The 62nd edition of Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders, which took place Jan. 7-10 at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., welcomed 4,457 participants from 45 countries – a year-over-year increase of 7 percent - setting a new attendance record for the annual event.
Viacom, owner of MTV, VH-1, Nickelodeon and BET, to name a few, has acquired VidCon, host of the world’s largest multi-day conference for the global online community.
The move will accelerate its participation and investment in next-generation platforms and expand its focus on live events, according to Viacom officials.
VidCon will remain a stand-alone entity and retain its senior leadership team.
Washington D.C.’s largest consumer culinary show, MetroCooking DC, concluded its 12th edition with a positive boost in attendance and size.
Held Dec. 9-10 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the popular gourmand shopping event saw an attendance uptick of more than 12 percent, compared with the year before, with more than 10,000 foodies shopping, sipping and sampling from an abundance of specialty food companies, local restaurants, breweries and wineries.
U.K.-based Tarsus Group has launched an exclusive buyer-seller platform, Tarsus Direct, which will include an in-person summit series, white papers and thought leadership within specific communities.
Event organizers know that balancing tech trends with the realities of business and budgets is a challenge.
Roll something out too early, or to an audience that doesn’t fit, and it can easily fail. Hold back on new tech and your event can feel dated.
A founding group of event technology companies has joined Fuzion, Freeman’s open product ecosystem designed to make technology more accessible for event organizers.
Introduced last fall, the new platform aims to help solve industry-wide integration challenges between digital solutions by connecting data across all points of the event lifecycle, thus creating a more seamless experience for organizers and attendees.
Hurricane Harvey may cause 2017 to go down in history as a tumultuous year for the City of Houston, but that didn’t stop the city from coming back strong while setting another record in convention sales.
For the third straight year, an unprecedented number of room nights tied to future conventions were booked in 2017, according to Visit Houston officials, whose sales team locked down 429 conventions and meetings representing 802,852 room nights, up from 765,401 room nights in 2016.
Do you know the infamous John Rice? If you’ve been in the trade show business for any length of time, chances are you do. And if you don’t – maybe it’s time you change that! Why, you ask? First of all, John is fun and second, he’s the guru on all things trade show-related (that’s what happens when you’ve spent close to 25 years in this industry…)!
For the past 30 years, the 9th largest convention center in the United States hasn’t permitted outside contractors, until now.
Cleveland, Ohio’s 2.2 million square foot I-X Center now will allow trade shows to utilize outside decorating providers specializing in exhibitor services and experience.
Since 1985, the I-X Center exclusively has provided on-site services, which covered all facets of decorator services for trade shows and large corporate events.
Last year ended on a positive upswing that will follow into 2018, according to the 20th edition of UFI – The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry’s Global Barometer report.
"Globally, the exhibition industry is growing at a healthy rate. Companies around the world are looking into expanding their activities within and beyond their present activities and geographic borders,” said Kai Hattendorf, UFI managing director/CEO.
