Convention Center Partnerships to Build for Better Business Events

Convention center partnerships are vital to maximizing the impact of a destination’s primary space for meetings and conferences. Having a dynamic convention center is good, but ensuring that it is properly connected to the right entities on both a global and local level is even better. These spaces are the hubs of events and inescapable experiences for any attendees visiting for a conference or convention, but their impact can go far beyond its list of scheduled events.

As the beating heart of any events industry, convention centers help pump life into destinations, so it’s vital to check that your destination is linked up in a way that ensures efficient access to them. With the right global and local convention center partnerships, these meeting spaces can help amplify global reach, enhance a destination’s appeal, and innovate to the benefit of the entire destination.

1. Amplify Global Reach

Convention centers can draw meeting planners and attendees from all over the world. Strategic partnerships will help make sure a convention center and its destination both benefit from increased attention.

On a global level, partnerships with government bodies, tourism boards and associations provide access to international networks, allowing the convention center to be promoted on a broader scale. By showcasing state-of-the-art facilities, cutting-edge technology and top-tier sustainability measures, convention centers can capture the attention of influential event organizers from around the world with the help of these entities.

On a local level, working with local businesses and boutique hotels, for example, will allow smaller partners in your destination to get in front of meeting planners from around the world. By elevating smaller businesses on a global stage, convention centers can help spread prosperity to the wider community, contributing to local communities in concrete ways.

2. Enhance Destination Appeal

Convention centers can leverage their partnerships to create a wider appeal for the destination beyond meeting planners and attendees. Relationships can further the needs of business travel while also trickling down to leisure travel.

On a global level, convention centers can leverage partnerships with tourism boards, governmental entities and even airlines to generate wider destination appeal. For instance, by lobbying for better infrastructure or increased airlift to a destination, convention centers create more appeal for meeting planners, but also for leisure visitors who can take advantage of improvements spearheaded by the meeting industry. If a destination is more convenient for business travelers, it’s also more convenient for leisure travelers.

On a local level, working with local businesses creates a more vibrant and compelling destination experience for event attendees. By leveraging unique offerings and attractions, destinations can craft immersive itineraries and provide unique services that entice international delegates to extend their stay, explore the local community, and contribute to the economic growth of the region that will serve to entice future leisure travelers.

3. Innovate for Meeting Planners

Convention centers are part of an ever-evolving industry – as the past few years have shown us – and need to create partnerships to feed the innovation and new thinking for tomorrow’s events. They don’t, however, need to innovate all on their own.

On a global level, convention centers can initiate collaborative projects aimed at driving innovation. Joint initiatives with national business incubators or global tech companies lead to the development of sustainable event practices, the implementation of cutting-edge technology solutions, or the creation of specialized event formats that appeal to emerging sectors, thus positioning the convention center as a thought leader and trendsetter.

On a local level, this means setting an example for other businesses and helping create a model for boutique hotels and experience providers who can cater to both business and leisure travelers. It may also mean bringing local business aboard on larger projects and granting them access to innovation services they can’t access themselves. Working in tandem with local businesses on innovative solutions ultimately supports the community and uplifts the entire destination.

Curious about how to enhance your convention center partnerships to create more appeal on a global level while lifting up your local community? DCI has more than 60 years of experience of helping destinations do just that – and more. Get in touch with [email protected] to learn how our business events division can innovate your approach.