This study is response to a gap in knowledge regards higher education institutions – and their subject or discipline areas - and the motivations for hosting conferences in professional and purpose-built venues, as well any perceived barriers in doing so. Further, the research also seeks to gauge the importance given to the hosting of conferences within and for the host city . A Key Informant research method is applied, i.e., primary research was undertaken in 2024 with key research leaders in universities. Key informants are those whose social positions in a research setting give them specialist knowledge about other people, processes or happenings that is more extensive, detailed or privileged than ordinary people, and who are therefore particularly valuable sources of information to a researcher, not least in the early stages of a project (Payne & Payne, 2011).