Does your conference deliver a 'psychic income'?

The economic value of association conferences are generally well understood, and venues, PCOs and convention bureaux are often required to report on the direct and indirect spend that business events generate in the host destination. The importance of understanding and harnessing the social impacts of events is also gaining momentum and, for example, we are all becoming more aware of how events can benefit local communities. This might be through providing residents with employment or training opportunities or through improved local infrastructure (e.g. better public transport). However, are we overlooking perhaps one of the most significant and underappreciated social impacts of hosting events, the psychic income?

The psychic income has been defined as the positive psychological and emotional benefits that residents believe they receive from an event taking place nearby, even if they do not attend the event themselves. In other words, events create a feelgood factor, and this can rub off on residents even if they don’t go to the event or are not remotely interested in it.

As an area of scientific research, the psychic income of events is quite new. It was developed in part to justify the use of tax-payer’s money to build new sports stadia in the USA. This was then tested for the first time at the Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa Bay, Florida in 2009, when researchers looked at how Tampa residents had benefitted from the event taking place, even if they hadn’t gone to it. The results were compelling and showed that hosting the event generated a range of intangible social benefits for locals, even for those that weren’t interested in American football.

The research showed that hosting a sports event creates a psychic income in several different ways. The first is through increased community visibility which is when locals feel honoured that the destination has become more well known (nationally or internationally) such as through media coverage of the event. Hosting the event can also lead to an enhanced community image. In other words, because the city has been chosen for an event, or won an event bid, residents feel proud of this achievement and the recognition that their city has gained. This is particularly true if the destination has triumphed over other cities. Improvements to the area (or even just an effort to improve the area) also create a psychic income. The building of new venues, the renovation of hotels or the increase and improvement of transport links, that happen because of hosting events, also become a source of pride for residents even if they don't use these venues or the transport.

"Because the city has been chosen for an event, or won an event bid, residents feel proud of this achievement and the recognition that their city has gained..."

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The ‘excitement quotient’ is another element of the psychic income. This term refers to the reaction that a community feels when there is a large influx of visitors to the town or city. It’s the community’s positive response to the added vibrance or vitality that is generated by this swell in visitor numbers. Finally, community bonding is what can happen when residents discover that they have something in common with other locals and connect over this shared pride in their city which in turn promotes a stronger feeling of belonging to that community.

Since the initial test of the psychic income theory, there have been a few more attempts to prove how events generate this feelgood factor, but so far this has only been done within the context of sports events. I am now in the process of testing the psychic income in relation to association conferences. Why? Well, if you look at the characteristics of sporting events and compare them to association conferences there are a lot of similarities. The events are often bid for, have a long lead time, and involve a large influx of attendees – sometimes tens of thousands - into an city for a short time. Some conferences will attract media coverage (local and even national) and can act as a catalyst for venue and transport developments. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that destinations that host association conferences are generating a psychic income for their residents, in the same way that sporting event destinations do.

One of the key differences between sporting events and conferences is of course that residents are generally aware that a sporting event is taking place nearby. This is usually the case with major championships or events involving the local or national team and the same can’t always be said for conferences. But are residents aware that there is a convention centre in the area? Do they notice the influx of delegates? Have they read in the local newspaper that their city has won a prestigious bid? If the answer is yes, then this is likely to have created a feelgood factor in the local community. Some association conferences will include public service elements in their programme and invite locals to attend these sessions, but what if residents also knew about the other conferences taking place? If convention bureaux draw attention to the conference bids that they’ve won, or if PCOs and venues talk about the events that they organise and host, does this all help to create a feelgood factor in the destination? I think it does.

Being able to articulate and evidence the wider social benefits of conferences can be valuable. Not only can it be used to justify public spending (as we’ve seen with sports events), but if it can be shown that conferences deliver a psychic income to residents, meeting professionals, including the associations who own the conference, will be in a better position to secure both community and government support for the work they do.

The author works at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, in the UK. If you would like to get involved in her research on the psychic income, please contact her directly via [email protected]