The $80 Million Mistake: How America Just Defunded Its Own Influence

While D.C. celebrated a tax win, Brand USA was gutted—and America lost its convening edge. This is how it happened. And what must happen next.

Somewhere in a windowless committee room, while half the country was arguing about TikTok and Taylor Swift, Congress quietly voted to gut the one tool America has left to shape how the world sees it. Brand USA—the nation’s official destination marketing organization—was created to position the U.S. as a premier travel and meeting destination across the globe. It’s the only federally chartered organization solely dedicated to marketing the United States internationally for tourism and business events. In July 2024, respected NYC & Company executive Fred Dixon was named its CEO. He remains in place, but now finds himself at the helm of a drastically underfunded ship.

Just as we prepare to host the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 LA Olympics, lawmakers stripped $80 million from the only national entity connecting tourism, business events, and soft power.

We didn’t just fumble the bag. We threw it off the stage.

And in doing so, we proved exactly what the rest of the world already suspects: that America still doesn’t understand the strategic power of convening.

Welcome to the Iceberg Age (And We’re Not Even on the Map

If you want to understand just how far behind the U.S. is when it comes to treating events as strategic assets, start with The Iceberg. It’s not a magazine. It’s not a newsletter. It’s a curated platform built by the Joint Meetings Industry Council (JMIC) that showcases how business events around the world are leaving a real legacy—from reshaping cities and fast-tracking public health to building economic sectors from scratch. Think of it as the case study library for global influence through convening. And yes, the name is intentional: it’s based on the idea that the most valuable outcomes of an event—policy shifts, innovation, scientific breakthroughs—happen beneath the surface. What you see (badges, booths, hotel bookings) is just the tip. The Iceberg is about everything that lies underneath.

While America still defines event success by room blocks and badge scans, the rest of the world has moved on—to legacy, to policy alignment, to outcomes measured in decades, not days.

You can see the architecture of global convening power if you know where to look. UFI, once known as Union des Foires Internationales, now simply calls itself the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry—the closest thing we have to a global chamber of commerce for trade shows. For years it was led by Kai Hattendorf, who gave it a voice far beyond badge counts and booth sales. He’s since stepped down, but remains a powerful commentator through his newsletter events(ful). In January 2025, Chris Skeith took the reins as CEO. He is a seasoned association professional who got Royal recognition (he’s an OBE - Order of the British Empire) for his work at the helm of the UK’s Exhibition Organizers, Association AEO and its advocacy work through the pandemic. He now carries the weight of repositioning UFI not just as a trade show champion, but as a convening force on the global stage.

ICCA, the International Congress and Convention Association, plays a quieter but no less vital role. It tracks and analyzes the movements of association events—medical congresses, scientific summits, educational forums—and does the one thing no one else has figured out: map how ideas travel the world through events.

Then there’s SISO, the Society of Independent Show Organizers, headquartered in the U.S. but deeply connected abroad. They don’t run the shows—they represent the people who do. From the smallest vertical expos to the world leaders like Informa, RX, Clarion and Emerald, SISO members know how to build a marketplace in 48 hours and tear it down in 12.

Invented to amplify these and other associations' event-impact agendas is the metaphorically-branded The Iceberg. It’s not a news site or lobby group, rather a huge repository of case studies, features, research reports and provocations, now curated by Martin Sirk, who just took over from the quietly respected James Latham. Sirk has been an advocate for “beyond tourism” thinking for over two decades and now has access to a much louder megaphone!

And while all this alignment is happening globally, what does the U.S. have? A few tireless voices. Chief among them is the Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA), whose team works Capitol Hill, reminding lawmakers that events are economic oxygen—not just glittery distractions. During COVID, it was the exhibition lobbying organization who kept the lights on for an industry left out of most relief plans.

And yes, the U.S. has muscle. The International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) is still the backbone for large-scale trade show organizers. PCMA trains the industry’s most polished strategic planners—particularly on the corporate and association side. And MPI, Meeting Professionals International, still reaches deeper into middle-market and regional chapters than any other network. We also have the Events Industry Council representing an alphabet soup of industry advocates and communities as well as some of the pandemic founded organizations like Live Events Coalition that is in the process of being revived. The talent is there. The experience is there.

What’s missing is the playbook.

Because despite these associations’ reach and resources, the U.S. still lacks a coordinated strategy that connects them to national goals—climate, tech, science, diplomacy. They’re all running, but in parallel lanes. In Singapore, this kind of alignment happens before the first agenda is drafted. In Copenhagen, it’s mapped to urban development. In Washington? It’s a patchwork of D.C. fly-ins, disconnected briefings, and missed opportunities.

What Happens Now: The Real-World Fallout

The pain isn’t theoretical. It’s already showing up in places like Las Vegas, where international show attendance is softening and future bookings have started wobbling. Destinations that rely on Brand USA’s messaging and matchmaking—especially those that count on high-spending international delegates—are starting to feel the chill. Smaller shows are reporting longer sales cycles. Hotel partners are seeing international group cancellations spike. And tourism boards in gateway cities like New York, Orlando, and San Francisco are warning that without federal-level visibility, they're losing ground to more coordinated global competitors. Not to mention the additional chill from Department of Justice-enforced budget tightening, which continues to limit federal employees from attending industry events—even those tied to public health, science, or national priorities.

The Trump Irony No One’s Talking About

The man who made his name in hotels just gutted America’s biggest tool for selling them.

Donald Trump has spent a lifetime branding skylines, lobbies, and luxury experiences—but under his watch, Congress just slashed Brand USA’s budget by 80%. The move effectively kneecaps the very tourism and business events sector that helped define his own business empire.

And here’s the kicker: Trump probably never even read that part of the Big Beautiful Bill.

This is the same president who, during his first term, granted emergency immigration relief for hospitality and hotel workers—because he understood how critical they were to keeping the industry staffed.

Now, that same industry—particularly the international meetings, conferences, and exhibition sector—is being defunded while he’s out selling strength.

If Trump really understood the soft power of a world-class ballroom, this would’ve never made it past page two.

Trump’s Immigration Flip-Flop: A Temporary Carve-Out—or Just Theater?

Just days ago, Trump announced a surprising carve‑out: farm and hospitality workers—many of whom are undocumented—would be exempted from ICE raids, as long as their employers vouched for them. He framed it as a practical move: “The farmers know them. They’ve worked great. We’ve got to work with the farmers and hotel people.”

But within days, the policy unraveled. Internal DHS memos quietly reversed course. Raids resumed. Employers were left confused. Workers went back into the shadows.

This wasn’t strategy—it was political improvisation.

And for an industry still recovering from COVID-era collapse, still desperate for staffing stability, and still trying to attract global meetings and conferences, this kind of whiplash only makes things worse.

“Trump just offered a lifeline to hotel and farm workers—then pulled it away. This isn’t policy. It’s performance art. And our industry is left holding the bag.”

Tactical Wins, Strategic Blind Spots

The exhibitions industry did notch a few real victories in the Big Beautiful Bill. Through the work of groups like the Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA), provisions were secured that preserved business-friendly tax rates, protected nonprofit status for associations, and expanded access to workforce development tools like Pell Grants and 529 savings plans. These are meaningful wins for the event sector’s operating foundation.

But while the exhibition world was focused on tax reform and training access, something far more consequential was quietly cut: Brand USA, the only federally chartered organization tasked with telling the world why America is worth gathering in, had its budget gutted by 80%.

This isn’t a funding problem. It’s a visibility crisis. Without Brand USA, the U.S. loses its storytelling muscle, its global competitive edge, and the connective tissue between tourism, business events, and policy leadership.

You can’t market the power of convening if no one’s holding the mic.

So yes, the tax wins matter. But they’re not enough. Brand USA is the amplifier. And right now, we’re shouting into silence.

The Doomsday Scenario? It’s Already Here

In a post-pandemic world, trust is built face-to-face. Events are the new diplomacy. Cities are branding themselves by what they host. And influence flows not just through TikToks and treaties—but through who gets invited, who shows up, and what happens after.

By defunding Brand USA, we’ve just made it harder for America to:

• Attract the best researchers, investors, and thinkers

• Host the summits that define global policy

• Compete for the ideas and industries of the next decade

We just handed the microphone to everyone else.

The Stand We’re Taking

At Gathering Point, we’re not here to flatter the system. We’re here to flag the blind spots.

Defunding Brand USA isn’t just bad tourism policy. It’s a self-inflicted wound to our country’s influence, economic competitiveness, and international standing.

And every mayor, event organizer, association leader, and city planner should be asking: If Washington won’t back the business of convening, who will?

Because while we’re busy debating TikTok bills, the rest of the world is busy inviting the future—and actually showing up for it.

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What Gathering Point Is Advocating

We’re not just covering the problem—we’re taking a position and offering some ideas to get people thinking, knowing that this may not be the time but is at least aspirational. This is our call to reset how America thinks about events.

1. Reframe Events as National Strategy—Not Tourism Perks
Events are infrastructure. They accelerate policy, innovation, trade, and global positioning. We must stop treating them like party planning and start recognizing them as diplomacy tools.

2. Create a Federal Office of Strategic Convening
The U.S. needs a centralized strategy body for events—cross-agency, high-impact, and designed to partner with cities, sectors, and associations. Other countries already have this. We’re decades behind.

3. Fully Fund Brand USA—and Add a Business Events Division
Restore Brand USA’s funding and carve out a track for business events, legacy-building summits, and policy-linked convening.

4. Invest in Legacy Research and ROI Tools
We need national investment in tracking event outcomes, not just attendance. Legacy research is diplomacy’s data layer.

5. Put Event Professionals at the Strategy Table
Event experts are architects of experience, behavior, and belief. They belong in policy rooms, economic development boards, and federal planning teams—not just backstage.

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This is our line in the sand. Gathering is how the world moves forward. If the U.S. keeps ignoring its strategic power, we’ll lose the influence game before the lights even come up.

We call on every destination marketing leader, trade show executive, association CEO, and public sector partner to get on board with the longer term vision.

The microphone is still on. Who else is ready to speak up?