Rather Than Boycotting a Destination, Just Send Your RFP -

The conversation about boycotting or avoiding destinations with certain legislation “is percolating back to the top again” of industry conversations.

When I spoke with Cameron Curtis, CMM, CAE, CEO of LGBT Meeting Professionals Association (LGBT MPA), for our upcoming August issue cover story on the state of DEI, she told me that the conversation about boycotting or avoiding destinations with certain legislation “is percolating back to the top again” of industry conversations.

“You need to reach out to your DMO partner and understand what that legislation actually is and what it means in that city.”

Cameron Curtis, CMM, CAE, CEO of LGBT Meeting Professionals Association

Curtis said that it doesn’t even have to be discriminatory legislation that concerns organizers. “Think about reproductive health issues,” she said, referring to host destinations where abortion is illegal and a pregnant delegate may have a medical emergency requiring care. “People want to feel safe when they go to a meeting. It’s personal safety. There are destinations where people don’t feel safe. How do you keep people safe when they land at the airport in the destination to when they leave again? What happens in that space between leaving the airport and getting to the venue?”

Curtis thinks it’s important that planners not just write off a city without doing some research. “You need to reach out to your DMO partner and understand what that legislation actually is and what it means in that city,” she said, “because it can be very different. Legislation is hard to read sometimes. What does it actually mean? What does it mean to your attendees? What is the impact?”

And Curtis has another piece of advice for organizers who want to have a role in making destinations more welcoming for all: “Send your RFP to the destinations that are a good fit. Then if you are not choosing a destination because of whatever legislation they have, then say to them, ‘You would be a great fit for our event, but because your state has this discriminatory legislation, we cannot choose you.’ Because then [the CVB] has the data to say [to lawmakers], ‘Here are all the conferences, the business that we lost, and here’s the economic impact.’ Because without that, they don’t know.”

Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.