News

March 18th 2021

BestCities Destinations Highly Ranked in new Intellectual Capital Study

Tokyo, Singapore and Madrid identified in Top 10 Ranking

Global convention industry consulting firm, GainingEdge, has released the first annual report on Leveraging Intellectual Capital of convention destinations, based on an analysis of international association leadership.

Destinations can use the report as the foundation for building advanced convention development programs. International association organising bodies can use the report to consider future meeting destinations with healthy knowledge economies.

What were the key findings of the report?

• A Top 50 ranking of destinations with the greatest influence in international associations
• How well destinations leverage their local leaders by engaging them to bring conventions to the city
• The key industry sectors and scientific fields where destinations are best represented in international association leadership

Nine BestCities destinations were identified in the Top 50 Ranking out of the 350 that were researched. This list identifies the top 50 cities in terms of the presence of their local leaders in governing bodies of international associations which organize large conventions.

Which BestCities destinations were in the Top 50?

Tokyo #3
Singapore #8
Madrid #9
Melbourne #14
Berlin #19
Bogotá #32
Copenhagen #34
Dublin #40
Vancouver #48

We reached out to Milos Milovanovic, Head, GainingEdge Analysis and Research Unit for comment on how BestCities destinations can interpret these rankings.

“The fact that many BestCities destinations have high levels of intellectual capital certainly provides an advantage for attracting international meetings. Knowledge destinations provide the best education, access to new technologies, the opportunity to collaborate with well-known academic and business leaders, and also are part of a vibrant and creative local community – all critically important factors to conference success.”
Milos Milovanovic, GainingEdge


Read the report highlights or download it in full here.

About the author

Marlieke Kemp-Janssen

Marlieke Kemp-Janssen has over 10 years of experience in the international hotel industry, specialising in digital marketing, eCommerce, and communications. She has held leadership roles in luxury-branded hotels, where she developed and executed successful online strategies. Now based in Kuala Lumpur, Marlieke is the online marketing project manager for BestCities Global Alliance. She manages the alliance’s LinkedIn presence, website content, and monthly round-ups, along with other digital projects that support global engagement and visibility.