The 2022-2023 Event Management Journal state of play review

This paper provides the state of play of Event Management since the current editorial team took over in November 2021 until papers accepted in September 2023. Our bibliometric analysis indicates 234 distinct authors from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania contributed to the journal. Together with the varied theories and perspectives used to ground the research, the international nature of our authors demonstrates the growth, maturity, and robustness of event studies published in Event Management. Though sport events dominated, festivals, conferences/private events, and mixed or industry-wide studies were also published. Five meta-themes emerged: the event industry, social impacts and sustainability, destination image, temporal and contextual factors, and performance. The focus on the human and social elements is striking and welcome in this post-pandemic era. Finally, we identify submission gaps, offer future research directions (e.g., artificial intelligence (AI)/technology and sustainability), and suggestions to strengthen the journal and field.