Skift Take

2016 is going to be the hump year when sharing companies move from the cheap seats of the meetings industry to center stage.

The Skift MeetingsIQ newsletter defines the future of meetings and events with an emphasis on disruptive strategies that improve knowledge sharing.

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The Future of Meetings + Events

iq180x150During the last couple months I booked two Airbnb rentals on the Yale and MIT campuses. One was for leisure, one was for business. The listings were chosen based on their central location and value, because these days we’re all mobile-first, cloud-first, and focused on economy and efficiency to help us travel smarter. The two Airbnbs cost $74 per night for a full studio at Yale and $77 nightly for a private room at MIT, and both were enriching and immersive “local” experiences.

That’s the thing with sharing companies from Airbnb to Zeel (the on-demand massage service). Once we book these platforms for personal use, a good majority of us want the same experience when we travel to out-of-town meetings and conferences. That’s why Airbnb is going to rearrange the meetings sector within the next decade. You can feel it now. As we discuss in this week’s stories, meeting management companies like Experient and destinations like San Francisco are teaming up with Airbnb in anticipation of surging demand from event attendees.

— Greg Oates

Social Quote of the Day

“Knowledge of trends in the meetings market is essential for venue sales & marketing pros ow.ly/XWwHI” — @IMEX_Group on Twitter

Airbnb-Business-Travel-Ready

The Rise of Sharing Companies

How Airbnb is Quietly Positioning Itself to Disrupt the Meetings Industry: More meeting planners are considering Airbnb as a viable accommodation option, based on new partnerships and programs that dramatically increase the value proposition for themselves, their clients, and their attendeesRead more at Skift

Interview With San Francisco Tourism CEO on Getting in Bed With Airbnb: In July 2015, San Francisco Travel was the first tourism bureau ever to announce a formal partnership with Airbnb. CEO Joe D’Alessandro explains the challenges and successes around bringing people with different agendas together at the same table to explore a divisive topic. Read more at Skift

Incoming CEO Don Welsh Shares His Vision For Destination Marketing Association International: On the topic of sharing companies, Welsh says, “We need to address new entrants that are changing the travel and meeting landscape, like Airbnb and Uber. We need to include them in the industry, even if we don’t agree with them.” Read more at Meetings & Conventions

Event + Venue Trends

NAMM Shows Why Trade Shows Are Obsolete, and Why We Still Need Them: The annual Winter NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show in Anaheim illustrates three reasons why digital engagement is replacing the trade show experience, and four reasons why it’s not. Read more at Forbes

The Feel-Good Female Solidarity Machine: Former editor of Vanity Fair and New Yorker, Tina Brown has succeeded beyond her dreams in selling out her annual, 2,500-seat Women in the World Summit four years running. She also expanded overseas, “showing that it was possible to monetize female rage.” Read more at Bloomberg Business

Five Top Trends That Venue Sales and Marketing Professionals Should Understand: The days when conference delegates were isolated in windowless convention centers completely oblivious to the city around them are over. The next generation event venue is now part of the creative meeting experience. Read more at IMEX Group

Experiential Learning Takes Education To New Levels: According to Christine Renaud, CEO of the event tech company E-180, “In this day and age, careers are challenging, pushing us to explore problems and find solutions outside our area of expertise. They call for our ability to constantly reinvent ourselves, to be incredibly resilient, humble, and fierce. We can’t hit pause.” Read more at Huffington Post

Hospitality + Destinations

Hilton Blue Paper: The Rise of the Airport Hotel: In concert with the opening of the new Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schipol, the brain trust at Hilton HQ released a new report that attempts to imbue the traditionally maligned airport hotel with a little luster. The innovative Dutch design at Schipol is definitely a step in the right direction. Read more at Hilton

Kenes Group and BestCities Global Alliance to Create Worldwide Scientific Conference Series: The BestCities coalition of 11 global destinations are working with the Kenes conference design company to develop a series of scientific and medical events that will rotate through each of the destinations. Read more at MeetingsNet

Comments

Skift MeetingsIQ is curated by Skift senior editor Greg Oates [[email protected]]. The newsletter is emailed every Wednesday.

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Tags: airbnb, meetingsiq

Photo credit: Airbnb and other sharing companies are making their presence felt in the traditional hospitality, tourism and meeting industries. Airbnb

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