Lessons from advising destinations, conference venues and places for meaningful encounters

I admit that I am still not sure whether becoming self-employed at a time when almost everything seems to be changing was particularly wise. It is a period of transformation, rethinking and questions about what growth does to us as people. Still, I have always looked ahead, fortune favours the brave, and this work gives me pleasure every day.

That is partly because I now work with destinations, towns, regions and conference venues in the middle of these changes. Budgets are shrinking, municipalities are in debt and healthy cash flow is once again the benchmark. This is where the work becomes interesting. It is an opportunity to strip away unnecessary baggage and concentrate on what matters: clear priorities, efficient processes and genuine leadership.

Against this background, I have drawn together four lessons from my consulting work. They are neither exhaustive nor definitive, but they are grounded in experience, optimism and a clear view of what destinations, conference venues and places for meaningful encounters need today.

Back to basics: the underestimated foundation

Creating capacity for something new starts with strengthening the foundations. In business meetings, this means paying renewed attention to existing clients.

It is not about agreeing to every request for a discount. It is about embedding events in a place through their content and culture. That creates loyalty, and loyalty helps prevent valuable events from moving elsewhere — something that happens faster than expected.

This requires an accurate, well-maintained client database containing useful information: needs, reasons for declining, feedback, clients’ strategic direction and more. Too often, this knowledge sits with individuals. When they leave, the knowledge goes with them.

As Gary Vaynerchuk might say: ‘Get into the dirt!’ Long-term success is determined there: in conversation, listening and daily follow-through, rather than in a marketing slogan, at a trade fair or in a strategy document.

A place’s distinctive value lies in its themes, not its building

There are countless jazz festivals. The Montreux Jazz Festival’s worldwide reputation has little to do with infrastructure and much to do with its late founder, Claude Nobs: his outlook, hospitality and artistic understanding. These are the reasons international stars came, and continue to come, to Lake Geneva. People travel for meaning, not concrete.

New infrastructure, however expensive, achieves little without a clear thematic and cultural identity. Every town, destination and region has distinctive strengths or people. They are found in science, culture and business, among people who want to contribute, rather than in a brand manual. That is where identity and relevance emerge, and where meetings, congresses and conferences create real value.

It should therefore be in the interest of every destination management organisation, convention bureau and economic development agency to work together around the clusters that give a location its profile and create genuine value. This needs shared commitment within existing structures rather than an additional budget. The aim is to make better use of the existing resources, rather than create another small, separate pot.

Better decisions begin with genuine understanding

Problems cannot be solved without first being understood. Genuine understanding develops through dialogue, exchange beyond familiar circles, openness to different perspectives and the joint examination of data and facts. This creates the options needed for better decisions. Better decisions, in turn, lead to better action.

Simply cutting costs is not a solution. The deeper questions are why recruiting staff has become difficult, why product quality is declining, why customer behaviour is changing and why an offering no longer fits its market. The task is to make the product relevant to the market rather than force it through regardless. This is more demanding and requires new roles and flexible structures. It is nevertheless the necessary path.

What matters is who takes responsibility

Many decision-makers know where they want to go. Broadly, we share the ambition of prosperous, sustainable development that future generations can build on. How to get there is often clear, or can be established by returning to the previous three points. Ultimately, what matters is who takes responsibility.

Who maintains the connections between economic development agencies, business, research, destination organisations, convention bureaux and regional government? Who welcomes guests and ensures the atmosphere, technology and delivery work? Who answers enquiries, advises, supports, solves problems and thinks ahead? Who takes responsibility? A building can be replaced. Human relationships cannot. Ultimately, everything in this industry rests on relationships.

An industry with an exceptional future

We have the privilege of working in an industry with extraordinary prospects. Human connection, empathy and hospitality can make a tangible contribution and bring people together again.

Economist Andrew J. Scott expressed the point in a McKinsey analysis of AI and the future of human work: ‘As machines get better at being machines, humans have to get better at being more human.’

Comments, calls and, ideally, a shared project are always welcome. I am ready.