As with every industry, the events and meetings industry has their own set of terms (and acronyms) that they use so frequently it might as well be their own language.
One term that I kept hearing over and over again was “Citywides”. Besides the logical conclusion that it had something to do with an entire city, its meaning wasn’t exactly crystal clear for this industry novice so I sought out a definition and thought I would share what I learned.
A ‘citywide’ is a meeting, conference or convention where the expected number of attendees requiring hotel accommodation exceeds 1000 rooms on peak night. This number differs for every city but for Vancouver, 1000 rooms booked on peak night would meet the requirements for the term ‘citywide’ to be used. Peak night is in reference to the 1 night where the majority of the attendees require rooms. In other words, a 5 day conference can have 4 nights where only 300 rooms are booked and 1 (peak) night where 1000 rooms are booked and would still be classified as a ‘citywide’.
Hope this was useful. Keep your eyes peeled for more industry term definitions!
Priscilla Chan 