What do event professionals need? Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA), which advocates for the U.S. business and professional events industry, has issued its hot buttons for 2025 in the form of its annual Public Policy Agenda to answer that question.
It summarized the document as follows: “From a tax code that incentivizes the growth of our industry’s small businesses to policies that help the U.S. attract more international exhibitors and attendees, ECA strongly encourages policymakers to adopt the measures…that will strengthen our industry’s competitiveness and ability to drive economic growth, support job creation, empower small businesses, and help solve our most urgent societal challenges going forward.
Top Priorities
Enhance competitiveness through growth-focused tax policies that include federal tax reform that is pro-growth via a “competitive business tax rate,” pro-investment by maintaining current private equity tax treatment, safeguards association and association nonprofit tax status and expands 529 plans—tax-advantaged savings accounts designed to be used for the beneficiary’s education expenses—to cover professional certifications.
ECA also says it will prioritize preventing state and local tax policies that would “unfairly target the industry.”
Support government policies to help attract and train the industry’s future workforce. This includes advocating for expanding Pell Grants to cover “high-quality shorter-term skills training.”
Read More: Shaping the Future of Hospitality
Grow international travel to increase U.S. global competitiveness. ECA supports continued reduction of visa wait times and a modernized visa processing system, and opposes any new U.S. inbound international travel restrictions.
Read More: Today’s Best Practices for Visas and International Travel
Other Issues
Although not a top priority, ECA also supports leveraging “smart decarbonization” for long-term competitive advantage. It seeks “the right balance between environmental aims and industry feasibility.”
Read More: The Best of Sustainability from 2024
It also supports future growth through a “competitive operating environment.” This includes securing government support for event cancellation insurance, increasing music licensing transparency and stopping “anti-competitive behavior” by rights holders, establishing a “pro-innovation federal privacy statute that harmonizes existing state privacy laws,” and blocking state and local efforts to “restrict the freedom of operations of business events.”
