The Chicago market led the U.S. meetings and events industry by volume for May for the second month in a row, according to new data from Knowland. Second place—again—went to Washington D.C., with Los Angeles/Long Beach in third.
In terms of corporate industry segments for the month, sports and entertainment showed the strongest performance with 199.7 percent of 2019 event volume, while training/education was a low performer with 76.8 percent of 2019 volume. May 2023 event volume increased 70.4 percent over May 2022.
Chicago was in the lead of the top five markets by event volume, hosting national association meetings followed by weddings and pharma/biotech. Washington D.C., Los Angeles/Long Beach, Dallas and San Diego rounded out the top five.
- Chicago: National association, wedding, pharma/biotech, education and healthcare.
- Washington DC: National association, travel, education, charity/non-profit/social and training/Education.
- Los Angeles: Education, wedding, national association, financial/banking and technology.
- Dallas: Healthcare, financial/banking, technology, wedding and national associations.
- San Diego: National association, wedding, technology, pharma/biotech and healthCare.
The top five markets (by percentage growth) by year-over-year growth in meetings and events were Norfolk-Virginia Beach, Va.; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Hawaii-Kauai Islands; Salt Lake City-Ogden.