One of the keynote speakers were Dr. Linda Yueh, Fellow in Economics, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, Visiting Professor, London Business School, Associate, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE giving a talk on “Global Economic Status and Outlook: The World Today and Tomorrow”.
Convention Centres are directly impacted by the state of the overall economy, which makes today’s global financial crisis of particular interest to centre managers. Dr. Yueh will address the underlying issues and recovery prospects for the economy, with particular reference to how recovery will likely unfold and which sectors will be impacted in ways that determine their meetings potential.
Below are some quick notes I took during the conference:
Business is under attack: economic downturn, informatio technology, sustainability driven. Meetings are great place for innovation. No change is wrong. Changing is a need.
Space for improvement in convention centers:
* recognition and rewards
* innovation roadmaps, IT
* partner use, more partners
* New business dev, additional business
* Innovation performance indicators
* Idea management
Emerging countries: India, China, then Brazil, Russia.
The solution during these challenging times is to increase marketing.
You have to profile your center, your image. In case no money to brand: find partnership
About branding
People enjoy meetings. International marketing does not work. In order to change the image of the industry, change the idea of meetings, conceptual changes in corporate meetings using media, PR… more than commercial branding. Instead of focusing on cost, accountability, finance, better focus on perceived value, emotional content, arguments, statistical data, business case (true and exciting). INDISPENSABLE: no business without meeting.
CREATIVE (opposite of boring), symbolic actions. Usually meeting = boring (public opinion). Idea of secret slogan. Holding an event is the start, not the end. Long term Rally race
Being obsessive about what do we do next?
Big questions: The congress industry has been lazy over the past few years. What are we really doing? Who are our potential new competitor: video conferencing? Problems: boring meetings, negative image of professional meetings in leisure destination. BRANDING: City promotes history, cultural heritage against people, genius of people! Example of city: Athena. Associated image: cultural, genius, creative.
People like conferences. Package of values -> you’ll then do good business. Rely on professional partners Economic impact of meetings for cities & local economy. Good ideas: twinning cities
