If you’re hosting a global conference, gathering people from all over the world in a ballroom or conference center to consume content and network with each other, does the destination really matter?
Attracting attendees
The first school of thought would be that an exciting destination is more likely to attract attendees.
However, some might say that the majority of attendees will show up every year without fail, regardless of the location - especially if the conference has a strong foothold in their industry. Therefore, from a logistics point of view - and even from a budget perspective - it might be easier and cheaper to keep doing the event in the same place year-on-year.
But this can result in complacency - a mentality from prospective delegates along the lines of “ah I’m busy this year, I’ll go again next year” because there is no fear of missing out.
Meanwhile destinations like Las Vegas report more than a 9% increase in attendance when conferences move to the city. And why is this?
Bleisure benefits
The trend to extend business trips has always been prevalent, however in recent years there have been countless studies that point to an increase in conference attendees extending their stay.
This could be driven by the need to save money on holidays by combining the two, or a moral desire to be more sustainable and reduce flights - either way the choice of event destination will make a clear difference for the growing number of bleisure travellers.
Controversial countries
Event planners have always had to be mindful of the safety of a destination. However, a new level of diligence needs to be had now that global warming is creating more natural disasters in historically unaffected areas, political unrest is causing more contention in seemingly ‘safe’ parts of the world and global leaders are being more vocal about their controversial opinions.
The latter is probably the most subtle on the surface, but most impactful to attendance. A destination doesn’t need to be in the middle of a war or fighting wildfires for attendees to avoid it, sometimes it can be as simple as a misalignment of morals.
More and more, people are speaking with their flights. If a destination is seen to be discriminatory or divisive in any way, attendees will just refuse to inject any money into that economy. Regardless of how fun it might be to experience.
And so now more than ever, event destination choice does really matter.
We at Black Book have an extensive knowledge of global destinations and have sourced venues and managed events all over the world. From luxury incentive trips to large global conferences. This means we are able to consult and provide options that will attract attendees, be beneficial to bleisure travellers and avoid causing controversy.
Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.