How Larger, Tech-Forward Venues Create Revenue Opportunities for Associations

Association members are willing to show up—and pay up—for immersive experiences, customization, and technology, according to industry research, though planners are more likely to opt for simpler executions, creating a disconnect that can be costly.

By hosting events in larger-scale, higher-tech venues, however, smart planners have an opportunity to deliver on what attendees want and ultimately drive revenue for their organizations.

“That’s quite frankly the quiet goal of most meetings,” said Anthony Cordo, executive vice president of Visit Lauderdale. Cordo oversees the operation of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which is in the final phase of a multiyear expansion that includes adding more than 525,000 square feet of meeting space and a host of technological upgrades.

More Space to Sell

For many meeting planners, the simplest path to revenue is more exhibitors and attendees, which a larger space enables.

The Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA) has hosted its Tropical Plant International Expo at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center nearly every year since the facility opened, and Linda Adams, the association’s chief operations officer, is excited about the potential for growth of her event through the facility’s expansion.

“In 2020, we filled the convention center, and we used about 80,000 net square feet,” Adams said. “When we came back, we increased the size of our sold space by 20 percent, and our attendance also increased by 20 percent. That definitely hits your bottom line when you can add opportunities for people to grow their space or bring in new companies.”

Having a larger facility allows FNGLA to dedicate additional space to buzz-generating events instead of taking away that space from exhibitors. “And we rent our stage to the exhibitors,” Adams said, “so it’s a way for us to make up the cost of that area.”

Elsewhere on the convention center grounds, Adams pointed to the 801-room headquarters hotel and 6-acre outdoor waterfront plaza as attractive draws for her January 2026 event. “We are really looking forward to having our participants enjoy first-class facilities,” she said.

Upselling Opportunities

Certain tech-forward features of a facility allow planners to customize the experience for their attendees while serving as revenue generators for their organizations, Cordo said.

If a venue has digital signage, it’s a “dynamic environment that can be changed in two seconds, creating an opportunity for an upsell for a meeting planner, which pushes toward that bottom line,” said Cordo, noting that about $5 million of his convention center’s construction budget is for digital signage.

“The elevator has digital signage in it. When you’re walking across our skywalk, there is digital signage,” he said. “There are large video walls in front of the meeting spaces where a meeting planner could put up ads. The room names are becoming digital and can be set so the room looks like it was named after the sponsor.”

An adaptable facility-wide sound system can be used for running sponsor-funded commercials in pre-function spaces.

Calling on another sense, the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center is including a “smell system” in its expansion plans. Visiting groups soon will have the option to pipe scented air throughout the facility, if, say, a meeting has a brand of scent or a sponsor wants to pay for the opportunity.

Wi-Fi, which has long been a standard of meetings, can be offered to attendees for a cost, or the splash page can be sold to a sponsor.

“It’s looking at every single touchpoint a person uses and providing an opportunity for that meeting planner to turn around and resell it if they so desire,” Cordo said.

Streamlined Production

Tech-forward facilities will include upgrade options that planners typically would have to pay for when hosting an event.

“How do you create an experience that meeting planners don’t have to pay quite as much on their production side of the business to still pull off a meeting that’s impressive and wows their attendees?” Cordo said.

He noted, for example, that facilities are trending back to built-in sound systems. “You’re not going to have to drag in two semitrucks’ worth of production equipment just to put on a ballroom for 400 people,” he said.

Other built-in features such as sound mitigation and uplighting can save planners the expense of having to deploy pipe and drape and do other cosmetic work in the spaces.

Cordo recommended that meeting planners ask prospective venues what they are doing to make their space more revenue friendly and to work closely with the venue to develop a tech-forward package that will engage attendees.

“It’s an exciting time here in particular because of all the changes we’ve got going on with our new center,” he said. “We’re thrilled to deploy all this new technology and see the future move forward.”