Opportunities to meet and engage with the Business Events Industry

Industry leaders, Business Events Planners and buyers from association conferences, conference ambassadors, incentive experiences to team building suppliers, are collaborating to develop their relationships, share best practice, develop thought leadership and intellectual capital discussions in order to invite business events to a destination. People meet to make world decisions.

Understanding trends, sharing best practice and education learning is therefore critical to all industry suppliers with a business events offer who can benefit from working with the Business Events Market. From experiences to dining, venues to accommodation, everyone has a part to play to share best practice and collaborate with each other to win sustainable business for Wales.

Meet In Wales, as part of Event Wales, attend many workshops, meetings, and conferences with industry leaders, nationally and internationally, to discuss market trends, develop skills, and keep up to date in positioning Wales as a viable business events destination. This is then shared with interested Wales industry suppliers, sharing best practice and developing their understanding to be proactive and remain competitive in market.

The Business Events market works with a wide range of products and destinations, so there’s plenty of opportunities to meet and do business with them. Before you do so, it’s best to identify what you want to get out of the market and those you'd like to potentially develop business with.

The Business Events market is about growing qualitive relationships with those who will suit your business. As the market is not usually familiar with a region or a destination, buyers will look to you as the experts and want to be assured that you can coordinate and refer other products within your region who can help them to understand how they could make their event a memorable one with positive impressions of the destination for their event as well as for further business or leisure visits.

Collaborating with other industry products in your region , throughout Wales and even across the border to England, is therefore key for all industry suppliers. Identify at an early stage who can add value and compliment your product offer, and either are already proactive or want to be more proactive in this market. This will give you a better opportunity to present a more inclusive offer and strengthen the opportunity to convert business to your region and into Wales in this fiercely competitive market.

For example if you are a venue with a capacity for 100 delegates without accommodation in a rural area of Wales , influencing the buyer to choose your product for a 2 day and overnight event, when they have never been to Wales, will only be productive if you can also suggest relevant additions such as how to get to your venue , accommodation options nearby, dining options locally and out of conference experiences they could also do in the immediate area, and be assured that any referrals will be handled effectively.

Another example could be a buyer looking to book a three-day incentive visit to Wales wanting to do at least 6 high end experiences, dine at 2 exclusive restaurants and stay in 4-5 star boutique accommodation. As an activity or attraction would you be able to identify the products that could collaborate and not compete and could produce a memorable itinerary by working together? You would need to get the buy in from each participating product in the itinerary and be assured that your suggestions were followed up effectively by the suggested partners. 

It is important to remember if you are unable to take the business opportunity at the time it is required then pass the business on to another suitable Wales product who could potentially accommodate the business. Every business event is a benefit to the visitor economy, to tourism and hospitality suppliers in Wales, and another more suited business opportunity could be referred to you by that Wales supplier in the future

This is not a market where business decisions happen overnight, therefore developing a long term business plan with commitment from decision makers in your business offer for the B2B markets is critical . International buyers and planners including outbound DMCs (Destination Management Companies) and PCO’s (Professional Conference Organisers) could be planning events anywhere from 12 months up to 6 years in advance depending on the event.

Meet In Wales generally attends the following events and there are opportunities to partner with us. There are also wider opportunities listed below the events to get involved to develop your business offer through memberships, workshops, peer to peer learning and relationship building plus sharing of best practice. If you are interested in attending any of the ones listed, please email meetinwales@gov.wales to discuss your offer or for further information click on the links below.

Buyers at these events range from team building and incentive planners to corporate and association organisers and event planners for both large and small-scale events. Association events can be anything from 150 to 2000 delegates. The average size of an association event is circa 350 delegates.

IMEX Frankfurt is the largest trade show in Europe for the meetings and events industry. Bringing together global event planners and buyers with significant buying power.

The Meetings Show at ExCel London is the UK’s leading exhibition for the meetings, events, conference and incentives industry, delivering the largest hosted buyer programme of any industry event in the UK.

IMEX America in Las Vegas provides the opportunity to meet over 4,000 Business Event decision makers from high level incentives to large association conventions with real buying power in one of the biggest markets in the world.

IBTM World in Barcelona is a leading global event for the meetings, incentives, conferences and events industry. Bringing together the global meetings industry, build face to face connections with the right people, gain key industry insight and, engage in influential networking opportunities.

M&I Forums is a mix of 1-2-1 meetings with the highest quality buyers & suppliers, immersive destination experiences, and scintillating evening socials that maximise ROI & spark real, human-to-human connection.

VisitBritain is the National tourism agency for Britain. VisitBritain sells Britain internationally as well as England. Each month we share news stories from Wales industry suppliers who send us information through our productnews@gov.wales mailbox, which are then sent by Visit Britain to their international offices and teams to help promote the UK. 

In addition to attracting international business to the UK, VisitBritain offers a Business Events Growth Programme. The Business Events Growth Programme forms part of UK Government’s commitment to growing the business events sector across Britain. Through this fund, VisitBritain supports organisations in hosting international business events, whether you would like to win international events or to develop, grow and internationalise your events, the Business Events Growth Programme can help.

Meetings Industry Association (mia) is a membership organisation that promotes venues and destinations in the business events market. mia is the principal association supporting and growing the business meetings and events industry in the UK. It is the keeper of AIM Secure, the UK’s only recognised quality standard for the meetings industry. mia supports members through thought leadership, research, education, training, best practice guidance, and aims to promote sustainability, DEI and wellness through best practice tools and insights. mia offers a series of free and paid for education sessions, peer to peer groups, annual awards and excellence programme for its members and also free events for non-members who are in the industry. It collates and collects timely research, detail and feeds into UK Government. There is a Destination peer to peer group that meets quarterly and focuses on destination challenges for the industry. There is also an annual Destination Summit that takes place in different parts of the UK each year and has previously been held in North Wales, which offers education, collaboration and best practice workshops for event industry suppliers across the UK.

ICCA UK & Ireland chapter is the collective membership representing the UK and Ireland. It runs an annual programme of meetings culminating in an annual Chapter conference that is held annually in different parts of the UK and Ireland and enables members of the events industry to collaborate, share best practice, discuss areas of concern and develop skills in attracting Business Events . The efforts of these chapters is fed into the wider ICCA organisation.

ICCA is the global community and knowledge hub for the international association and governmental meetings industry. ICCA specialises in the international association meetings sector, offering unrivalled data, education, communication channels, as well as business development and networking opportunities. ICCA is one of the most prominent organisations in – and advocates for the world of international meetings. The ICCA Association Community offers associations across the world education, connections, tools and resources to help them organise more effective and successful meetings whilst offering members the ability to identify through their database key association conferences and congresses available for venues and regions to bid to host.

ABPCO is the Association of British Professional Conference Organisers (ABPCO) - the UK’s leading Professional body for Association Conference & Not-for-profit Event Organisation. Dedicated to empowering and supporting members in delivering exceptional conferences that leave a lasting impact. With a legacy of excellence spanning years, it brings together a vibrant community of industry professionals who are passionate about creating transformative conference experiences. 

UKEVENTS (formerly BVEP) is the recognised and collective voice of the UK’s world leading events industry which represents every part of the events sector across the UK and champions the economic, societal, and transformational value of events to help create a strong, growing and sustainable events industry in the UK for meetings, conferences, exhibitions, trade shows, incentive travel, event hospitality, ceremonies, sporting, cultural, outdoor and festivals, events education and training, as well as other services provided by the wider supply chain. 

Great Ambassador Network Group (GANG) is a collective of Destinations and CVBs who run Ambassador Programmes. It runs an annual event to collaborate, network, share insights and ideas on running Ambassador Programmes, recruiting and retaining Ambassadors, bidding, winning and running events with Conference Ambassadors and aims to bring Academics, Universities and Destination together to share best practice.

Destination International is a professional organisation representing destination organisations and convention and visitor bureaus worldwide. The Destinations International Pathfinders work with the Destinations International (US) team to bring key trends in European destinations to light and understand how leaders in the industry are stepping up to address challenges and opportunities. The Pathfinders work with Destinations International (US) to develop a framework to elevate the collective voice of destination organisations in Europe, and better communicate the impact of the work in different communities.

PCMA EMEA represents event planners and suppliers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Convening EMEA is PCMA EMEA’s annual flagship event bringing together the global business events industry for an immersive 3-day programme in Europe. The event attracts 500+ business event leaders from over 40 countries to challenge each other and develop ways to move forward together. It is the platform to share knowledge, make meaningful connections, learn, do business, be inspired and to grow as an individuals, teams and organisations