Convention participation decision-making process

Attending meetings and conventions currently represents the largest market segment in business travel. More than 1 million association and corporate meetings are held annually in the United States alone, yielding an estimated 85 million attendees who spend more than US$75 billion annually. This paper provides an overview of the research extended in the areas of associations' location choice and participation decision-making variables of the attendees. Two models are proposed. One addresses the interactions and interrelationships among associations, host locations, and attendees. The second model addresses the convention participation decision-making process by potential attendees. The influencing variables are then categorized into personal/business, association/conference, location, and intervening opportunities.