Business events, sometimes referred to as MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) events, is a crucial sector that provides a measurable contribution to Scotland’s visitor economy.
They're a vital tool to:
Business events are run by organisations for their members or employees, or for a specific target market with specific knowledge. They can attract thousands of delegates to a city and create a significant social and economic impact.
The business events sector is broadly comprised of three main strands:
From our detailed event buyer feedback, we know that demand for Scotland as a business events destination continues to be high. Event organisers are looking for:
Our Business Events team, alongside Scottish partners, attended several national and international industry events this year. At these, we set up new leads, shared knowledge and inspired attendees with the great work being done in Scotland.
We were at Business Events Industry Week (BEIW) in Washington DC. This valuable, educational and networking event was the perfect opportunity to promote Scotland to a North American audience.
We exhibited at CHS Leeds, the largest MICE event in the UK outside of London. It was the perfect platform to showcase Scotland to event planners based in the North of England and the Midlands.
Our team and 12 of our partners exhibited at IMEX Frankfurt, one of the largest business events trade shows in Europe.
We attended the Association World Congress in Graz, Austria, to learn about the challenges facing the association sector and its future landscape.
We also exhibited at The Meetings Show at ExCel London with nine Scottish partners.
Lastly, we attended PCMA EduCon in Detroit, Michigan. There, Rory Archibald, Senior Business Events Manager, took part in an LGBTQI+ panel session, discussing initiatives to create diverse and welcoming destinations.
We’ll be meeting with buyers from around the world at IMEX America. This is the largest trade show globally for the meetings and events industry in Las Vegas in October.
We’ll be contributing to the inaugural Euromic summit in Edinburgh. This landmark event will bring together top industry professionals, innovators, and thought leaders to inspire:
We will be attending The Global Incentive Summit, Northstar Meetings Group's global hosted buyer event for the incentive travel industry.
We generated £4 million worth of enquiries into Scotland.
We also, so far, recorded enquiries with a potential value of almost £20 million following attendance at IMEX Frankfurt, CHS Leeds, and the Association World Congress.
We assisted in the successful bid for the World Agritourism Conference 2026. We engaged and liaised with stakeholders across Scotland as part of our policy-driven model.
The international conference will showcase the diversity and growth of Scotland's agritourism sector on a world stage. It's expected that up to 1,000 delegates will attend.
£175 million
approximate economic value
95,000
delegates attending association events
282
association events attended in Scotland
50%
approximate percentage of life science events
We promoted Scotland as a premier destination for business events of all kinds, including meetings, incentive travel programmes, conferences, and exhibitions.
Our aim was to inspire and assist international business events decision makers and organisers in planning their events in Scotland and to support Scottish business events industry. Activity included:
These efforts and strategy align to promote Scotland as a destination that values thriving communities, embraces innovation, and has sustainable development as a priority.
Find out more on our business events website