Thinking of Cities and Conferences as Platforms — Meetings Innovation Report

The Skift Meetings Innovation Report is a weekly newsletter defining the future of business events by deciphering disruptive strategies that improve engagement and knowledge sharing. Subscribe.

The Future of Meetings & Events

Keep an eye on CitizenLab, which is the focus of this week's feature story: The Rise of Civic Tech and Its Impact on Meetings and Conventions. The Brussels-based company works with cities to provide turnkey digital platforms for two-way engagement between city councils and local citizens.

I reached out to CitizenLab founder Wietse Van Ransbeeck who told me, “Tomorrow’s government is not merely a centralized, rules-driven body, but it should enable and facilitate citizen-led innovation through open digital ecosystems.”

So I asked him why couldn't his platform be used for citywide conferences to facilitate pre-event engagement between public and private stakeholders affiliated with both the destination and the event. As it turns out, that's exactly what CitizenLab has planned for the first time this summer, in partnership with the upcoming Smart Cities Asia Conference in October. Read the full story here.

— Greg Oates, Senior Editor

Social Quote of the Day

"The Paradox of Technology: Conquering the Event Data Deluge via @experient_inc: blog.experient-inc.com..."

— @DonnaKastner on Twitter

Next Generation Event UX

The Rise of Civic Tech and Its Impact on Meetings and Conventions: The CitizenLab platform fills the need in conventions today for an affordable, scalable community engagement tool connecting conference delegates and exhibitors with local citizens and policy makers. Read more at Skift

See How Google Gave its I/O Conference a Fun, Festival-Like Vibe: To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its developer gatherings, the company transformed an amphitheater parking lot into a multipurpose conference and entertainment venue. Read more at BizBash

A Field Guide to Techonomy NYC: Total biz/tech brain porn here about driving productivity through data, the social impact of the Internet of Things, and the future of artificial intelligence, connected cities, and the sharing economy. Read more at Techonomy

Getting Transparent: How We Select Speakers for Our Conference: MozCon's community manager riffs at length on how she and her team choose speakers who aren't trying to sell something or rehash their TED Talk. Read more at Medium

Technology Is At Its Best When It Augments Our Humanity: We have been trained to fetishize the new so much that we don't always realize the wealth and discovery of the old. Read more at Bcom

Google Just Changed Event Apps For Good: Google just announced a new wave in smartphone apps that will impact two of the largest problems with event apps today: downloads and adoption. Read more at Event Manager Blog

Tourism & Hospitality

Omni Hotels Turns to the Cowboys and the Braves to Help Redefine the Brand: Omni Hotels has developed an intriguing hotel design model and a unique positioning in the market by building properties in partnership with major sports teams and cultural institutions. Read more at Skift

Introducing The Bridge, The Innovation Hub Of New York City's $2 Billion Tech Campus: This is going to be the killer NYC event space in late 2017. Cornell Tech is building a new type of campus where companies and academia will work together more closely than ever. Read more at Fast Company

Globalization Isn’t A ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Strategy For Associations: As markets grow, businesses will increasingly need the services associations provide, such as professional development, knowledge transfer, networking and education, according to Globalstrat's 2016 Association Growth Global Trends Survey Report. Read more at Event Garde

What Design Thinking Is Doing For the San Francisco Opera: Two Stanford d.school students worked with the traditionally conservative SFO to help its executives see their operations from the perspective of the audience, as well as re-evaluate their stance on perfection at all costs. Read more at Harvard Business Review

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The Skift Meetings Innovation Report is curated by Skift senior editor Greg Oates [go@skift.com]. The newsletter is emailed every Wednesday.

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