Decision Support for Event Portfolio Management in Convention Centers

In the field of event management, creating an efficient event portfolio is a multifaceted challenge that involves selecting the right mix of events to maximize their economic impact and profitability. Convention centers must also consider the unique goals and constraints of their organizations, including available space, equipment, and staffing capacity constraints. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a new decision support tool designed to evaluate and prioritize events held at convention centers. Our proposed tool is designed to support an event evaluation process that is aligned with the portfolio management methodology of the Project Management Institute (PMI), which integrates strategic alignment best practices. The proposed model empowers managers to craft an event portfolio that both maximizes economic benefits for the host city and strives for optimal financial outcomes for the convention center. The evaluation part of the tool uses AI techniques such as clustering algorithms and neural networks to significantly improve the accuracy of revenue and expense predictions for each event in the portfolio. This new decision support tool is expected to improve financial performance, optimize resource utilization within convention centers, and yield significant economic advantages for the host city. However, its implementation necessitates a comprehensive overhaul of existing operational procedures. Our forthcoming presentation will showcase our initial findings and delve into the obstacles encountered by convention centers when integrating such tools.