From Pope Francis’s visit to the United States to Los Angeles taking over Boston’s bid for the Olympics, the event industry had a busy and historic year. For this story, we chose the biggest news stories about events in 2015. But the list isn’t merely nostalgia: many of them will reverberate into 2016 and beyond.
Paris Terrorist Attacks Have Global Aftermath
The series of terrorist attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 and injured hundreds of others targeted places where people gather: a soccer stadium, a concert hall, and a restaurant, among other locations. The attacks had numerous effects on the event industry, from conferences scheduled to take place in Paris that were cancelled, cut short, or postponed; to restricted business travel to France; to significant declines in tourists visiting top attractions such as the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. Authorities squashed plans for a protest march during a major climate summit in Paris, saying it would be too difficult to provide security. Venue security also came under scrutiny—the bloodshed at the Bataclan concert hall in particular showed the vulnerabilities of small venues—and at least one New York official suggested that theaters, catering halls, and other event spaces practice how they would respond to an attack. But the event industry also provided comfort by paying tribute to the French through lighting design. Across the globe, national monuments and iconic city symbols were recast in the colors of the French flag. The Sydney Opera House, the new One World Trade Center building in New York, and the CN Tower in Toronto all featured the blue, white, and red of the French Tricolor, providing moving symbols of solidarity.
Pope Francis Makes First Visit to U.S.
Drawing massive crowds of Catholics and the curious, Pope Francis made his first visit to the United States in September to attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. He added stops in Washington—where he met with President Obama, addressed Congress, and canonized Spanish missionary Junipero Serra—and in New York, where highlights included a procession through Central Park on the way to Mass at Madison Square Garden and a speech at the United Nations. For the event producers who coordinated aspects of the visit and the law enforcement agencies who handled security, it was a complicated endeavor made even more so by the pontiff’s penchant for going off script, like the multiple times he stopped his motorcade to bless children. Details of the visit captivated public attention, from the trivial (new pope-theme emoji) to the practical (the Fiat sedan he chose for his motorcade and a modified Jeep Wrangler that served as popemobile).
Boston Gives Up Olympics Bid; L.A. Takes Over
Less than eight months after the United States Olympic Committee chose Boston to bid for the 2024 Summer Games, leaders abandoned the effort after pressure from opponents who claimed the sporting event would be too costly. Boston tried to salvage its bid with a revised master plan with new budget numbers, but public sentiment had turned. It didn’t take long for Los Angeles to step in as the new bidder—leaders there had been prepping for such an opportunity—although crafting a realistic budget is a priority there as well. Boston’s change of heart reflects the growing concern about the price tag that host cities bear. Several cities have dropped their bids, pressuring the International Olympic Committee to pass reforms meant to lower the cost of bidding for and hosting the games.
Brands Celebrate Gay Marriage Ruling
Brands including Target, Starbucks, and Whole Foods celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage in June by incorporating rainbows in their logos and using the hashtag #LoveWins in social media campaigns. Brands also showed their support for the L.G.B.T. community at events and marches this year in creative ways, including a same-sex marriage on a Marriott float in D.C.’s Capital Pride Parade and a mobile, art-focused pop-up from Airbnb in San Francisco.
Biggest Trade Shows Demand Bigger Venues
Was Comic-Con International bluffing when it threatened to leave its longtime home in San Diego for a larger venue? With attendance of more than 130,000 people squeezing into 615,700 square feet of exhibition space, its producers floated the idea of moving to another Southern California city before securing a deal with San Diego officials to stay put through 2018. The convention is just one example of how the biggest and buzziest trade shows are pressuring their host venues to expand. Producers of International C.E.S. are pushing a plan to expand the Las Vegas Convention Center so the show can attract even more attendees. In Orlando, the Orange County Convention Center—already the nation’s largest meeting space at some seven million square feet—is considering an expansion plan that would add a 130,000-square-foot multipurpose hall, several new meeting rooms, and a 1,500-space parking garage, among other amenities.
Meeting Planners Battle Venues Over Wi-Fi Access
As more meeting and event planners turned to personal Wi-Fi hot spots because of the expensive Internet connectivity at hotels and convention centers, the venues fought back. The issue was brought to the forefront this year when companies, including Marriott and Smart City—one of the country's largest convention center telecommunications service providers—pursued a strategy of slowing down or completely blocking hot spots. The Federal Communications Commission fined Smart City $750,000 after Trade Show Internet, an independent service provider, filed a complaint that the company blocked access at convention centers in Cincinnati, Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Orlando, while charging $80 a day for Wi-Fi. The F.C.C. eventually ruled that blocking hot spots was illegal, leaving venues to decide whether to lower their prices or challenge the ruling.
SXSW "GamerGate" Panel Debacle
After receiving threats of on-site violence, South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, Texas, canceled two panels planned for next year that focused on gamer culture. The panels, which arose from a movement known as "GamerGate," were supposed to revolve around online harassment and social politics in gaming. SXSW faced immediate backlash for the cancellation, with companies such as Vox Media and BuzzFeed threatening to boycott the event. The response prompted the festival to apologize and add a daylong, live-streamed online harassment summit to the lineup.
Music Festivals Dominate as Marketing Platform
The boom in music festivals this year highlighted the importance of the weekend-long events to brands and promoters. Las Vegas hosted the country's first Rock in Rio in May, and also saw a huge increase in attendance at the Life Is Beautiful festival, which vastly improved its attendee experience thanks to a partnership with Insomniac. Many brands used the events this year for on- and off-site interactive activations, providing festivalgoers with experiences focused on wellness, sweet snacks, and alternative concert viewing. The rise has also shown how a variety of venues can adapt to host the weekend-long events. C3 Presents, which organizes Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza, is lobbying for permission to hold the events in national parks. And the events will most likely continue to thrive in 2016: Two new large-scale music festivals—one from AEG Live and one from Madison Square Garden—were proposed to be held in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York, and fashion brand Hunter made news when it announced it would swap a runway show at London Fashion Week in favor of a marketing campaign at music festivals.
Caitlyn Jenner Shines at the ESPYs
Caitlyn Jenner’s appearance at the ESPYs to receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award capped off a stunningly managed publicity campaign about the former Olympic champion’s transition from Bruce Jenner that included an interview with Diane Sawyer and a cover story in Vanity Fair. Her star turn was the most buzzed-about moment of ESPN’s annual sports awards, held in July in Los Angeles, and she received a standing ovation after her 10-minute speech urging the sports community to promote tolerance and acceptance. Although some critics criticized the choice, it ultimately reinvigorated the award show and represented the larger cultural shift toward transgender acceptance in society.
Caterers and Event Planners Adapt to California's Drought
New water conservation rules brought on by California's severe drought—which entered its fourth year in 2015—might have seemed discouraging for caterers, event planners, and venues at first. But many adapted by changing their menus and implementing water-saving strategies. This included cooking with vegetables that require less water to grow, sourcing food from farms with specific irrigation strategies, and offering filtered water coolers instead of poured water at meetings. Meanwhile, events and venues including Coachella and a decade-in-the-making community water park in Dublin, California, managed to evade water usage orders.
Sponsors Pressure FIFA to Reform
After 14 Fédération Internationale de Football Association officials were charged with federal corruption charges earlier this year, brands including McDonald's and Adidas faced criticism for their sponsorship of soccer's official governing body. The criticism motivated sponsors to pressure FIFA to form an independent commission to root out corruption, most recently with an open letter that also called for more transparency, gender equality, accountability, and integrity. The F.B.I.'s investigation could potentially grow to include future World Cups in Russia and Qatar if bribery in bidding process is discovered.
