IMEX America 2024 wrapped up with record attendance, reflecting a strong growth trajectory and an air of confidence across the business events industry. The show which took place October 8–10 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, welcomed over 15,500 participants including an excess of 5,500 buyers, of which 4,300 were hosted buyers. Buyers took part in over 86,000 pre-scheduled meetings in three days, the majority of which were one-to-ones with exhibitors.
The 13th edition of the show was reflective of a buoyant meetings and events sector with strong business pipelines evident in the meetings, connections and conversations across the busy show floor and at hundreds of fringe events.
The incentive travel industry was among the sectors reporting growth; Virgin Atlantic shared a renewed focus on incentive travel with a new role created to meet demand in that sector. Elsewhere, Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) launched the latest edition of its “Incentive Travel Index,” revealing the industry is expected to grow even further over the next two years: by 2026, 45 percent of buyers expect incentive travel activity to be above, or significantly above, 2024 levels.
The strong appetite for personal and professional development was clear from the record attendance at the education program: over 1,600 people attended learning sessions held at the show floor’s Inspiration Hub. Event specialist Holly Ransom shared her pragmatic take on leadership, moderating a series of sessions as part of a new Emergent Leadership Day. In the Ideas theater next door, the #Eventprofs Unplugged format continued to impress with standing room only at several of the informal, chat show-style panels.
A highly talked about new addition to the show was the boutique Brand Experience Summit held at Allegiant Stadium. Created in partnership with InVision, LVCVA and Allegiant Stadium Private Events, the summit convened senior level marketers to understand how they can better use events as a key marketing channel to drive brand loyalty, trust, engagement and business outcomes.
“Trust” was very much the watchword of the show with many citing it as the bedrock of their face-to-face connections: Gina Henrickson from Hyatt Hotels, whose wellness activations were designed to help booth attendees be more intentional with their health, explained: “Our approach is to bring people together with a deeper sense of trust, connection and well-being.”
IMEX America 2025 is scheduled to place October 7–9 with Smart Monday taking place October 6.
For more information, visit www.imexamerica.com.
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