The Seoul Tourism Organization, Visit London and Business Events Sydney announced today the launch of the Future Convention Cities Initiative. The aim is to bring together leading convention cities from around the world to help accelerate the strategic development of their business event-hosting industry and to maximize the contribution of business events to economic development in each member destination.
Fast Future Research has been appointed as the research partner, facilitator and co-ordinator of the Future Convention Cities Initiative. Fast Future is also leading the Convention 2020 study on the future of major meetings and events.
Samuel Koo, President and CEO of Seoul Tourism Organization, said “We are delighted to join London and Sydney as a founding member of the Future Convention Cities Initiative. Seoul has a clear goal of being a leading global destination for conventions and events. The Initiative provides a perfect platform to generate the cutting-edge research insights and access the expertise each member needs to help drive our growth strategies. We know there will be strong interest in joining the initiative and are already talking to other potential members.”
The members will collaborate on research initiatives, share expertise and address critical industry issues together. The goal is to use business events spur economic development, encourage inward investment and create knowledge and service economy jobs. Hence a key aspect will be the development of ideas for best practices to attract leading edge business events and meetings.
Sally Chatterjee, CEO of Visit London, said “The timing of the Future Convention Cities Initiative is perfect for us. We expect intense global competition over the next 5-10 years to host the conventions for the leading growth industries. The Future Convention Cities Initiative will help Visit London and our fellow members to ensure we are positioned as thought leaders. The Initiative will help shape our future thinking about how destinations must evolve to serve tomorrow’s customers and how we can maximize the long-term economic contribution of the events sector.”
Jon Hutchison, CEO of Business Events Sydney, said “Our research already shows that business events can have a far bigger and longer term impact for the economy than just the direct revenues of the event itself. The Future Convention Cities Initiative enables us to take our thinking to the next level by pooling our research resources, sharing knowledge and experience and working with our global colleagues to tackle emerging strategic issues. We have deliberately not tried to hammer out every detail because we want the Initiative to be shaped and owned by all of the members – not just the founders.”
Rohit Talwar, CEO of Fast Future Research, said “We were delighted to be asked to be the research partners and to run the Future Convention Cities Initiative on behalf of its members. The founding members have identified a very exciting program of topics they want to explore together and this will grow as new members come on board.”
The Future Convention Cities Initiative will be talking to potential members at key forthcoming industry events including the DMAI Convention, MPI World Education Congress and the ASAE Convention. For further details, interested cities should contact either Rohit Talwar or one of the founding members.