Living Lab’s first economic model was for the Singapore Grand Prix in 2012. In 2025 we became a software platform: government-grade intelligence for the visitor economy
Convention bureau ROI measurement. Living Lab tests a bid against the route, hotel, and venue capacity the destination can actually deliver, and against the specific rival on the shortlist, so the incentive is set by evidence rather than by what the competitor is rumoured to be offering. Reference data is published by ICCA.
Attributes what a congress the destination already won delivered: delegate spend, room nights, GVA, tax, and jobs, net of displacement, in terms a civic funder will accept. Reports on demand for any congress, season, or venue. A lost bid is evidence too: the same method shows whether price, venue, or capacity decided it.
Tests a live bid before the figure is quoted: walk away, match the rival, or differentiate on venue and dates, each with the incentive cost and the attributable value stated. Route, hotel, and venue capacity checked against the bid calendar. Demand137 sets the ceiling the bureau can defend.
| Product | Your question | You get | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand137 | Whether to bid, and at what incentive level | A scenario range against a named rival, not a match-the-rival figure | The incentive ceiling is set before the negotiation, not during it |
| Demand137 | Which rival destinations are the real competition | Route, hotel capacity, and venue benchmarking against the specific shortlist | The bid message targets the constraint the rival cannot match |
| Demand137 | When hotel and venue capacity limits what can be bid for | Room supply and site evidence tied to the bid calendar | Dates and scale the destination can genuinely deliver |
| Demand137 | What matching the rival's offer would actually buy | Attributable value net of the incentive cost, position by position | Matching on price alone stops being the default |
| Demand137 | What happens if we sit this cycle out? | Base, downside, and supported scenarios with a stated counterfactual | The cost of walking away is priced alongside the cost of bidding |
| Signal137 | What did the congress we won deliver? | Delegate spend, room nights, GVA, tax, and jobs, attributed and net of displacement | The bureau reports to the funder against the case that backed the bid |
| Signal137 | Why did we lose the last one? | The same scenario comparison, run after the result | The next bid is sharpened rather than repeated |
| Signal137 | Which congresses in the calendar pay back, and which only fill the venue? | Every congress ranked on retained value, on one method | The bid calendar improves year on year |
| Signal137 | Can I have the number before the shortlist deadline? | Reports on demand, in minutes, not after the PCO has decided | Evidence arrives while the bid is still open |
| Both | Who holds this, and where? | Model, data, and a trained team inside your jurisdiction | The capability survives the change of director or bid team |
Oman has announced plans for a high-altitude destination at Jabal al Akhdar, combining sports training, wellness, and tourism at 2,400 metres. It is the kind of project a Gulf government can commit to at once, and the kind that lives or dies on a demand case nobody has yet published.
A major event is a rallying point for civic pride, and just as easily a rallying point for protest. The difference is usually whether residents can see what the event does for their street, in terms they recognise, before the road closures start.
The owners of the Bulls and the Blackhawks are putting a reported US$7bn into 55 acres around the United Center: housing, a music hall, a hotel, retail, a park. The arena already hosts more than 200 events a year. The question a developer should ask is what the other 165 nights are worth.
Tourism is close to a tenth of the world’s output and employment, and almost every government still plans it in pieces. A country that governs its visitor economy as one system keeps more of what it pays for. On an illustrative US$20bn economy, five points of retention is US$1bn a year.
Hand a country that is losing visitors the largest sporting event ever held on its soil, and see whether the event can overcome the friction. It could not. Measured per hotel across 16 host markets, the 2026 World Cup delivered as a tournament and failed as a remedy.
We turn messy event and tourism data into decisions that help communities grow. Bring curiosity and rigour. We will hand you questions nobody has answered yet.
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