In January 2023, Experience Columbus, the destination marketing organization for the 14th largest city in the U.S., hosted PCMA Convening Leaders 2023, the flagship event of the world’s largest organization of business events strategists, also known as meeting planners. Hosting Convening Leaders provided Experience Columbus with the unparalleled opportunity to showcase the city as a premiere destination for meetings and conventions. The potential impact of an event such as this is tremendous as it can provide hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact over the course of the next decade as the meeting planners who attend go on to book future events in the host city. 

Capitalizing on the chance to showcase Columbus and boost its brand awareness to meeting planners from around the world, Experience Columbus created a robust collection of integrated marketing materials to increase interest in the city and subsequently drive event registration, ranging from volunteer materials to pre- and post-event

in nature. Pre-event marketing and messaging was themed “It’s a Vibe”, adapting from Experience Columbus' Live Forward branding. The Columbus host city branding and marketing during the event was developed through collaboration with PCMA's marketing team and an adaptation of their event branding. Experience Columbus’ efforts highlighted the city as a must-see, ideal location for meetings and conventions while PCMA focused on driving attendance to the event.

In order to achieve cohesive and impressive branding for the event, Experience Columbus’ design team was involved in every aspect of the project. The brand established for the event was incorporated into the project in every possible way, including the microsite created to drive attendance and increase interest in Columbus as a destination, email marketing campaigns, social media graphics, the volunteer manual, hotel door and desk branding, citywide streetlight banners and a temporarily renamed street (“PCMA Way”), welcome signs, large-scale airport and convention center graphics and even the sweatshirts and hats worn by volunteers.

• An attendance of 3,300 people, 1,335 of whom were business events strategists or meeting planners — the key industry audience targeted by Experience Columbus.

• The event generated $4.2 million in direct visitor spend, supporting Columbus’ local economy.

• The integrated marketing materials were consumed and utilized by 364 volunteers over 431 shifts.

• The interest generated by the integrated marketing materials inspired 102 participants to participate in tours of the city.

• The event generated 18 leads for Experience Columbus’ convention sales team within two months, representing $102 in economic impact. The team will now work to secure those events for Columbus for future years.

• The integrated marketing materials supported registration efforts, which ultimately achieved 8,766 room nights at 14 hotels.

• The event helped increase awareness of Columbus as a premiere meetings and conventions destinations with a total of 46 earned media mentions representing 23 million impressions.

• Word-of-mouth feedback from attendees was incredibly positive with people saying the event was, “beyond expectations” and “impressive.” One attendee shared, “You have the convention center, your hotel package, your restaurants, your bars, your entertainment areas just right down the street... to me it’s a nobrainer to come back to Columbus.”