Santa Barbara was selected as the host destination for Visit California’s Pan-China California Advisory Board (CAB) meeting. This prestigious group represents the executive leadership of China’s top tour operators, travel agencies and airlines, including dominant brands like Tuniu, C-trip and United Airlines. Every other year, Visit California brings this CAB group to the Golden State for a VIP familiarization tour in addition to the annual business meeting to discuss strategies, market insights and other timely topics impacting tourism business between California and China.

Approximately 1,400 attendees from over 70 countries convened in Rapid City, S.D., at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center May 20-25 for the 2017 World Finals of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) sponsored by IBM.

InterActivity 2018 (Association of Children’s Museums Annual Conference) took place in Raleigh May 15-18. The theme of the conference was “Open Source Play... Sharing the Creative Code.” The staff at our local Marbles Kids Museum were the local organizing committee for this event, and they worked with the Association of Children’s Museums to give attendees a genuine Raleigh experience.

Vicki Carstens is executive director with Iowa Student Councils.

There is not a better example of an event that has embraced the Quad Cities community than the Region 5 Student Council Leadership Summit hosted by the Iowa Association of Student Councils. This summit brings the leadership of state student councils (students and advisors) together for education, best-practice sharing and networking. The Iowa Association of Student Councils, under the leadership of Vicki Carstens, has hosted this summit in the Quad Cities for the past three years. The event has been such a success that other regions have asked to be invited to this summit.

The Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB in Florida’s Paradise Coast hosted the Florida Attractions Association annual meeting in Naples at the Naples Grande Beach Resort June 10-13, 2018. The opportunity to stay at a top Naples-area beach resort, experience the city’s happening culinary scene through a downtown Naples Fifth Avenue South dine-around and explore Naples Zoo including special animal encounters during the final night dinner event were lures that resulted in this being the largest-attended annual conference ever for Florida Attractions Association.

In March 2018, Visit Mississippi Gulf Coast had the honor of hosting the Travel South USA Domestic Showcase. Travel South is America’s oldest and largest regional travel promotion organization, formed in 1965. The long-standing regional collaboration of the state tourism offices of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia provides a foundation to positively position tourism as a vital and dynamic element in the region’s economic development.

For its convention, Vision ’17, fashion company LuLaRoe tapped Anaheim to inspire and delight the imagination of its more than 20,000 attendees. LuLaRoe, which is particularly popular with GenX and Millennial moms, is sold via authorized consultants in members-only Facebook groups. Its annual meeting provides a unique opportunity for attendees to interact and network offline.

The iconic allure of Whistler, British Columbia, during the winter is obvious as guests take the breathtakingly beautiful drive along the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver International Airport. Though comfortable enough to fall asleep, luxury transportation vehicles allow guests to absorb the site of year-round ocean views that fade effortlessly into snow capped mountains surrounding a Winter Wonderland.

IMPACT Sustainability Travel & Tourism was Canada’s inaugural conference on innovation and sustainability in tourism. The goal of the conference is to annually convene the Canadian tourism industry and its stakeholders, focusing on economic, environmental, social and cultural sustainability, and ultimately working towards creating a positive legacy for tourism in Canada. Presented in partnership with Synergy Enterprises, Beattie Tartan Integrated Communications, Starrboard Enterprises and Tourism Victoria, Victoria welcomed 170 attendees from 10 provinces and territories.