The Convention of the Future is a project convened by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with funding provided by the MCCA. The project is a research effort to examine technology challenges and opportunities within the convention, exhibition and meeting industry in the context of changing economics and the advent of network architecture. To explore the options, the project convened leading executives, industry analysts from trade shows and associations, technology companies and academia, representing three areas of expertise: planning, operations and management and information technology.

The project has drawn from case studies of show management and operations, on-going MIT research initiatives, and project working-group meetings. The findings and recommendations of the project were presented in a May 21 and 22, 2003, MIT symposium, before invited guests drawn from industry and technology sectors.

It is anticipated the analysis and the findings from the symposium will set the stage for creation of an industry/MIT research consortium, fostering utilization of emerging communications technologies to support entirely new service applications.