Members of the International Association of Event Hosts (IAEH) met for first time in North America on October 4^th at the Contemporary Art Museum of Montreal at La Place des Arts, the largest cultural and artistic complex in the city.  The meeting was facilitated by the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance and chaired by its CEO and IAEH director Rick Traer.

IAEH members met to receive an update on the formal constitution of the organisation and to discuss effective ways of sharing event hosting expertise.  This included identifying steps towards establishing an international standard approach for measuring impacts of hosting major events.

The meeting was held in conjunction with the 2017 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium and a special edition of the Smart Cities & Sport Summit. The Summit is promoted biennially by World Union of Olympic Cities in Lausanne, Switzerland and attended by federations, cities and a variety of other organisations in the events industry.

Tourisme Montréal, who was a partner in hosting both the FIG World Championships and the Smart Cities & Sport Summit, is also an IAEH member and actively supported IAEH activities in Canada.

 

Formal establishment and potential new partnerships

IAEH meeting participants were provided with an update on the formal establishment of IAEH as a not-for-profit Company Limited by Guarantee. This implements the governance structure approved at the Annual Forum meeting in April but, following a review by the Steering Group, involves registration with Companies House in England and Wales, rather than with the Charity Commission.

At the meeting, members discussed a potential partnership with Host City magazine to author a report on best practices in hosting major events. The partnership would involve researching IAEH members to determine how they set objectives for outcomes from events hosted in their cities.

The meeting also included a presentation by Mike Laflin, CEO of SportCal, who was invited to present the GSI Project, designed to develop an international methodology to measure various impacts related to hosting major events.  At the IAEH Annual Forum in April, members identified “measuring social and economic benefits” as a priority for knowledge sharing.

The topic of measuring economic impacts also led to an interesting discussion around a number of tools cities are currently using, the various sources of funding for major events in different regions, with members sharing examples from the UK, the US and Canada.

 

IAEH members and guests in attendance

Andréanne Paquet – Tourisme Montréal

David Simon – LA Sports Council

Denis Paquet – Independent Consultant, International Sports Affairs Expert

Eric Savard – Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance

Georg Spazier – Innsbruck-Tirol Sports

Janelle Janis – Edmonton Events

Jeff Daniels – Calgary Sport Tourism Authority

Lars Lundov – Sport Event Denmark

Lars Christensen – Wonderful Copenhagen

Lindsay Harrison – Edmonton Events

Mike Laflin – SportCal

Olga Correia – IAEH

Rick Traer – Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance

Ronna Brener – City of Edmonton

Serena Lusk – City of Richmond

Simon Cooper – Greater London Authority

 

Next meeting

The next IAEH meeting will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 29^th in conjunction with the Host City Conference.