One thing that’s good about this destina- tion is that we have partners that are constantly investing in the community and adding new assets, and making sure that we’re then marketing them. And clearly one of the big opportunities for us is internationally. It’s a great interna- tional destination.

What’s great about this role for me is that I used to be limited to what I could say about the opportunities at Disney. Now, I’m like, “I love everybody! I rep- resent everybody!” This CVB stuff is good. This is a good job.

As far as the meetings industry as a whole, it’s recovering, but not recover- ing like the leisure side. I think that a lot

RESEARCH

A Second Opinion on International Meetings

Last month we presented ICCA’s latest rankings of the top cities and countries for international meetings. (Read the lists at convn.org/icca- lists.) Now, the Union of International Associations (UIA) offers its own rankings.

CITY

1. Singapore 2. Brussels 3. Vienna 4. Paris 5. Seoul 6. Tokyo 7. Barcelona 8. Copenhagen 9. Madrid 10. London

COUNTRY 1. Singapore 2. Japan 3. United States 4. Belgium 5. South Korea 6. France 7. Austria 8. Spain 9. Germany 10. Australia

SOURCE: Union of International Associations (convn.org/uia-2012)

of facilities are overbuilt, but the hotel side seems to be coming back. That’s the positive news. I think that so far we’re on the right trajectory, as long as we keep doing what we should be doing, promoting the value in face-to-face meetings. I think we’re going to have to keep reinforcing that very strongly on the trade-show side, but even just the pure meeting side — which has not risen back like business travel and leisure have, so we have to keep looking at that.

One of the things that has changed during the course of my career is the accountability for the value of investing in meetings — it’s so huge now, it’s just dramatic. Then there’s the way that technology has affected everything.

What I can’t predict is, what is it going to be like 10, 15 years from now? What is a meeting going to be like? The challenge for the meetings industry, I think, is going to be the next generation, those who are just as content texting and face- timing each other, even though they’re in the next room. I’m curious as to how much value they think they’ll get out of gathering for a single purpose. Do they need it to be motivated? Do they want to learn and network with their colleagues in that setting? Do they feel they can do it all virtually or in other forums? It’s happening today, anyway. The question is, is that generation going to push the ledger more to that side than it is today? I don’t know, but I’m intrigued.

. —As told to Michelle Russell

PCMA.ORG

AUGUST 2013 PCMA CONVENE

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