A record number of meeting planners have turned out for the Professional Convention Management Association’s (PCMA) Convening Leaders annual conference in San Diego. Although an exact figure is not yet known, PCMA chair Susan Katz said the meeting had broken the previous record set in Las Vegas last year when 3,734 delegates attended.

“What's more, 112 delegates say they are only here because they have previously attended one of our virtual events,” she added.

PCMA has recently become a sponsor of the Virtual Edge Institute, an international organisation promoting virtual event and meeting technology, which is once again holding its annual Virtual Edge summit at Convening Leaders.

This year’s event has introduced a number of innovations, including shorter, more interactive workshops – some only 15 minutes long – and a number of hybrid sessions, with delegates attending and asking questions online.

Delegate attention span has been one of the prevailing themes at the conference so far, with several keynote speakers addressing the issue of audience engagement.

John Medina, a molecular biologist and author of Brain Rules, opened proceedings by outlining his theory of ‘chunking’, which states that humans can only process information in 10-minute bursts. Later Sally Hogshead, speaker and author of Fascinate, suggested nine seconds was the amount of time we had to grab someone’s attention.

Delegates will also be treated to an ‘experiential’ tour of San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, with numerous bars and restaurants offering food and drink tastings and music from 1960s funk-pop legends Kool & The Gang.