Detroit, Indianapolis and Chicago rank busiest cities for August events

The August 2022 Event Index reveals eight US cities set to experience high volumes of large events in August, as well as several cities set to experience sudden plunges into events. With more than 11,400 events with 2,500+ attendees taking place in the United States this August, businesses can tap into the people movement and billions of dollars in demand these drive. This is especially true for the cities experiencing unusually high or low periods, all of which are detailed in this new report.

PredictHQ, the demand intelligence company, today released its August 2022 PredictHQ Event Index report. Companies such as Uber, Accor Hotels and Domino's Pizza use PredictHQ's intelligent event data to forecast demand more accurately. The Event Index is a simple entry point for companies to begin to proactively prepare for the fluctuations in demand that events cause as a score out of 20 per city.

This is generated by unique model applied to 40+ major US cities to identifies how substantial an impact events will have each week. This score is calculated for each city's baseline event activity based on five years of historical, verified event data and millions of events per location. An index score of 10 represents an average score, a score above 15 means the city is likely to be significantly busier than usual, and a score below an 8 means that city will likely be noticeably quieter than usual. Every city has its own baseline and scale to accommodate for the variation in their populations and event norms. For example, a score of an 18 in New York City will entail millions of people moving about the city, whereas a score of 18 in Wichita, Kansas will involve just over 100,000 people.

This gives companies operating in those areas a simple summary to help them plan for any anticipated demand surges or drops. Of the cities in the August report, Detroit is set to experience two weeks of substantially higher event activity, so businesses near these major event clusters can roster on more staff, stock up on inventory or consider different pricing and packaging to make the most of these demand surges. Detroit weighs in with a 16.4 out of 20 for the week of August 14, and will peak at 16.6 the week of August 21.

In August, the cities with the highest activity are:

• Detroit at 16.4 (week of August 14) and 16.6 (week of August 21)
• Indianapolis at 16.4 (week of August 21)
• Pittsburgh at 16.1 (week of August 21
• Fort Worth: 15.7 (week of August 21)
• Chicago at 15.7 (week of August 7), 16.3 (week of August 14) and 15.5 (week of August 21)
• Plus Columbus, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City and more

All of the above plus more are detailed in the report as set to experience unusually high or low event activity in August. Notably, August will see weeks of notably low event impact for cities such as:

• Orlando at 4.9 for the week of August 14
• New York at 7 for the week of August 28
• Dallas at 7.1 for the week of August 14
• Charlotte at 7.7 for the week of August 14 and 7.2 for the week of August 28
• Cincinnati at 7.5 for the week of August 14

PredictHQ CEO Campbell Brown said: "A major challenge for businesses right now is keeping track of which cities should be gearing up for busy periods and which cities should be preparing to mitigate the impact of quieter times. Events are a powerful and reliable indicator of demand, and using verified event data provides a relevant and scalable way to do centralized demand planning and forecasting. For example, teams in Chicago may know they're in a stretch of busy weeks, but almost certainly won't know that Miami and New York will have a surprisingly quiet week in the middle of August, when they can save on inventory and staffing.

PredictHQ tracks global events across 19 categories, accounting for attendance-based events like concerts and sports, non-attendance-based events like school holidays and unscheduled events such as severe weather incidents. This breadth of event coverage is critical for the Event Index, as the peak weeks are caused by many overlapping large events.

While the Event Index provides an accurate look ahead at people movement, it is designed to be a simple and accessible summary of the demand intelligence PredictHQ offers – particularly for large companies operating worldwide. Industry leaders in on-demand, accommodation, QSR and transport use PredictHQ's verified and enriched event data to inform staffing decisions, pricing and inventory strategies, and many other core business functions.