Step into Impact: Unlocking Local Organisers’ Potential – Part I: The Transformative Role of Local Organisers (LOs) in Driving Change and Impact

The panel comprised of association leaders and professionals who have experience in securing and hosting international meetings, and transforming those events into platforms for addressing specific local and national challenges. The moderator was Gary Grimmer, and the panellists were Nigel Brown, Professor Datin Dr Lydia Abdul Latif, Octavio ‘Bobby’ Peralta, and Dr Peter Lee. This industry paper (comprising Part I and Part II) is based on a moderated session titled “Step Into Impact: Unlocking Local Organisers’ Potential” during the LEGACY360 conference organised by Business Events Sarawak from 2-3 October 2025 at the Borneo Convention Centre, Kuching, Sarawak. Part 1, The Transformative Role of Local Organisers (LOs) in Driving Change and Impact, focuses on four case studies, narrating the transformative role of the Local Organisers (LOs) in driving change through meetings. LOs are an umbrella term for local associations, event organisers, and host committees. The cases were presented from the perspective of the Theory of Change (Weiss, 1995) and Logic Model (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004), where the Theory of Change provides the goals and desired event outcomes (the “why”), and the Logic Model, the activities to reach the goals (the “what”). The purpose of the paper is to provide practical insights to LOs on how to transform events into platforms for progress, collaboration and legacy. A cross-case comparison to highlight patterns, recurring themes, and lessons for LOs is used to derive the themes in the manuscript. A core theme throughout the discussion is that impact and legacy are not accidental, and events have to be deliberately designed, strategically operationalised, and sustained through post-event actions. Several key inter-connected principles from the different case studies emerged: intentionality, planning, pre-event and post-event activities, collaboration and leveraging the role of the local hosts, role of events in driving sustainable urban environment and local ecosystem, inclusivity, balancing the value of business event against tourism metrics, elevating secondary cities, system and tools, and challenges in measuring. The cases demonstrate that these combined factors can bring social, economic, scientific, policy change, and environmental impacts. Part II, Key Takeaways and Implications, focuses on the key takeaways and implications for the business event industry.