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Hospitality brands responded to the threat to the meetings industry by innovating and ditching the one-size-fits all approach. Find out where things are headed next.

Our second trends report for March dives deep into how hospitality brands are remaking the modern meeting.

“The Future of Meetings in Hospitality” looks at how wildly popular events such as the annual TED Conference, South by Southwest in Austin, and Oracle’s OpenWorld in San Francisco are beginning to influence the traditional meetings industry.

The traditional breakout room lecture and theater-style ballroom seating configuration are not going anywhere. But there is a drive to supplant that with crowdsourced, co-created, hybrid events with mobility and technology driving the change. While this shift is still in its nascent stage, innovative meeting planners, hotel groups and hotel conference services staff are developing programs to add new dimensions into the overall meeting scheme.

Integrating new technology platforms, myriad programming themes and alternative education delivery systems, the meeting of the future is focused on improving engagement among continually fracturing and distracted attendee audiences.

During the last five years, the meetings industry was forced to reevaluate how it conducts business and rethink how it drives results during a period of drastic economic volatility and unprecedented changes in technology. Above all else, leaders in the industry never want to be placed in a position again to have to defend the purpose of their industry. That is what’s driving the diligence paid to measuring meeting spend and empirically proving ROI, while redefining the very meaning of ROI as it applies to overall meeting objectives.

The first five pages of the 27-page report, including Table of Contents, are embedded below:

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About These Reports

This is the thirteenth report in a series of twice-monthly trends reports that brief readers on a specific trend, providing insight into the current state of the market, the context around the trend, and where the industry is heading in the near future.

After you subscribe, you will receive two reports every month — 24 in a year — direct to your inbox. Reports are delivered as a downloadable PDF.

Or you can also download each report a la carte, at a higher price.

You can read more about the trend reports here.

Any and all feedback is welcome. Contact me at ra AT skift.com.

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Tags: conventions, events, meetings, mice, westin

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