When to move on from a longtime host and how to streamline communication

Dear Event Doctor: We are considering moving our event from its longtime host city, but we’re struggling with whether it’s worth the trouble. Our attendees enjoy the experience at the current site, but we feel we could grow by seeing what another community has to offer. Do you have any advice on making such a move? —Moving Out

Dear Moving: Reading between the lines, it sounds as though you are considering moving the event not only because you perceive there may be opportunities for growth elsewhere, but also because you believe there are no such opportunities at the event’s traditional home. In other words, you are evaluating opportunities through a commercial lens.

Event–host city partnerships can grow stale with the passage of time. The near-certainty of an event’s annual return to a city sometimes breeds complacency not just on the part of the host, but also on the part of the organizer. This doesn’t mean the partnership is necessarily broken. Rather, the inability to realize growth may simply be a result of inertia.

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The Event Doctor is sports-event veteran Frank Supovitz, president and chief experience officer of Fast Traffic Events & Entertainment, an event management and consulting firm. From 1992 to 2014, Supovitz served as the senior event executive for the National Football League and National Hockey League. He is also the author of “The Sports Event Management and Marketing Playbook.” Questions for The Event Doctor can be emailed to Frank Supovitz at eventdoctor@schneiderpublishing.com.