Cities Want to Leverage Conventions Better to Drive Growth — Meetings Innovation Report
Photo Credit: Hustle Con 2017 in Oakland, California was developed to provide an innovation event for non-tech startup founders. Hustle Con 2017
Skift Take
There's a growing conversation in the U.S. about how city governments and convention bureaus can better pool their resources to promote their local startup and research communities to convention organizers.
The Future of Meetings & Events
I've been speaking with a wide range of U.S. mayors, economic development executives, and convention bureau leaders this year about how cities are leveraging their innovation economies to secure more conventions in their high-priority sectors. And, how convention organizers can tap that knowledge base to drive higher business outcomes for their programs aligned with those sectors.
This week's lead story shares data from our recent report, produced in collaboration with Meetings Mean Business: "Defining Conventions as Urban Innovation and Economic Accelerators." There is a surprising lack of research evaluating how conventions drive long-term economic growth beyond the short-term delegate spend. So, we surveyed a selection of convention bureau executives about what they feel are the most significant legacy economic drivers that conventions deliver, along with what they see as the biggest obstacles to evaluating those drivers.
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