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PCMA Sharpens Its Annual-Event Branding With New Name

The Professional Convention Management Association, one of the largest member organizations in the business-events industry, announced in mid-March that its annual summer conference, formerly known as PCMA edUcon, is now the PCMA Business Events Summit.

With about 850 attendees, the late-June event—to be held this year at El Conquistador Resort in Fajardo, Puerto Rico—is notably smaller than the roughly 4,200-person Convening Leaders conference that PCMA holds each January, which features keynote speakers from outside the industry and a large exhibit hall. 

In contrast, the Business Events Summit is a workshop-style event focused on interactive, small-group learning for practical skill building. It will have some sponsored activations but no exhibits.

According to the event’s website, “What’s new this year is who can be in the room: Business Events Summit 2026 is now open exclusively to PCMA members, creating a more focused environment for peer exchange. … [It’s] an immersive, skills-based summit for business-event professionals to sharpen their expertise, solve real-world challenges, and elevate their impact. The Summit has been reimagined as a pinnacle learning environment with longer sessions, hands-on application, and peer-driven problem solving.”

Meghan Risch, chief of staff & vice president, corporate communications for PCMA, elaborated further to Meetings Today: “As part of PCMA’s new brand, edUcon evolved into the Business Events Summit to more clearly reflect what today’s leaders need from education: depth, rigor, and real-world application. We wanted the Summit to reflect the decision-makers, experience designers and influencers in business events, under a name that speaks directly to the work they do.”

The event’s website can be found here: https://businesseventssummit.org/ 
 

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About the author
Rob Carey | Content Manager, Features & News

Rob Carey serves as content manager, news and features for Meetings Today, where he leads coverage of the latest trends, happenings, data and insights related to corporate meetings and incentives as well as association conventions and exhibitions.

 

Carey has been covering the business-events industry since 1992, when he was hired as an intern at Successful Meetings magazine in New York while still a student at Columbia University. During his 15 years at SM’s parent company Nielsen, Carey moved steadily through the ranks to become editorial director for Successful Meetings, Meeting News and the Meeting World conference and exhibition. SM and MN won several FOLIO: Eddie Awards for editorial coverage during his tenure.  

 

Carey then spent 11 years as principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight, covering not just the MICE market for various industry publications but also writing about business disciplines such as hotel management, golf-facility management, small-business operations, middle-market leadership and others. For several years he wrote the annual trends white paper for the International Association of Conference Centers.  

 

In 2018, Carey became a senior content producer for MeetingsNet, an Informa media brand, and a panel moderator for Informa’s Pharma Forum annual event. 

 

Come September 2025, he moved to Meetings Today.  

 

A native of New York  Carey now resides in the Phoenix/Scottsdale metro area with his wife Kelley and their dog Ziggy.