DMC

A DMC, or destination management company, is the local expert an organiser calls when the event happens somewhere the team does not know well. It arranges the ground services: airport transfers and coaches, hotel allocations, venues for the gala dinner, excursions, guides and local suppliers. DMCs are common for incentive trips, international congresses and corporate events abroad, where local contacts and local language save days of work. They often work alongside a PCO, who runs the meeting itself.

UK, European and US event teams all say DMC. Mixing it up with a PCO is the common slip: the PCO runs the conference and its registration, while the DMC looks after everything that happens in the destination around it. Ask a DMC early for transfer times and hotel distances, because those numbers shape the programme as much as the speakers do.