The meeting of the future revolves around fluid content to leverage the collective intelligence of the community.

1. 5 Key Strategies for
Forward Thinking
Event Profs
Sli.do: #PCMACL15
Presenter: @gregoates
event industry editor
C2MTL

2. The Rise of
Fluid Content
The city of the future is an
international, interdisciplinary
knowledge sharing machine.
The meeting of the future is an
open-source, co-created hybrid
mechanism of live and virtual
engagement, fluidly connecting
more people through more
channels over longer periods of
time to leverage the collective
knowledge of the community.

3. 5 Macro Meeting Trends
1. The Future DMO
2. Innovation Districts
3. Hybrid Programming
4. Contextual Event Tech
5. Next Gen Meeting Design
“True added value of an event organized
in a different country is not to experience
other countries’ culture, gastronomy,
people, etc. It is the specific knowledge
that the country has and is willing to
share with an international audience.”
— Miha Kovačič, director, Slovenian Convention
Bureau (photo)

4. 1. The Future DMO
Destination marketing orgs (DMO)
are collaborating with local
economic development and
industry to create new business
relationships.
Trend: Birth of the destination
marketing & management
organization (DMMO).
Strategy: Ask bureaus for local
industry colleagues, business
thought leaders and cultural
influencers within/without industry
to develop new business.
German Convention Bureau

5. — Lyn Lewis-Smith, CEO, Business Events Sydney
University of Technology, Sydney
“We’re not in the tourism business. We’re in the
innovation and business business.”

6. MediaCityUK, Manchester
Singapore Tourism Board Raleigh CVB

7. DMO Quotes:
“In a crowded European market, we feel our competitive advantage is our vast infrastructure of
knowledge-based companies in key industries such as transportation, finance, energy and high tech.”
— Laura d’Elsa, regional director, North America, German Convention Bureau
“It’s not really about the convention space. It’s not really about how wonderful the destination feels. I take
for granted that it’s going to be great. It’s really those additional layers of content that deliver the nudge
factor to make someone say, ‘You know, I really need to be there.’”
— Kershing Goh, regional director of the Americas, Singapore Tourism Board
“You're starting to see cities aligning with their academia, their economic development organizations,
their private sector, and asking: What can we do in our backyard to showcase to meeting planners—
beyond restaurants and hotels and attractions—the business community that's here?”
— Loren Gold, executive VP, Raleigh CVB
“The Holy Grail is facilitating the transfer of knowledge between congress delegates and the local
community. By harnessing the power of intensive debate, Manchester can become known for intellect,
knowledge and innovation, boosting our key sectors and solidifying our position as a global destination.”
— Anthony Cassidy, int’l sales manager, Visit Manchester

8. 2. Innovation Districts
High-tech companies and creative
professionals are migrating into
what the Brookings Institution calls
“Innovation Districts.”
Trend: Integrated convention
campuses are becoming
knowledge/tech corridors.
Strategy: Seek out innovative
communities and venues to spark
new creative energy, networking
ops and business relationships.
Boston
Innovation
District

9. “Innovation districts are the manifestation of megatrends
altering the location preferences of people and firms…
reconceiving the very link between economy shaping, place
making and social networking.”
— Bruce Katz, VP & director, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution
The Metropolitan Revolution

10. Brooklyn Navy Yard
CCD Guadalajara
Fulton Market, Chicago

11. 3. Hybrid Content
As soon as someone tweets, an
event is “hybrid.” Events no longer
exist in a single time and space.
Trend: Hybrid increases the
lifecycle and reach of an event pre-
to-post to boost engagement and
promote the event.
Strategy: Learn hybrid and video
strategy. Collect case studies
showing ROI. Seek sponsorship for
virtual component.
TED Talks
OpenWorld

12. SXSW INXPO/Sonic Foundry
IMEX

13. 4. Contextual Event Tech
Apps are evolving beyond
reproductions of print agendas into
social networks and data capture
platforms. Event websites and tech
vendors are curating content
ecosystem pre/post.
Trend: Event and digital tech are
improving connectivity and driving
business strategy.
Strategy: Create transparent event
conversation functionality in-app.
Poll for pre/post metrics. Integrate
with web content.
Social Tables
DoubleDutch

14. NFC/RFID QuickMobile
The Meeting Pool

15. 5. Next Generation
Meeting Design
Informal learning is proving to be as
effective as formal learning.
Attendees want to be participants
and co-creators in the knowledge
economy.
Trend: Co-creation provides
dynamic engagement and improved
business results for attendees and
stakeholders.
Strategy: Crowdsource for content.
Everyone is now part of the
meeting planning process.
C2MTL
MPI WEC

16. Jessie States, manager of professional development, MPI:
(IMEX America 2014)
“We wanted to find out what the future of meetings and events was going
to look like, so we went out into the industry and we asked meeting
professionals that belong to our organization what they thought that might
look like.
“We were a little disappointed in the results, because we found out that
meeting professionals are so busy, and they’re doing so many
different things, and they’re being tasked with doing more with less,
that they really didn’t even have the time to think about what two
years down the road was going to look like, much less 10, 15 or 20.
continued…

17. Jessie States, manager of professional development, MPI:
…continued
“So we went back out and we went to experts outside of our industry. We
went and talked to education designers, architects, futurists, technologists,
and we asked them about how they envisioned the future. And that’s what
we based a lot of our research on.
“I think what’s really telling when we asked meeting professionals what one
word they would use to describe what the future of events is going to look
like, they said ‘technology,’ because that is so ingrained in us these days.
And we’re so afraid. We don’t know what to think, or we think it’s
beyond our skill set. But when we went outside the industry, they said
‘people.’ And I think we all know that people are always first in our industry,
but sometimes we let other things get too much power, and they get in the
way.”

18. Contacts:
Kelly Peacy, PCMA
Jessie States, MPI
Miguel Neves, IMEX Group
Dahlia El Gazzar, The Meeting Pool
Tahira Endean & Trevor Roald,
QuickMobile
Jennifer Hawkins, DoubleDutch
Claire Harrington, Social Tables
Brandt Krueger, brandtkrueger.com
Steph Pfeilsticker, Interactive
Meeting Technology
Julius Solaris, Event Manager Blog
Shawna Suckow, SPIN Planners
“Hybrid is coming whether you like
it or not. We’re going to reach a
point where every meeting that we
have that’s in any way public, and
even a lot that aren’t, is going to
have some kind of online
component.
“You can take charge and learn
how it works, and be the person
leading that charge in your
organization, and learn how to do it
right. Or you can sit back and get
out of the way. So who do you want
to be in your organization?”
— Brandt Krueger

19. Greg Oates
event industry editor
C2MTL
go@skift.com