05/14/2020

To Stay or To Go?

Brands weigh in on when to move a flagship conference

Here’s a million-dollar question: Is it time to move the location of your flagship conference?

It’s a topic on a lot of event marketers’ minds following Oracle’s decision to relocate its OpenWorld conference to Las Vegas this September, ending the show’s 20-year run in San Francisco. According to the brand, the move is a result of San Francisco’s exorbitant hotel prices and “poor street conditions” (read: homelessness and open drug use). The move’s economic impact on the city is estimated at $64 million.

The unprecedented news got us thinking—how do brands determine where to plant their conference flags? Should they relocate their flagship events on a rotating basis, or are hometown shows the way to go? And how do you weigh those decisions? Fortunately, we were able to pick the brains of an array of event marketers who make those kinds of calls. Here, we present their top insights.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from Event Marketer.