of the year CEIR Predict Conference brought together forward-thinking executives to deliver critical insights on global trends, AI innovation and strategic planning. The event featured leading AI innovators, economists, business intelligence specialists and policy analysts who collaborated with industry experts to provide a comprehensive view of the future of the exhibition industry.

Economic and geopolitical insights

Adam Sacks, Chair of Tourism Economics at the Oxford Economics Company, delivered a compelling analysis of the CEIR index and its implications for different market sectors. His presentation outlined how the exhibition industry could leverage CEIR data for strategic decision-making, while providing valuable insights into current economic conditions and their impact on exhibitions.

“Up to 75% recovery in 2022, 89% in 2023, and in the first half of this year we’ve taken out another couple of percentage points, about 91% recovery,” Sacks pointed out. “Again, the value proposition of the exhibition industry, to come together for business and to trade, face-to-face is as completely indispensable as it has ever been.”

Dane Chamorro, Partner at Control Risks and Head of Global Risk Analysis and Business Intelligence for the Americas, offered an in-depth examination of the complex risks facing American businesses. His session explored how political tensions, economic uncertainties and technological disruptions affected the exhibition industry, focusing on supply chain challenges, regulatory changes and market volatility.

“The pandemic didn’t really create new trends, but it accelerated trends that were already happening,” Chamorro said. “It’s not revolution, it’s not that fast and it’s not evolution, it’s not that slow – it’s somewhere in between. And from a business perspective, that means you have all these things at once.”

Risk assessment and future planning

Matt Carmichael, senior vice president at Ipsos Global Trends & Foresight and editor of What the Future, presented a comprehensive framework for understanding and preparing for industry risks. His session equipped attendees with practical tools and methods used by futurists to create planning scenarios and assess potential risks, while addressing the importance of brand image and reputation management.

“You have to know your audience,” Carmichael explained. “How you talk about research with an innovation team is different than how you talk about it with a creative team or a marketing team. It’s different than how you talk about it with your “C-suite”. These people all have different things they care about and need a slightly different story. The baseline may be similar, but it’s important to know how you swing it to really connect with the people you’re trying to get your research in front of and you have to do that work.”

AI Innovation and Implementation

The conference featured two key sessions on artificial intelligence. Noelle Russell, founder and chief AI officer of the AI ​​Leadership Institute, showcased how AI is changing the exhibition and events industry. Her presentation highlighted more than a dozen AI models that can improve business operations and drive growth, while addressing ethical considerations and emphasizing AI’s role in supporting human creativity.

Russell emphasized that “A model doesn’t know the truth. It doesn’t know humanity. It only knows how to create a good response that you’ll look at and say, ‘Well, that’s pretty good,’ but it doesn’t know if it’s true – you know it’s true. It’s called reinforcement learning with human feedback. But it means that you – meaning you specifically and the teams that work for you – are critical to the process. ”

Sean Watson, Futurist and Senior Vice President of Special Projects at Trend Hunter, provided a detailed analysis of the ongoing AI revolution. His keynote explored real-world AI applications and their impact across sectors, providing attendees with practical insights on leveraging technology to maintain competitiveness in the digital age.

“AI’s development is outpacing historical technology, demonstrating enormous transformative potential across sectors,” noted Watson. “Today, 59% of CEOs are investing in digital/automated workflows as their #1 strategy. 51% are now investing in AI, well ahead of robotics (which was the emerging technology). Almost all CEOs and decision makers (97%) say that they believe AI will play a big role in their future business.”

Political landscape and electoral influence

Chris Jackson, Senior Vice President of US Public Affairs and Public Polling at Ipsos, delivered a current analysis of the global political landscape, with particular emphasis on the upcoming US presidential election. His presentation included detailed predictions for various election outcomes and their potential impact on the trade show industry, providing organizers with valuable insights for strategic planning.

In his detailed Ipsos research on consumer sentiment, Jackson noted, “Americans are increasingly looking to the public sector to solve problems. Most Americans don’t use their values ​​to decide who to do business with, but there is a clear difference based on income or education level where the more educated/wealthy people are, the more likely they are to have value driven consumer behavior This matters when it comes to who you talk to and what you try to put on you.”

He continued, “You’re going to start getting these pressures to do things that might be outside of your core missions because people look to the private sector to solve problems. But when we ask people if they want to see brands that explicitly engage in political behavior , most Americans say ‘no.’ So this is that delicate balance you have to fight where you’re pressured to take a stand and do things about problems in society, but you can’t be too political.”

The conference ended with a thought-provoking keynote from Dr. Sam Potolicchio, President of the Preparing Global Leaders Forum and Founding Executive Director of the Center for Global Leadership at the American Councils. His presentation covered a wide range of global issues, from political and social development to environmental challenges. He also reviewed his forecasts from the previous year and analyzed which forecasts had panned out and which had taken unexpected turns.

“Expressing probabilities does two things,” commented Potolicchio. “Number one, you have the intellectual humility there, but then number two, you keep looking up and updating your probabilities by trying to get more information or more data. And this is one of the reasons why I think CEIR (Predict) is such an effective event – ​​to give you this hard data, this empirical evidence and make this annual pilgrimage to update your models and think about where things are going.”

Save the date

CEIR’s 2024 Predict Conference provided attendees with breakthrough insights and strategic perspectives to help them navigate the rapidly changing business landscape. The event demonstrated the exhibition industry’s commitment to embrace innovation, understand global trends and prepare for future challenges and opportunities.

Predict Conference 2025 will take place September 11-12 at MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. Stay tuned for more information here.

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