Imagine you’ve spent two years building a congress. The venue is booked, the programme is set, and the speakers are confirmed. Then something happens that has nothing to do with any of it.
That’s what happened to the International Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (IACBT) in 2025. It cancelled its conference in Nashville, which would have been its first meeting in the United States in forty years, with around 900 delegates expected. The association cited funding pressures and uncertainty around international travel. The organisers had done the work, but they no longer believed they could deliver the congress they had promised.
Two years earlier, the American Political Science Association (APSA) faced a different problem in Los Angeles. A rolling hotel workers’ strike coincided with its annual meeting, and the union asked APSA to cancel. Its council voted to proceed, moving as many events as possible away from the struck hotels and into the convention centre. Cancelling would have cost an estimated $2.8 million. The meeting went ahead amid a public dispute among its own members, and attendance fell short of expectations. APSA later convened an independent commission to review what had happened.
I wouldn’t presume to judge either decision. Both were made by capable people under real pressure. But together they make a point I want to put to our community plainly: a congress can be flawlessly planned and still be undone, or seriously strained, by forces nobody in the room controls. Funding, visas, labour disputes, weather, airline capacity and politics can reach any city.
I take three lessons from these stories, and none of them is about luck.
Decisiveness is a form of care. Whether the answer is to cancel, relocate or proceed, delegates, sponsors and suppliers need to hear it early, along with the reasoning. Waiting leaves people unable to plan or commit funds. APSA also shows that a sound decision can still be contested, which is why the process matters as much as the outcome. Agree in advance who decides, on what evidence, and by when. Doing that in the middle of a crisis is far harder.
Structure shapes risk. That $2.8 million figure tells you how much a decision can hinge on contracts, insurance and reserves. Cancellation clauses, force majeure language, attrition terms and financial buffers are strategic choices. Boards should give them the same attention they give the programme.
Resilience is now part of what a destination offers. Access, capacity, accommodation and experience still matter. But when associations compare bids, I’m hearing a different set of questions. Who coordinates when something goes wrong? How quickly will we get accurate information? What do the authorities, hotels and airports do together, and have they actually rehearsed it? If a hotel is affected, how fast can we find alternative venues? Destinations that can answer with evidence will win business that others lose.
Cyber risk deserves the same discipline. Our congresses run on registration platforms, delegate databases, payment systems and mobile apps. A breach damages trust in the organisation as much as it damages data. So I’d ask any association leader: have you rehearsed a data incident as seriously as a fire evacuation? And could your suppliers show you proof?
Here are three practical steps to start with:
- Write down your cancellation, relocation and postponement triggers before you need them, including who holds the authority to act.
- Test your communication plan with a real exercise, covering delegates, sponsors, speakers and partners.
- Ask every destination you consider for its crisis coordination arrangements, not only its venue specifications.
For destinations and convention bureaux, the job is to make that coordination visible. Show associations the relationships, the protocols and the lessons from past disruptions. Candour about what has gone wrong, and what changed afterwards, builds more confidence than a polished brochure ever will.
ICCA exists to help associations and destinations meet each other with confidence. Our members won’t always be able to prevent disruption. They can be ready for it, and they can be honest with their communities when it arrives. In an uncertain period, I expect that readiness to count for as much as any venue or incentive.
More about ICCA and how your association can benefit from being a member: www.iccaworld.org