The UK association conference attendance decision-making process

This paper reports on research carried out into the consumer behaviour displayed by UK association conference delegates when deciding to attend a conference. Examination of the available literature suggested that there has been little investigation of the delegateʹs perspective on attending a conference, as most research into business events has traditionally been centred on the supply side particularly convention destination image, and association site selection. The paper found six underlying dimensions of the UK association conference delegate decision-making process – personal/professional development, networking opportunities, cost, location, time and convenience and health and wellbeing. Additionally, regression analysis showed that two of the dimensions (networking opportunities and cost) were significant predictors of intention to attend the conference again in the future.