McALLEN — If there was a single phrase that captured the spirit of Wednesday’s news conference here at the McAllen Convention Center, where it was announced that the International Festivals & Events Association Annual Convention Expo & Retreat would be coming to town next month, it was family reunion.
The idea being that event organizers are part of a universal network, meeting together again for the first time in years. Enter the 65th annual convention, scheduled from Sept. 19-21, where representatives of several large-scale festivals will be housed under one roof in McAllen to share ideas about each other’s events.
This is the first time the conference is returning to Texas since 2011 and the first time the organization hosts an in-person conference since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s theme will be “Metamorphosis. Off-Balance. On Purpose,” and will feature show organizers from 29 U.S. states and 10 countries from around the world.
During Wednesday’s conference, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos explained that this year’s conference will include visits from representatives from South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Taiwan and Thailand.
This year’s event will also feature Dan Thurmon, founder and president of Motivation Works, Catherine Turp, creative director of Moment Factory, and David Eads, executive director and CEO of the famed Pasadena Tournament of Roses.
In fact, the mayor mentioned a few other familiar events.
“Some of the attendees include the Tournament of Roses, the Kentucky Derby, the Indy 500, the Philadelphia Flower Festival, the National Cherry Blossom Festival and Parade, Sun Fest, Fiesta Bowl, and of course McAllen’s own holiday parade,” Villalobos said, adding that he believes the event will have an overall positive effect, and not just in the Valley.
“This is the type of caliber of attendees that will be learning, teaching, networking, sharing and making connections and hopefully assist their communities to have better events,” he added.
In McAllen alone, 803 events the city held in 2021 generated $87.5 million to the local economy, according to city officials, who touted the convention as a means to continue supporting event development and planning.
Prior to the convention, there will also be three advanced education days from Sep. 16-19, for those interested in obtaining their certified festival and event executive professional certification. For more information on the course, visit www.ifea.com.
The convention invites local event and festival vendors to participate in the conference’s trade show, which is expected to feature around 45 vendors.
For Steven Wood Schmader, CFEE, president and CEO of IFEA World, the convention is a collaboration of organizations where a networking of ideas is possible.
“That’s what we do when we come together. We talk about best practices, we talk about best ideas, we talk about creativity, we look to our peers, we’re an industry that’s very open and shared,” Schmader said. “This conference is a leadership; it’s an educational summit, it’s a family reunion, it’s a celebration. It really is an opportunity for all of us and all of you to come together and I believe truly make the world a better place.”
