This chapter talked about the development of the convention in the hospitality industry since the ancient times where people has always attended to meetings, conventions and exposition. Some of these events are associate with different themes that are related with social, sporting, political and religious purpose. Also the writer talked about the destination management, meeting planners, service contractors in which are organizations that provide service and their main focus is to meet the clients needs at the conventions. Another topic that the writer discuss in this chapter is the different types of meetings that are perform at the convention in which are clinic, forum, seminar, symposium, and workshop. He also discuss the different types of associations at the conventions that are trade, professional, medical/scientific, religious and government organizations. To finalize the chapter, the writer talked about the trends in the convention industry in which are more people are attending, some of the international show are limited to show, competiveness has increase, the industry should be more sophisticated and larger conventions are not well attended in the industry.

Key Words and Concepts:

Associations – Example – The New York Bar association is very popular among the bars industry.

Convention – Example – The directors of CUNY need to attend every year to local or international conventions.

Convention Center – Example: The Jacob. K Javits Convention Center is one of the 10 biggest venues in the state of New York.

Convention and Visitors Bureaus (CVB) – Example: Are specialists in an organization that provide services to tourists at specials events.

Exposition – Example – The art exposition at Lehman College was a successful event on campus.

Familiarization Trip (FAM) – Example: My father always get the familiarization trip discount when he decide to travel to another country because he work in the airport.

Incentive Market– Example: The USA Company at the end of the year offer to their employees an incentive market reward for those who meet the company goals.

Meeting – Example – All the teachers need to attend a meeting to discuss child development in the classroom.

Meeting Planners – Example: Are independent contractors that work with associations and corporations.

Meetings, incentive travel, convention, and exhibition (MICE) – A group of people that works in different organizations and travel to another countries or states for a convention meeting.

Social, military, educational, religious, and fraternal groups (SMERF) – Example: All the members of the SMERF organizations was able to attend the 2015 convention at the Orlando Resorts.