Skift Take
The upcoming PCMA Convening Leaders conference in Vancouver brings top convention planners together with industry educators, who could potentially incorporate more insight from today's most innovative meetings and events.
A smartly designed convention is as much a branding vehicle for the host organization as it is a place to share knowledge.
Conferences of all sizes are a marketing platform to share an organization's latest messaging, and they provide a portal into the culture of an organization and the people engaged with it.
Nowhere is that more true than with the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), which is presently gearing up for its biggest annual event, Convening Leaders, in Vancouver beginning January 10, 2016.
As an association made up of people who organize large conventions, PCMA positions Convening Leaders as basically a showroom for new event technology and new meeting design processes that planners can test drive. If planners see something they like, they can potentially incorporate that into their own events.
“Face-to-face events like meetings and conventions are opportunities to bring an organization's brand to life,” says Kelly Peacy, senior VP of education & events for PCMA. “So Convening Leaders is not just a place for people to get together and exchange information. It’s also about promoting PCMA's brand, which is about education and taking risks in experience design.”
Except, events like South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Web Summit in Dublin, XOXO in Portland, C2 Montreal, and a growing crop of others are now providing the most risk-taking examples of experience design, which are especially attractive to Millennial audiences.
How XOXO used the Slack i
