Are we really creating long-term impact, or have we simply started using the language of Legacy?
Sustainability has become part of the standard language of international meetings. It appears in proposals, venue discussions, procurement processes and post-event reports. And in many ways, this has genuinely changed how meetings are organised.
But we are also seeing another phenomenon: sometimes “sustainability” becomes little more than a good-looking word in a proposal, without fundamentally changing how a meeting is designed or delivered.
It is possible to see meetings discussing sustainability while still competing over elaborate on-site decoration or handing out branded gifts that are unlikely to be used again.
Now we sense that Legacy may be heading in the same direction.
Internationally, there is growing interest in the idea of meeting legacy — asking what an international meeting can leave behind beyond attendance figures and immediate economic impact.
Yet there are still relatively few examples where Legacy is genuinely built into the meeting strategy, budget, programme design, stakeholder engagement and post-event follow-up.
If Legacy only appears in the proposal, it is just a good-looking word.
So, what do we actually measure?
At the end of a meeting, we can usually answer a few questions very quickly:
How many people came?
How many countries were represented?
How many room nights were generated?
What was the economic impact?
These figures are important. They have long been the main indicators used by the international meetings industry.
A meeting might have 500 delegates from 25 countries, generate 1,500 room nights and offer a significant contribution to the local economy.
These numbers tell us how large the meeting was.
But they tell us very little about what the meeting actually did. What it achieved.
How many of those 500 people met someone who became a new collaborator?
Did a new research project or business relationship begin thanks to the meeting?
Did a young professional discover a new career possibility?
Did an international delegate return to the destination later because of a relationship or opportunity created during the meeting?
How many relationships continued to develop after everyone went home?
These things are harder to measure, so they have often remained outside the traditional meeting report.
And then everyone moves on to the next project, the next conference, the next set of deliverables.
The meeting is remembered through photographs, videos and attendance statistics.
But some of the most valuable things may happen after the meeting has ended.
From “Holding a Meeting” to “Using a Meeting”
We believe meeting Legacy deserves a closer look.
An international meeting is a rather unusual resource.
For a short period of time, people from different countries, sectors and professional backgrounds are brought into the same physical or virtual space.
They may be business leaders, government representatives, academics, NGOs, researchers, entrepreneurs or policymakers — people who might otherwise have little reason to meet.
So perhaps the question is not only: “How do we deliver a good meeting?”
But also: “How can we use this meeting?”
How can we use those few days to create encounters between people who would not meet on a daily basis?
How can international delegates connect with local businesses, knowledge communities and organisations?
How can an academic conference connect with a challenge the destination is currently facing?
How can a short visit become the beginning of a longer-term collaboration rather than simply another event in the calendar?
This does not mean that every meeting has to create a major social transformation.
It can start much smaller.
Denmark offers an interesting example. Since 2017, MeetDenmark has been exploring how international meetings can create value beyond traditional economic impact, testing different approaches through real conferences and events.
The Copenhagen Legacy Lab was established in 2019 and has further developed approaches for identifying Legacy opportunities by bringing meeting owners, destinations and local stakeholders together.
The approach is practical:
First, identify the people and organisations who genuinely matter to the meeting and the destination.
Then ask what they would like to see happen.
Create the right connections and activities.
And finally, follow up to see whether something continues to develop.
Experiment first, build the methodology over time.
Legacy is therefore not something to ask about at the end of a meeting: “So, what did we leave behind?”
It is something to consider before the meeting even begins: “What do we want to remain?”
Denmark is increasingly treating Legacy as part of meeting planning rather than an additional activity. The approach can begin with early-stage planning and goal setting, move into stakeholder engagement and connection-building, and continue through post-event measurement and follow-up.
This gives Legacy a place within the full meeting lifecycle, rather than treating it as something added at the end.
There is a lot in this that is important learning for those of us working in the meetings industry.
So, What Is the Role of the PCO?
For a start, it makes us reconsider the role of the Professional Congress Organiser (PCO) and meeting consultancy.
If a PCO’s role is limited to venue sourcing, registration, accommodation, catering, audiovisual production, staffing, photography and all the other operational elements, a meeting can certainly be delivered very well.
And increasingly, even much of the preparation can be supported by AI.
But Legacy does not naturally emerge from good logistics.
Legacy asks different questions:
Why should these people meet here?
Who should meet whom?
What should happen when they meet?
How can we help those relationships continue after the meeting?
These are strategic questions.
And if a PCO only enters the process at the execution stage, it becomes difficult to influence Legacy in any meaningful way.
But when a PCO or meeting consultant becomes involved earlier — during the strategy and Meeting Design phase — there is an opportunity to connect resources that might otherwise remain separate.
This is the direction we want to explore with our clients.
The conversation should not stop at what needs to be delivered.
We also want to ask how the investment in an international meeting can create value beyond those few days.
In other words: How can we help our clients think about how a meeting can be used?
You Don't Have to Start with a Major International Conference
This does not have to begin with a conference of several thousand people.
A meeting of 100 people can set a very clear Legacy objective.
For example:
Create meaningful connections between 10 international delegates and local industry.
Initiate two new research collaborations.
Give young professionals access for one hour to three international experts.
Or aim for one concrete collaboration to still be active six months after the meeting.
The objective does not need to be complicated.
Once the objective is clear, the Meeting Design can include one or two formats that effectively support it.
Then, after the meeting, someone needs to follow up.
That is already much closer to creating real Legacy than simply writing the word into a proposal.
Legacy brings us back to one of the most fundamental questions of any meeting:
Why is it worthwhile bringing these people together?
Once we know the answer, we can start asking who should be in the room, who they should meet, which conversations need to happen, which connections need to be designed, and what should continue after everyone leaves.
This is also where our thinking about meetings is changing.
We want meetings to be more than well-executed events.
We want them to become starting points for what happens next.
So, if you are planning an international conference or meeting, perhaps ask yourself one simple question:
When this meeting is over, what do we want to continue?
That might be a new relationship.
A collaboration.
A new idea.
A change in behaviour.
A connection between the international community and the local community.
Or simply the reason for someone to come back.
Let's make the meeting the beginning of something worth continuing.
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