The heat is on
Europe is experiencing a summer of ferocious heat, which scientists predict will become the 'new normal'.
How is the events industry responding?
For years, the meetings industry has discussed climate change through the institutionalised language of sustainability. Which is to say, how the climate is changing – and how it is affecting meetings and events - hasn’t been discussed much at all. Instead, the industry has focused on 2050 targets, the UN SDGs, food waste, recycling of materials, and single use plastics etc.
While these topics are, of course, important, they are somehow ‘missing the moment’.
Extreme heat is already a thing, with Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, already experiencing more frequent, longer and more intense heatwaves, as a result of climate change.
Right now, wildfires are raging across France and Spain threatening lives and livelihoods. Over the last two months hundreds of meetings and events have been cancelled and postponed due to the relentless heat.
Across Europe, conferences and exhibitions help to shape cities - not just in terms of 'visitor spend' but through supporting industrial strategies and economic development. Yet much of the infrastructure supporting these events was designed for a climate that increasingly no longer exists.
Many of the industry's most prestigious venues occupy Victorian civic buildings, medieval guildhalls, Georgian assembly rooms and listed country houses. They remain spectacular settings for awards ceremonies and gala dinners. They are also increasingly challenging places -during the summer months - in which to spend any amount of time in business attire.
Unlike venues in Dubai, Las Vegas or Singapore, cooling has rarely been viewed as a defining part of the guest experience in Europe. While modern public buildings and chain hotels tend to have air-conditioning (not all of it great), general installation across Europe (20 per cent) remains significantly lower than in the US (90 per cent). And people are starting to notice.
At the end of June 2026, a major congress in Lille organised by professional congress organiser Kenes Group coincided with temperatures approaching 40°C. More than 6,000 delegates attended the event in conditions that, organisers say, stretched the local infrastructure to its limits.
According to Kenes, air conditioning was limited or unavailable across many hotels, restaurants and public buildings. Cooling systems at the venue struggled under pressure, while heat-related power cuts affected parts of the city and interrupted some congress activities.
Demand for drinking water exceeded available supplies, while delegates and event staff experienced significant fatigue and dehydration. The annual charity run associated with the event was cancelled following government restrictions on outdoor sporting activities.
Although, thankfully, no serious medical incidents occurred, the experience also showed how extreme temperatures can create operational disruption far beyond the venue itself.
Hotels, transport providers, restaurants, cultural attractions and public infrastructure all contribute to perceptions of an event. A convention centre may perform flawlessly, but if delegates spend evenings in uncomfortable hotel rooms, find themselves dripping with sweat at a cocktail reception, or face significant transport disruptions caused by heat-related infrastructure failures, the overall experience suffers.
Iva Popper, Kenes marketing manager, said planners could no longer treat extreme heat as ‘a rare or unexpected disruption’ and that ‘climate resilience’ would ‘increasingly become part of event planning, alongside security, accessibility and sustainability’.
She said backup power systems, shaded rest spaces and heat-response protocols may soon become standard requirements for major events, particularly during summer months.
And rather than simply hoping for the best, she said: “Venues and destinations can support organisers by being transparent about the limits of their infrastructure and demonstrating that their cooling, ventilation, electricity and water systems can cope with unusually high demand.”
Louise Gorringe, VP of association management at Kenes, said associations were still evaluating destinations through a ‘broad range of criteria rather than focusing narrowly on weather’.
However, they increasingly wanted evidence that venues and destinations could communicate effectively, respond quickly and maintain continuity if conditions deteriorate.
Liz Taylor, founder and chief executive of Taylor Lynn Corporation, works in the field of luxury events, a world away from association meetings. But she echoed that theme of resilience.
"We're certainly talking about weather much earlier in the planning process," she says. "What's changed is that contingency planning is now discussed from the very first meeting."
She said planners were not yet abandoning their traditional summer schedules. Instead, they were becoming more focused on resilience and flexibility - adapting to conditions.
“It's about planning for every eventuality. Whether that's adjusting timings, reconfiguring layouts, moving seamlessly between indoor and outdoor spaces or having alternative catering and entertainment options ready to go, the guest experience should never be compromised.”
Luxury used to be defined by elaborate production values, celebrity entertainment, or the quality of the catering. Now, Taylor argued, it can mean something more basic: comfort.
"It's never having to think about where the shade is, whether there's enough water or how you're going to stay cool," she said. "Comfort has become part of luxury."
That shift reflects a wider change in industry thinking. Risk registers that once focused on terrorism, cybersecurity threats and transport disruption are now incorporating heat stress, wildfire smoke and extreme weather contingency planning.
For venues, however, the challenge extends far beyond handing out extra bottles of water.
Louisa Watson, ESG director at beam, said organisers were asking far more detailed questions about cooling, ventilation and heat contingency planning than they did even a few years ago.
And it’s not just period properties that are coming under scrutiny.
“A lot of venues sit in older or lighter-construction estates with far less thermal mass than a modern purpose-built building, so internal temperatures react much faster to solar gain, external heat and occupancy.
“That last point gets underestimated: the average person gives off 80-120 watts of heat at rest, so a 400-person venue can be adding over 30kW of extra heat into a space that then needs to be controlled or dispersed.
“With the recent run of heatwaves, we're also hearing from venues that ageing condensers, pumps and fan motors are failing faster because they simply can't keep up with sustained demand, especially where overnight temperatures aren't dropping enough to give plant a chance to recover.”
For many venues, especially those in historic buildings, finding an answer to these problems could be considerably more complicated than event attendees might realise.
"You can't simply retrofit air conditioning into a listed building," Watson said. "It's a balancing act between protecting the character of the building and meeting modern guest expectations."
Installing modern cooling systems in listed properties frequently requires lengthy planning processes, specialist engineering solutions and negotiations with conservation authorities. External plant equipment, ducting and alterations to historic fabric can all become contentious issues. The result is a collision between heritage preservation and climate adaptation.
As well as challenges, Watson sees opportunities in the changing climate, particularly for venues with outdoor space, for ‘embracing the growing demand for wellness at events.’
“Whether that's morning yoga, guided walks, or simply moving parts of the day outside, handled well, heat resilience and a richer delegate experience aren't in tension with each other.”
Flexing the great outdoors
Johanna Byrane, head of business development at Allianz Stadium, home to England Rugby and one of the UK's largest events venues, said event planners had become more confident in using open-air spaces for large-scale activations, exhibitions and conferences.
Yet that confidence depends on flexibility.
"The close proximity of the outdoor spaces to the venue itself does help, not just to avoid showers, but increasingly to take in some air conditioning, and make sure all the delegates are well hydrated," she said. "At its best it's an inside-outside formula that really works."
That hybrid approach – allowing delegates to move seamlessly between outdoor experiences and climate-controlled interiors – is becoming an increasingly important design principle.
At Campfield, a media and technology hub in Manchester's St John's district, operational planning around heat is now embedded much earlier in event development.
Operations director Abigail Chew said organisers needed to consider the entire delegate journey, from outdoor queues and registration areas to breakout sessions and networking spaces. Areas that may once have been operationally insignificant can become pressure points during extreme temperatures.
Chew said flexibility was becoming one of the most valuable assets a venue could offer. The ability to open extra spaces, spread attendees across multiple areas, adjust timings or move activities at short notice could ‘significantly affect’ delegate wellbeing and event continuity.
Destination competitiveness
In the end, attendees are unlikely to judge venues on planning constraints or conservation regulations. They will simply remember if they felt comfortable. And if attendees consistently enjoy better comfort elsewhere, we may see a gradual shift in destination competitiveness.
The international meetings market is fiercely competitive. Association and corporate planners can choose between thousands of cities around the world. While factors such as accessibility, cost and reputation remain critical, climate resilience may increasingly join that list.
Cities across the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and North America invested heavily in climate-controlled infrastructure decades ago. Airports, hotels, public transport systems, convention centres and taxis were designed with extreme temperatures in mind. For planners seeking operational certainty, those investments are becoming a competitive advantage. Europe cannot assume its traditional dominance in international meetings will automatically continue.
The continent's appeal has never depended solely on weather, of course. Its strengths include accessibility, cultural heritage, academic excellence, business networks and a concentration of international institutions. Those advantages remain substantial. environmental reality. But a delayed train carrying conference delegates, an exhibition hall struggling to maintain acceptable temperatures, or a city-wide power cut plunging venues into darkness, all undermine the value proposition destinations have spent decades constructing.
If attendees can choose between heritage and comfort, what will they choose?
For Watson it’s all about preparedness and therefore not a zero-sum game.
Even so she has a warning for Europe’s venues and destinations bidding for events business right now.
“Organisers want to know there's an actual plan, not just an assurance that it'll be fine."
Forecast: getting hotter
Climate scientists predict that Europe will continue warming faster than the global average, with heatwaves becoming more frequent, more intense and longer lasting over the coming decades.
Weather events that were once considered 'once in a generation' occurrences could become regular features of the European summer.
Southern European destinations are likely to experience more days above critical heat thresholds, while northern Europe and the UK are expected to see some of the fastest increases in extreme heat events because much of their infrastructure was designed for cooler conditions. Buildings, transport systems and public spaces that historically functioned perfectly well in summer may face growing pressure as temperatures climb.
Scientists say temperatures exceeding 40°C could occur more often in some regions and 'end-of-century' levels of heat made possible as early as the 2030s under certain climate scenarios.
Technology: saves the day?
HVAC systems can monitor temperature, humidity, air quality and occupancy levels, allowing operators to identify overheating risks before anyone begins to feel uncomfortable.
Weather forecasting tools have become far more sophisticated, too, allowing organisers to track heat risks days or even weeks ahead and activate contingency plans earlier.
Event apps can push real-time notifications to attendees, advising of schedule changes, cooling areas or hydration points, and providing guidance during extreme heat.
Data is also helping planners rethink how events are designed. By analysing delegate movement patterns, venues can identify congestion points where temperatures may rise, adjust room capacities and redesign layouts to improve airflow and comfort.
Technology is not a silver bullet, however. Even the smartest building cannot compensate for inadequate cooling capacity during prolonged heatwaves.