Dubai Business Events Director on the Future of Meetings in the Knowledge Economy
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Skift Take
The BestCities Global Alliance and Dubai Business Events are focusing more on how convention bureaus can collaborate with association conference organizers to create a longer legacy impact of business events for both the organizations and host destinations.
The BestCities Global Alliance is a partnership of 11 convention bureaus worldwide that share best practices for hosting large-scale conferences for international associations.
For the first time since the launch of the Alliance in 2000, the bureaus gathered in Dubai this month for the inaugural BestCities Global Forum.
The theme was: “From Success to Significance for Events and Destinations.” The event focused on shifting how the value of meetings is measured, going beyond the success of a single convention to emphasizing the long-term business development opportunities, or "legacy impact," for both the organization and host destination.
According to Steen Jakobsen, director of Dubai Business Events, the strategy is an important evolution for convention bureaus in terms of how they engage conference organizers. It’s a shift from promoting the destination to attract meetings to support the local visitor economy, to instead, collaborating with associations to strengt
