The Future of Personalization and Engagement at Events — 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

“Skift makes me the smartest guy in the room,” Bryan Churchill, VP of hotel sales at Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, told me yesterday at the annual Cvent Connect conference in Las Vegas. I hear that all the time because we always define what’s driving business in travel and tourism by focusing on the trend lines versus the headlines.

This week in meetings and events, Airbnb’s head of hospitality and strategy, Chip Conley, addressed thousands of hotel professionals at the conference about the room-sharing platform’s strategy in the business events sector. Conley gave a balanced presentation explaining that Airbnb will always be primarily a leisure company. However, it’s building out a data-driven platform that will provide meeting attendees unmatched customization to book and explore a destination personalized to the individual’s preferences. Read the full story here.

The sleeper story in 2016 for the meetings sector is the rise of civic tech platforms to help meeting planners engage attendees, event stakeholders, and destination suppliers like never before. Companies including CitizenLab and Loomio are making waves in Europe and Asia, and they’re heading to our shores. Definitely check out Loomio. Read the full story here.

— Greg Oates, Senior Editor

Social Quote of the Day

“Make sure your congressmen realize the value of the #meetingsindustry. Join us in our #WorthMeetingAbout campaign: http://bit.ly/25ksjNE”

— @MeetingsMeanBiz on Twitter

Tourism & Hospitality

Airbnb Explains Its Strategic Move Into the Meetings and Events Industry: Airbnb can’t compete directly with hotels for meetings business in terms of product, but it will be able to grab market share in the future by offering a degree of personalization that hotels can’t match. Read more at Skift

Making Your Hotel the Go-To Resource for Meetings and Events Planners: A meetings blog isn’t meant to sell conference space or to solicit RFPs. It should be focused on helping planners maximize the meeting and attendee experience in your city. Read more at Tambourine

IAPCO’s Response to The Brexit: Nobody can say for sure how the U.K.’s proposed abandonment of the EU will impact global meetings business. However, there are European associations that will only meet in the Euro Zone. Best two out of three, anyone? Read more at Convene

Next Generation Event UX

Civic Tech Is Trying to Position Meetings as Movements: New civic technology like Loomio is helping meeting and event planners build consensus and drive collective action — two of the primary factors that drive social movements. Read more at Skift

9 Ways To Use A Loomio Proposal To Turn A Conversation Into Action: Loomio is a consensus-building digital platform that conference organizers use to engage audiences around specific proposals and drive collective group action. Read more at Loomio

Creative Format for a Creative Conference: Fast Company’s Creativity Counter-Conference in Los Angeles emphasized engagement with leading creative professionals across different sectors in interesting indoor and outdoor environments. Read more at HuffPost

How to Engage Younger Audiences: Tips from a Gen Z: According to one under-twentysomething, younger generations find comfort in being able to identify with a simple word or phrase that embodies a clear idea or community they can adopt. Read more at FreemanXP

South By Southwest Now Accepting Conference Programming Proposals For 2017: If you’re curious about how events are crowdsourcing ideas for programming by tapping into the collective knowledge of the community, SXSW provides a great primer on how to do it right and make it work. Read more at SXSW

Remarks By President Obama and Conversation With Mark Zuckerberg and Entrepreneurs At GES 2016: Facebook CEO Zuckerberg: “Entrepreneurship is about creating change, not just creating companies. The most effective entrepreneurs who I’ve met care deeply about some mission and some change that they’re trying to create, and often they don’t even start because they’re trying to create a company.” Read more at GES

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

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