Salt Lake to host three years of ASAE's Great Ideas Conference

Salt Lake City has been chosen as the host city for the Great Ideas Conferences of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) for three years beginning in 2020. The city hosted ASAE’s annual meeting four years ago.

ASAE is an association of meeting industry professionals and industry partners responsible for booking thousands of meetings and conventions that generate billions of dollars of direct delegate spending in host cities.

The Great Ideas Conference is a flagship event for association professionals who gather from around the globe to connect, learn and collaborate, the association said. The meetings will attract 500 attendees each year at Salt Lake City’s Grand America Hotel. ASAE selected Salt Lake in part due to Visit Salt Lake’s reputation as an innovative destination marketing organization, ASAE said in a release.

“We won the bid to host this prestigious conference due in large part of our community’s well-earned reputation as an innovative, forward-thinking destination,” said Scott Beck, Visit Salt Lake’s president and CEO. “Salt Lake epitomizes the Great Ideas Conference’s reason for being — a community that connects and collaborates — and welcoming its attendees to our destination over a three-year period will undoubtedly have a significant impact on future business for the Salt Palace Convention Center, hotels and other Salt Lake County businesses.”

“The Great Ideas Conference raises the collective capacity for innovation in the association community and associations become stronger, more resilient and have a greater impact on society,” said ASAE president and CEO John H. Graham IV. “As an ASAE corporate partner, Visit Salt Lake is a vital force behind the new ASAE Innovation Launchpad held each January, so growing our relationship by collaborating on Great Ideas is a natural next step.”

Visit Salt Lake is a private, nonprofit corporation responsible for the promotion of Salt Lake as a destination for convention and leisure travel. In partnership with Salt Lake County, Visit Salt Lake’s mission is to improve the area economy by attracting and providing support to conventions, leisure travelers and visitors.