分析：会展目的地如何凭借产业与研究集群优势竞争

The Dolly Parton-themed Songteller Hotel opened in June in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo courtesy Songteller Hotel.

Santa Rita do Sapucaí is a town of 40,000 in the mountains of Brazil, approximately 135 miles northeast of Sao Paulo. It’s also where the first institution in Brazil to offer a degree in electronic engineering, the Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações (Inatel), was founded in the 1960s. After Inatel graduates and entrepreneurs began establishing startups in Santa Rita do Sapucai in the 1980s, the town grew into a regional electronics hub known as “Electronics Valley,” boasting hundreds of tech companies and thousands of tech jobs.

Ten years ago, Santa Rita do Sapucaí became the host destination for HackTown, a tech and creativity festival that has grown to 30,000 attendees. During HackTown, the entire town becomes a participant — the Institute’s campus, town squares, local bars and restaurants, schools, and private homes host the event’s hundreds of panels and activities. In Santa Rita do Sapucaí, “the institute created the cluster,” according to the PCMA 2026 Outlook Report. “And the cluster created the event.”

HackTown’s success sets it apart, but it also illustrates how destinations can win meetings by leaning on their strengths, including research clusters, industries, and other institutions, rather than just selling their cities on space. With more than half of corporate planners reporting that they plan to respond to budget cuts by planning more focused and more strategic events, destinations of all sizes are successfully attracting meetings by tapping into their local resources, including industry and research subsectors. The trend is emerging in healthcare and life sciences, technology, and financial services events sectors, according to PCMA Insights reports.

The City as the Venue

“Revolutionary” was how Brazilian entrepreneur and HackTown speaker Caroline Sodré described HackTown’s use of an entire town as a backdrop in a testimonial on the event’s website. And it illustrates yet another trend: Events are increasingly spilling out beyond convention centers and hotel ballrooms in a destination’s bars, restaurants, coworking spaces, and walkable districts. High-profile examples include London Tech Week, attended by 30,000-plus participants in June, and the Singapore FinTech Festival, which is expected to draw 70,000 participants in November — but it works at a smaller scale as well. For example, Future Proof Citywide, an investment management conference held in 2025 in Miami Beach, Florida, and which drew 2,500 people over its four days, took over a four-block stretch of South Beach — including the beachfront — for content stages and street activations.

Meetings as a Talent Pipeline

The number of highly skilled professionals who moved internationally for work fell from 3.7 million in 2024 to 3.3 million in 2025 — a drop of 12 percent, reported the Boston Consulting Group. The steepest decline was 19 percent for those with highly specialized talent; STEM talent was at 13 percent and AI at 12 percent.

In the competition for top talent, international and regional association meetings operate as a “talent strategy,” according to ICCA Globewatch. “When talent cannot or will not move easily, meetings bring the world to your city instead,” ICCA Globewatch stated. “The professionals who walk through your doors for four days are the same people your city is trying to attract. The meeting is the audition for your destination as much as for them.”

Sources: BCG.com; ICCA Globewatch

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Top Destinations for Meetings and Events in 2027

North America
1. Orlando, Florida
2. Las Vegas, Nevada
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. New York City
5. Dallas, Texas

Latin America
1. Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. Mexico City
3. Sao Paulo, Brazil
4. Panama City
5. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Europe
1. Barcelona, Spain
2. London, U.K.
3. Madrid, Spain
4. Paris, France
5. Lisbon, Portugal

APAC
1. Singapore
2. Bangkok, Thailand
3. Tokyo, Japan
4. Seoul, South Korea
5. Sydney, Australia

Source: AMEX GBT Global 2027 Meetings and Events Forecast

Telling the Story

When DMOs were asked how they would rate the quality and quantity of information their teams had today to support an industry-cluster approach, nearly half (47 percent) rated themselves as strong, while 31 percent were average, 13 percent were very strong, and 9 percent were weak.

Source: PCMA 2026 Outlook Report

3 Hotel Trends for 2027

Meetings return, but in a new form: Group and meeting demand is rebounding but the format is changing. Hotels will redesign spaces for hybrid collaboration, flexible layouts, integrated production technology and wellness‑forward environments. Properties offering turnkey AV, AI‑enabled planning tools, and modular spaces will capture high‑margin corporate business.

Hotels become neighborhood hubs: Leisure now accounts for about 55 percent of U.S. lodging demand, and more trips blend work and play. Hotels that act as a “third place” with coworking, local makers, community programming, and cultural partnerships capturing bleisure guests and local spending.

Guest‑facing sustainability that reduces costs: Travelers increasingly choose hotels based on air quality, water purity, sleep environments, and verified carbon transparency. Measurable, certifiable sustainability is no longer a marketing angle; it’s a revenue and expense strategy.

— Robert Rauch, CHA, Chairman, Brick Hospitality

Source: “The Top 10 Hotel Trends for 2027,” costar.com

Barbara Palmer is Convene’s deputy editor