MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, and Exposition) Industry
OVERVIEW

Introduction

This tutorial is designed to help you begin researching the meeting, incentive, convention, and exposition industries, often collectively referred to as the MICE industry. The MICE industry generally encompasses all aspects of for-profit and non-profit meetings, incentives, conventions, expositions, tradeshows, special events, festivals, and related areas.

According to a 2011 report released by the Convention Industry Council, the MICE industry in the United States directly supports 1.7 million jobs, $263 billion in spending, $14.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $11.3 billion in state and local revenue.
 

The MICE industry is a relatively new, but fast-growing, area of academic study.  Accordingly, it is relatively easy to find news announcements, brief articles, and anecdotal information on most topics, but it can be difficult to find scholarly information and meaningful statistics. This tutorial will help you discover existing information on this emerging field of study.

Topic Selection

A good topic for an academic project is one that interests you, fulfills the parameters of the assignment, and is researchable.  The following guidelines may assist you in choosing an appropriate MICE topic:

Try to choose a "manageable" topic that is not too broad or too narrow for the assignment.

For example, planning special events is probably too broad of a topic for a ten-page research paper.  You would quickly be overwhelmed with thousands of relevant books and articles on such a topic, way too many to use in a ten-page paper.

On the other hand, the effect of direct mail advertising campaigns on attendance at the St. Vincent Charity Hospitality Annual Dinner is probably too narrow for such a paper.  You would have difficulty finding information in trade or scholarly books and articles on such a specialized topic.

In this scenario, you might eventually refine your topic to something more manageable, such as the role of marketing in the planning of fundraisers or charity events.  A librarian or professor can also help you identify suitable topics in your area of interest.

Identify concepts associated with your topic: these are relevant main keywords and their synonyms and near-synonyms.  For example, for our topic of the role of marketing in the planning of fundraisers or charity events, you might identify concepts such as:

• Concept 1: marketing... advertising... promotion... selling
• Concept 2: fundraiser... charity... non-profit... philanthropic
• Concept 3: event... meeting... conference... dinner

These keywords will be helpful when you search for information on your topic in library catalogs and article databases.  As you do more research, you may add or delete keywords (or even entire concepts) from your search.  Throughout the process, try to remain flexible and be willing to alter the focus of your topic as you learn more about it.