Join this enlightening discussion to hear how Visit Seattle worked within their organization and their community to ensure EDI principals flowed through content, messaging, partnerships and other community businesses.

Join members of the 30 Under 30 class of 2021 as they share their latest marketing campaigns and strategies for destination promotion in the next normal. You’ll walk away with actionable ideas for a destination of any budget size including insights on helping you build your team, creating PR and branding strategies, developing creative advertising opportunities and producing unique video content.

Destination and industry association leaders are increasingly having a bigger seat at more tables in order to influence policy and contribute to long-term solutions beyond the visitor economy. Destination organizations are also expanding their roles, in many directions. They’re aligning with government and community organizations more intentionally to support initiatives designed to improve social issues and local quality of life, fueling priority sector development, attracting outside investment and high-value talent, and elevating the overall destination brand beyond a tourism lens. Join Jack Johnson as he explores this expanding role as well as a new effort to help - the 2022 DI Foundation Challenge.

Destinations International has combined efforts with AMEC, the world’s largest media intelligence and insights professional body, to collaborate on establishing public relations and communications measurement guidelines for destination organizations. With the combined efforts of industry leaders and AMEC’s expertise, Destinations International will be releasing a Public Relations and Communications Measurement Guidelines Handbook. This session will provide an overview of the findings from our baseline survey and insights into the future of public relations measurement.

Consumer attitudes toward travel continue to evolve during these unpredictable times. New variants, changing health guidelines and border restrictions have created new challenges and opportunities for destination marketers. As travelers learn to adapt, demonstrating remarkable resilience and renewed interested in travel, Expedia Group Media Solutions will explore the encouraging travel trends, seen in exclusive first-party data and industry research, that will inform your strategy for recovery. Examples of destination marketing campaigns will be featured to highlight how to successfully reach and convert today’s traveler.

Sports are a massive part of our future as destination organizations help steward the visitor economy and positively affect the economic impact and recovery in the community. The growing importance of sporting events in our industry needs to be embraced, but how do we determine which events drive the most visitation to create a more vibrant visitor economy? How do destinations attract and retain the best sporting venues, events and competitions for their community? During this session, we will hear from several destinations who have had hosted vastly different types of sporting events. They will shed light on how sporting events affect the local economy, how to pitch sporting events to your board and stakeholders, and how to retain sporting events for the future.

The research is in. Today’s visitor is tomorrow’s talent, and talent is inspired to make their move not only based on their previous in-destination experience, but increasingly based on a destination’s quality of life and quality of place brand absorbed through a variety of digital media channels. After five years of surveying talent of all ages across the country, DCI’s “Talent Wars” research report reveals that “livability factors” are rising in importance as today’s workforce makes decisions as to where to live and work. Historically, economic development offices have taken the lead role in funding and managing talent attraction programs to fill the open positions of their local corporate investors, but the rise in importance of livability factors creates the perfect and timely opportunity for destination organizations to leverage their strengths and primary role of touting the culture, arts, entertainment, dining, greenways and outdoor assets of the destination.

At a time when resources of both funding and staffing are scarce, it’s essential that destination organizations partner with their economic development offices to strategically leverage specialties and priorities within both organizations to broaden their collective digital toolbox and raise their destination’s livability assets and brand to those considering a move. This session will provide an overview of the five digital tools – and five ways – in which destination organizations should be elevating their role to serve as a resource, an expert and a partner to economic development offices when it comes to talent attraction.

Visit Baltimore, in partnership with creative agency Bellweather, infused learnings from deep stakeholder conversations into the development of a brand that is embraced across the diverse city. From the bold new logo to the locally rooted color palette to in-depth creative collaborations, every aspect of the brand speaks to the foundational narratives that make Baltimore a distinctive destination. The brand is so strong that it carries seamlessly over to meetings and conventions marketing, other niche campaigns and provides tremendous storytelling potential for earned media efforts. You’ll walk away with actionable tips on how destinations of any size and shape can engage with voices across the community to tell your story.

Through the Portrait of American Traveler study, AFAR and MMGY have partnered to understand affluent and conscientious global travelers, the trends they’re driving and the critical impact they’re making on the travel industry's recovery and future. This research will lay the groundwork that will help drive a discussion around how to attract the right visitors with compelling values-based storytelling and marketing. Through comprehensive, content-rich programs and sponsorships, AFAR has worked with many destination organizations to help them tell and amplify those stories to effectively generate awareness, change perception, and ultimately drive consideration and visits. This session will provide an overview of what the world’s best travelers are looking for, and discuss what destination have done, and can do, to lead with a values-driven approach to capture the attention and dollars of this illusive audience.

During this session we will explore different ways destination organizations keep their communities and residents in front of LGBTQ+ travelers year-round. We’ll walk through the basics including targeted LGBTQ+ advertising and monitoring conversations specific to your region, as well as discuss how to engage with relevant user-generated content, bringing your destination organization into these LGBTQ+ conversations. We’ll also highlight some of the various niche groups within the LGBTQ+ travel community that can be reached, including the circuit party crowd, parents, sports fans and more.

Join this fireside chat with Sophia Hyder Hock about the importance of inclusive marketing, why it matters and how to get started. Sophia will provide actionable take aways including information around the data you need, how to engage the community's local voices and understanding of the types of visitors you want to attract.

In an era where the market is hyper socially conscious, it is easy to straddle a litany of causes with dilutive effect, supporting AAPI, Climate, Sustainability, Black, Brown, Indigenous, LGBTQ, or Women throughout the year. What you want your business or destination to stand for is a strategic imperative with long-term play. We're all very aware of the draw of restaurants and a vibrant dining scene for business, leisure amd resident traffic. Marrying that draw with winning over women - as consumers, talent, residents and travelers - is a choice to create a winning destination. Meet Let’s Talk Womxn, a renegade movement 600+ restaurateurs and women business owners strong across 13 cities, who have rapidly created positive impact and are recognized as an explosive force – Top 50 Power List by Nation’s Restaurant News – within months of inception. Learn about their unique model to reframe visible and tangible opportunities to shape your destination's trajectory and win with conviction.