PCO

A PCO, or professional conference organiser, runs conferences and congresses on behalf of associations, societies and non-governmental organisations. Some act as consultants; others run everything, from the call for abstracts and the venue contract to delegate registration, accommodation and the onsite registration desk. A good PCO brings the experience the client's committee lacks, which matters when the committee changes every year and the congress moves to a new country every time.

PCO belongs to UK and European usage, where the C can also stand for congress, and IAPCO is the profession's international association. US associations rarely use the term: they hire meeting planners, independent planners or association management companies. A destination management company, or DMC, is different again: it delivers local ground services in the destination rather than running the meeting.

A PCO can run each client as its own eventcloud organisation, with the client's own Stripe account, VAT setting and address, and move between clients from the profile menu without signing out.