Cinematic escapes at IMEX
Where travel stories leap off the screen (and show floor)
Film has a unique way of transporting us. As
Roadbook’s list of “cinema’s most persuasive portrayals of place” reminds us, a single scene can spark curiosity, shape perceptions and plant the seed for a future journey. From sweeping cityscapes to intimate portraits of place, movies that make stars of their settings remind us why exploration matters—and why destinations with a strong sense of story resonate.
For planners and storytellers across the global meetings industry, this connection between cinema and place offers plenty of inspiration. Destinations aren’t just backdrops in these films; they’re characters in their own right. And events that make stars of their settings are often the most memorable too.
Across the IMEX show floor, exhibitors are using narrative, culture and visual identity to bring their own destinations to life—inviting buyers to imagine not just where an event could take place, but how it might feel to be there.
California is the backdrop to countless films and listed here as the starting point for that most evocative of sun-soaked surfing films, The Endless Summer. The destination’s vast on screen legacy mirrors its real world appeal for planners seeking flexibility and scale. Equally cinematic in a very different way, New York’s energy is captured in Woody Allen’s love letter to the city, Manhattan.
Like both California and New York, Paris is the inspiration behind countless films, but Paris Je T’aime is chosen here for how it captures the city’s “multifaceted charm, highlighting unusual encounters, lesser-known locations and affecting narratives across the city’s arrondissements”. La Grande Bellezza celebrates Rome’s incredible artistic and architectural heritage and the path it carves between spirituality and pleasure. Pedro Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical Pain and Glory uses Madrid’s “plazas, museums, cemeteries and backstreets to add an authentic sense of place” and make all of us yearn for tapas followed by a tour of the Prado.
Perfect Days creates “a beautifully nuanced depiction” of Tokyo and reminds all of us to take time to appreciate the smaller things that make a destination. While Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation simply wouldn’t have made sense in any other city. In the Mood for Love captures the Hong Kong of another era, dominated by “street-food stalls, mah-jong halls and back-alleys. And no film has captured Mexico in quite the same way as the “sensual, color-drenched study of Mexican society” that is Y Tu Mama Tambien.
People remember experiences that move them. Film does this and events do it too.
Start writing your next script with California booth E255; Hong Kong booth G320; Madrid booth D350; Mexico booth G120; New York booth E160; Paris booth D230; Rome booth D400; Tokyo booth F450
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