Every city has its landmarks. Some have their skylines, others their culture or cuisine. But in the world of meetings and events, a single event can do something far more powerful – it can redefine a destination entirely.
In this new series, we’ll be exploring the events that have put cities on the global stage. Not just the headline numbers or economic impact, but the deeper story: how one event can shape perception, attract investment, and turn a location into a go to destination.
Each instalment will focus on one event and one city, uncovering how the two have grown together and what the industry can learn from their success.
In this first edition, we are exploring the impact that COP 26 had on Glasgow. We speak to Dawn Lauder, Director of Conference Sales at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), Aileen Crawford, head of tourism and conventions at Glasgow Convention Bureau and Helen Wright, director of major projects at Identity.
The event:
COP 26 took place in Glasgow, at the SEC from 31 October 2021 to 12 November 2021. The event had 40,000 delegates, as well as 120 world leaders and was declared by The UNFCCC as ‘the best COP ever’.
Dawn Lauder, director of conference sales at the SEC said: “COP26 was a defining moment. It established SEC and Glasgow as a credible platform for global environmental dialogue. If you want to have a serious conversation about the environment, the SEC is now seen as the place to do it.”
She added: “What has followed is an evolution. We’ve continued to adopt and refine sustainable best practice in partnership with organisers who are pushing standards even further. COP26 created momentum and we’ve built on it.”
The city before the event:
Before COP26, Glasgow already had a thriving event scene, having hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014. The Scottish Event Campus was already long recognised as a world-class venue for large-scale conferences.
Identity was the appointed agency for COP 26, after being selected through an open UK Government procurement process. The agency was appointed to deliver the end-to-end management of the blue and green zones, as well as additional city activations, such as the World Leader’s Reception at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery.
Helen Wright director of major projects at Identity said: “The city had a strong reputation. The Glasgow Convention Bureau and City Council had done significant work to build a strong stakeholder network, creating a collaborative platform that positioned Glasgow as a serious contender for major international events. But nothing had come close to the scale of a COP.”
She added: “When Glasgow was confirmed as host, it represented a genuine inflection point – an opportunity for the city, and Scotland as a whole, to demonstrate its capability on the biggest possible stage, with 40,000 delegates, 120 world leaders, and a global audience watching. It was a chance to cement relationships already built within the destination’s ecosystem, attract long-term international attention, and signal that Scotland wasn’t simply capable of hosting major events, it was ready to lead them.”
The city was already extremely collaborative, with COP26 showcasing Glasgow’s collaborative culture on a global stage and extending the partnership approach further by bringing together UK Government teams including the FCDO and the Cabinet Office, the Scottish Government, as well as Identity and the national bodies such as Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue.
The SEC was already designed for large-scale events and had a team with decades of knowledge and experience, meaning the delivery of COP26 was largely done with a business-as-usual approach.
“The SEC has worked closely with city partners for decades. We have shared goals and objectives, and our teams collaborate daily,” said Lauder.
She added: “It was high stakes, but low ego. A shared goal of delivering a successful global summit underpinned everything.”
There were some areas that the SEC proactively strengthened ahead of COP26, one of which being its sustainable food strategy. 80% of food and drink served on the campus is sourced from Scotland, supporting seasonal menus and reducing food miles.
COP26 challenged the SEC to balance three priorities:
- Honouring client expectations
- Maintaining commitment to local sourcing
- Finding creative alternatives where needed.
This led to innovative solutions, for example fulfilling the client’s request to serve strawberries, which would have been out of season at the time of the event, by preserving them in local honey.
The Impact:
Lauder outlines that hosting COP26 marked the beginning of a clear trajectory, positioning the SEC as a natural home for ESG-led events. Since then, Glasgow and the SEC have welcomed major gatherings including the World Congress of Soil Science and AGU’s Ocean Sciences Meeting, with the International Water Association World Congress set to follow later this year.
Crucially, COP26 cemented a lasting confidence within the team. It demonstrated the SEC’s ability to operate under intense global scrutiny, a capability that now underpins its approach to every event it hosts.
In the years since, the SEC has actively shared its learnings with the global business events community. This commitment reflects a broader ambition to play a meaningful role in raising industry standards.
The event also accelerated progress in key operational areas such as food waste management – food waste at the venue reduced by 12% between 2023 (when records began) and 2025 -and carbon reduction, while strengthening Glasgow’s appeal among intergovernmental and policy-led organisers. It proved the city and venue could deliver politically sensitive, secure, and globally significant events – broadening the SEC’s pipeline to include organisations such as Interpol, alongside a growing number of scientific and sustainability-focused congresses.
International planners are increasingly drawn to Glasgow in the post-COP26 landscape, seeking destinations and venues that align with their own sustainability ambitions. The city has responded by embedding sustainability at every level: around 70% of hotel rooms now hold third-party green credentials, major conference venues meet gold-standard sustainability benchmarks, and the Glasgow Convention Bureau achieved Gold Green Tourism accreditation in 2025.
As Wright notes, the impact of COP26 on Glasgow and Scotland’s MICE trajectory has been both lasting and wide-reaching. Delivering an event of such scale and complexity, during a global pandemic, significantly enhanced the destination’s global reputation. More importantly, it served as proof of concept, reinforcing Glasgow’s depth, capability, and credibility as a host city for major international events.
Aileen Crawford echoes this, highlighting that COP26 demonstrated Glasgow and the SEC’s ability to deliver multi-venue, city-wide events under intense political and media scrutiny. This has since enabled Team Glasgow to attract strategically important gatherings such as the Interpol Conference and the International Association of Women Police Conference.
Perhaps most significantly, sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’ in Glasgow’s business events strategy, it is an expectation. The legacy of COP26 has shifted the city’s focus from simply hosting events well to hosting events that matter, strengthening its position among leading European conference destinations.
