The many aspects of the critical interactions between convention centres and their respective communities was explored in depth and with the benefit of global city expertise at the recent AIPC Annual Conference in Boston USA. The overall conclusion: that centre managers can and need to play a much more powerful role in the priorities and affairs of their cities in areas ranging from urban planning to branding and even economic policy setting.
“Centres play a huge and very visible role in both the functioning and profiling of their cities as well as in the broader issues of addressing both community and local government policy objectives” comments AIPC president Geoff Donaghy.
“However, they are not always as engaged as they might be in the larger policy and decision processes that must respond to the changes taking place in most destinations today. What we learned at this conference is that we can and should be much more engaged in these processes, and that in doing so we will not only be doing a better job of serving our respective communities but at the same time enhancing our own future business prospects as well.”
Renowned city expert Greg Clark, destination branding specialist Chris Fair and urbanisation academic Johannes Novy all addressed the various aspects of city development that are increasingly demanding a coordinated response from city administrations around the world. Included in these issues were areas such as the demands of economic evolution, the growing backlash against uncontrolled tourism and the need for a more integrated approach to developing and maintaining destination branding.
“While having distinctly different perspectives, all our key presenters ended up reinforcing the same core message, which was that centre managers have a critical role to play in influencing the direction that planning, policy-making and branding are taking in their respective destinations,” added Donaghy.
