thrilled to visit Singapore for The Business of Events/Convening APAC and Bogota for the inaugural Convening LATAM and one of our Board of Directors meetings. I’ve said previously that prior to becoming Chair, I considered myself fairly well-traveled and aware of the world, but both these events and locations opened my eyes to the vast array of cultures and distances [that separate us], and the exceptional potential for these regions to play a major role in our quest to make business events understood globally.

And not forgetting my home region of EMEA, where we had a superb Convening EMEA event in Rotterdam and the second edition of Convene4Climate, both bold statements of intent in another simply vast region with so much diversity, expertise, and potential to drive PCMA and business events forward beyond 2030.

What, if anything, has surprised you during your term?
I should have anticipated the swiftness with which it zoomed by, but we know how time contracts as we get older! It seems like only six months since I was in Houston as the new Chair.

More a revelation than a surprise, and something that I merely should have expected to be confirmed, is the breadth, diversity, and commitment of our community, and I do mean that in the singular sense. The enthusiasm and passion of people I met and some of the conversations I had were so deep and meaningful, wise and informed. If I could bottle some of them, that would be the spirit of PCMA, with regional flavors and twists, of course.

At the top, I see it as one community, but PCMA lets the regional and chapter communities breathe as well. I am also very pleased indeed at the increase in CEMA membership over the past year, which is especially rewarding after what I know was a somewhat hesitant start for some of the CEMA membership. It is excellent to see such growth and confidence in PCMA’s guardianship of this valuable cohort of leaders.

I am also pleased to see the focus on value and it is clear to me that every acquisition brings value to both sides. This is not supermarket sweep — these are forensic acquisitions underpinned by solid rationale and understanding on what they bring to PCMA and our community, even if they are a new community to be added or folded in.

The global events industry has faced a lot of challenges and disruptions in the last year — geopolitical conflicts, rising prices, the rise of AI, and much more. As we head into 2026, what do you see as a challenge we will face, and what do you see as an opportunity for growth? What do you see as the biggest source of uncertainty?
When we look at the major geopolitical conflicts, and that includes literal conflicts and wars, I am often troubled at how the world finds a way to carry on as normal. That could be a strength, and is probably the only way to react, but the selectiveness of coverage and outrage, often hypocritical, short attention spans, and the tendency to revert to home comforts and local micro-issues can be unedifying. I am as guilty as the next person in this regard.

I hope we can get back to the days of discourse when positing, articulating, or even acknowledging an opposing point of view does not equate (in the mind of the listener) to latent or enthusiastic endorsement of that opposing view. That distinction seems to have gone from all sides of debate just now. I’m equal opportunities in that respect — all sides have what could politely be called polemicists who make rational people just clam up and keep silent.  It is not the way forward, and we need to get back to balanced, informed debate. People rarely change their mind on major issues, which is a shame, because that’s what smart people do.

I hope business events can truly be part of the solution to the major problems in the world. We know we already do that by convening congresses on all manner of disciplines. Is there another level, or is this all part of striving to get understanding of the power of business events?  We need to be at the forefront of discourse at all levels.

You have just completed your term serving as PCMA’s first non-North American chair. What have you learned about the challenges events professionals in different regions face — and the goals and challenges shared by planners around the globe?
It has reinforced my belief that we all share identical issues of understanding what we do.  Different languages, cultures, parliaments, governments, and budgets are of course there to be seen, but we all struggle with the same issue of making the potential stick. Even those destinations who are doing brilliantly at flying the flag for all of us and taking it to a next level, operate with a concern that things are only as good as this or next year’s budget.

This makes it more imperative than ever that the business events sector has one voice and one home by 2030, and that is PCMA.

Kate Mulcrone is Convene’s digital managing editor. This interview has been edited and condensed.