Skift Take
The new "Capital of Cutting Edge" report is more of a positioning statement than research paper, describing why more conference planners should judge a city based on its intellectual capital.
London is home to 40% of the European headquarters of the world’s top technology companies, which makes the city highly attractive to conference planners who organize large tech industry conventions.
With so much tech expertise in one place, planners can source innumerable speakers for educational sessions and attract a wider variety of local exhibitors, for example. That, in turn, helps drive higher interest and attendance to conventions in London.
The same goes for other industries predominant in the city, most notably financial, life sciences, retail, and the creative sectors.
London & Partners, the organization responsible for attracting convention business to England’s capital, has spent the last few years repositioning the city as a hub of innovation in those fields. Like many other first-tier destinations, London is attempting to differentiate itself by promoting its intellectual capital above and beyond the convention infrastructure.
The challenge to date has been effectively selling the idea to a wider base of planners and the organizations they represent. It’s easy for London to promote a new convention center. But how do you sell business knowledge to planners, especially t
