On Jan. 16, the launch of the Visit U.S. Coalition was announced. Representing a broad cross-section of industries that have come together to address the decrease in international travelers to the U.S. and resulting opportunity cost to the U.S. economy and jobs, the coalition will partner with the Trump administration to reverse the decline in U.S. competitiveness for international travel dollars.

The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association decided to scrap its 55-year old massive National RV Show, which it has held every November at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky.

Instead, association officials said they wanted to reinvent the annual event away from being a traditional trade show.

“We must act now to provide our vibrant and innovative industry a platform to promote its successes and celebrate its wins,” RVIA officials said.

PCMA always has made a priority of providing top-notch education and thought-provoking keynote speakers for its annual Convening Leaders conference.

But this year, the annual event for convention management professionals outdid itself in choosing Bill Strickland, who closed out the event with his heartfelt speech, “Leadership, Self-Worth, and the Ability to Transform Lives.”

HANNOVER MESSE USA, the newly branded North American industrial technology trade shows collocated at IMTS 2018, will feature 130,000 square feet of exhibition space and special display areas.

This marks a 44 percent increase, compared with the collocated shows’ total floor space at IMTS 2016.

The Professional Convention Management Association named Janet Tan-Collis, president of the Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers (SACEOS) and CEO of East West Planners Singapore, Janet Tan-Collis, as the 2017 Chairman’s Award honoree.

After UBM’s stock price jumped considerably, news was released that the mega exhibition organizer is in talks to possibly merge with Informa, another mega exhibition organizer.

UBM released the following statement:

Event Transportation Systems, a shuttle transportation management company for corporate and association meetings, conferences and conventions, has released its latest web-based versions of the ETS-Next-Shuttle app and ETS-Shuttle-Tracker transportation management software.

These next-generation transportation management and monitoring tools, which use proprietary GPS-enabled technology, were unveiled Jan. 8 at the PCMA’s annual Convening Leaders conference in Nashville.

Despite the slight hiccup of a power blackout at the show, CES, the world’s largest consumer technology event, set a new size record this year with a 2.75 million net square foot expo floor featuring 3,900 exhibitors.

Held Jan. 9-12 at the Las Vegas Convention Center and venues throughout the city, the 51^st annual event for the global tech industry attracted more than 175,000 attendees from 150 countries.

It looks to be a banner year for Informa Exhibitions in 2017, with the division of U.K.-based Informa having reported 9 percent growth for the first 10 months of last year. The company’s 2017 full-year results will be released Feb. 28.

Charlie McCurdy, CEO of Informa Exhibitions, said the growth was coming from several of the company’s largest trade shows, such as Natural Products Expos East and West and the China Beauty Show, which grew 5 percent, to name a few.