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The Future of Meetings + Events

Skift Meetings IQ New2Samsung Electronics launched its new 360-degree virtual reality camera in Barcelona last week during the annual Mobile World Congress. In a surprise appearance, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg came on stage to discuss the future of VR and how it could impact various industry sectors, including meetings and events.

“Imagine holding a group meeting or event anywhere in the world,” Zuckerberg said. “Right now, virtual reality is mostly used for games and entertainment, but that’s quickly evolving. One day you’ll be able to put on a headset that’ll change the way you live, work and communicate.”

Meanwhile, at the Catalan Tourist Board booth at Mobile World Congress, delegates buckled up in a moving VR chair where they strapped on a headset to explore the region virtually. The tour included FC Barcelona’s 99,000-capacity Camp Nou soccer stadium. “Instead of handing them leaflets, we give them real experiences,” said Ferran Macia of the Catalan Tourist Board. “We have proof that if travel agencies use VR, sales actually increase.”

Hotel group sales departments are also using VR more aggressively this year to engage meeting and event planners. The viral, weeklong social media buzz surrounding the Zuck/Samsung launch emphasized that a lot of attendees are eager for this type of brand engagement.

— Greg Oates

Social Quote of the Day

“Missed the #Facebook #Zuckerberg or @Qualcomm / @LewisHamilton keynotes? Watch replays here: http://bit.ly/1p48tDg  #MWC16

 @mobileworldlive on Twitter

Julie Coker Graham

Tourism + Hospitality

Philadelphia’s New Convention Bureau CEO on Designing New Meeting and Event Stakeholder Partnerships: Convention bureaus are shifting their priorities to connect more people from disparate backgrounds, cultures and industries in an effort to drive new business development, competitive advantage, and knowledge sharing. Read more at Skift

Hilton Wants to Change Your Mind About Airport Hotels: Although many travelers fear and loathe airport hotels, Hilton is providing data that suggests hotel companies can change people’s perceptions by promoting airport properties designed on par with city hotels. Read more at Skift

The Rise of Food Sharing Experiences at Meetings and Events: Food-sharing platforms like Paris-based Vizeat are expanding their operations into the lucrative meetings and events sector, based on demand among conference delegates craving a more locally immersive business travel experience. Read more at Skift

How Airbnb Is Working With the Meetings Industry: Jonathan Mildenhall, CMO of Airbnb, shares how the sharing economy is courting the events industry. Read more at Convene

The Sharing Economy and The Meetings Industry: Event veteran Padraic Gilligan highlights a few industry players, including Skift, who are driving the conversation around the impact of sharing companies on the meetings landscape. Read more at Padraicino

Düsseldorf Airport’s Innovation Hub Wants a Bit of Startup Magic: Aviation is taking advantage of outsider perspectives and capabilities to push innovation forward. With proper management, these programs could prove fruitful both for the industry and passengers. Read more at Skift

Next Generation Event UX

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg on the Virtues of Virtual Reality Tourism: Zuckerberg made a surprise appearance at Samsung Electronics Co.’s unveiling of a new 360-degree VR camera at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. He talked about how it could create new ways of communicating across all business and leisure sectors. Read more at Skift

11 Engaging Activations From the TED Conference in Vancouver: While TED’s main stage presentations remain the focus of the buzzy conference, there were also dozens of immersive experiences and sponsor activations to engage attendees, both inside and outside the Vancouver Convention Centre. Read more at BizBash

Top 12 Things I Learned at TED 2016: Here’s an engaging review of TED this year from Bill Gross, founder and CEO of Idealab. Some of the highlights include a drone video over Syria, Google’s Project Loon Wi-Fi balloons, and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia sharing an email he wrote in 2007 suggesting a bed-and-breakfast for designers concept. Read more at LinkedIn

4 of the Newest Apps for Meetings & Events: Surkus, SummitSync, Gjests and Konvene are potential solutions for event networking, engagement and marketing. The Surkus “crowdcasting” app helps planners curate their audience and measure the value of influencers. Read more at BizBash

How Did Winning the First Ever #IMEXpitch Event Tech Startup Competition Help Speecheo: Q&A with Speecheo CEO Raphael Harmel on audience engagement, networking, ticketing, ROI for event managers, and the value of promoting startup culture to planners. Read more at IMEX Group

7 Interesting Ways to Use Video For Your Next Event: Some innovative strategies here about how to integrate more client and user-generated video content into meetings and events. Video competitions and video booths are just two of the emerging trends in 2016. Read more at Event Manager Blog

Comments

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

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Photo credit: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg dishes on the future of virtual reality at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Mobile World Congress

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