What I Learned About Events from IMEX America

I’ve spent the early part of this week at the ​IMEX America Trade Show​ here in Vegas, which is the largest trade show for the business events industry. Nearly every destination, hotel and venue are all pitching themselves to event planners in the hopes of attracting more live events in the coming year and beyond. As I spoke with attendees and attended sessions, I got a new appreciation for what event planners go through when organizing events often more than a year before speakers like me ever show up.

Everyone at IMEX believes in the power of in-person gatherings. In most companies, the budget to run an event needs to be a priority amongst the many other things that money could be allocated for. In this sense, everyone is cooperating together to convince the business world to spend more on events.

You have alignment throughout IMEX on destinations. The team from Austin would rather you book your event there and not anywhere else. Within those cities, there are different hotels and venues that want to stand out as the best option for their market. Then you have the chain hotels – where Hilton would rather you book an event at any one of their properties (regardless of destination) than to take your business to another hotel group.

The point is, you could experience IMEX and choose to see an “us vs. them” environment where someone wins only at the expense of someone else. But then there are the attendees. I was part of some wonderful gatherings of event planners who support one another in groups like ​Club Ichi​. I sat in on a session led by my friend ​Andrea Driessen​ all about sending people messages that matter and connecting more deeply.

IMEX may feel like a cutthroat place where destinations go head to head for dollars, but it’s also a place where you find support, bonding and real human conversations … which isn’t really a surprise when you consider the humans attending are the ones who have dedicated their careers to creating these sorts of spaces for the rest of us.