Meetings and Events in The Trump Era — Meetings Innovation Report

The Future of Meetings & Events

Say hi to Jennifer Dienst who joined Skift as a contributor this week to report on trends disrupting the meetings and events sector. Follow her on Twitter at @JenDienst.

Jennifer's first story is a balanced account of how President Trump is unsettling some industry leaders, while others are hopeful that the hotelier-in-chief's experience in the travel industry, and his emphasis on deregulation, could potentially deliver some positive benefits. Read the full story here.

Two other stories this week examine how the Presidential Inauguration and the Women's March on Washington created emotional engagement among their disparate tribes with a sophisticated convergence of online platforms and strategic storytelling.

— Greg Oates, Editor of SkiftX

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Social Quote of the Day

"1st #UNWTO World Conference on Smart Destinations will take place in Murcia 15-17 February 2017: europe.unwto.org/event/1st-unwto-world-conference"

— @UNWTO on Twitter

Events In The Trump Era

What the Trump Administration Means for the Meetings and Events Industry: How will the new President's actions impact the meetings and incentive market? For now, it’s wait and see — “with a heavy dose of nervousness,” said Janet Traphagen, president of Creative Group and chair of the Incentive Research Foundation. “This administration seems to be quite reactionary. I think that’s a concern that we’ve heard from our customers." Read more at Skift

The Women's March After Trump's Inauguration Is A Perfect Example Of Social Entrepreneurship: This is an interesting deconstruction of the strategy behind the development of the Women's March, which focused on multidisciplinary storytelling across myriad channels aligned around a single purpose and collective passion. Read more at Forbes

What the Inauguration and Women’s March Teach Us About Events: BizBash founder David Adler writes: "Inaugural activities and the women’s marches around the world showcased the power of new styles of event organizing that combine both digital and face-to-face, as well as the pairing of all different types of events, to create the emotional connections that spark movements." Read more at BizBash

The Presidential Inauguration Proved That Everyone Is Falling In Love With Live Streaming: According to Akamai Technologies, a digital content delivery company, the President's swearing-in ceremony attracted record levels of online viewership via live-streaming. Read more at PCMA

Next Generation Event UX

The Incentive Research Foundation Highlights 2017 Trends in Group Reward Travel: With the rise in demand among incentive travel winners for authentic and individualized experiences, the IRF states: "This has led to the productizing of mini-experiences, from various types of tastings to personalized training sessions to behind-the-scenes introductions to chefs." Read more at The IRF

Keeping PCMA's Convening Leaders Fresh: PCMA CEO Deborah Sexton highlighted her takeaways from the association's recent Convening Leaders conference. She writes: "I’m the first to say we don’t always hit a home run with our attempts to innovate, but as this year’s 'designing colLABoration' theme shows, we view Convening Leaders as a learning lab for producing creative and effective business events." Read more at Convene

Does Career Stage Determine What Attendees Want?: Younger conference attendees prioritize networking while older delegates need to build equity in their relationships with both like-minded contacts and people outside their comfort zone. More evidence here to support the need for event programming tracks customized by age. Read more at Associations Now

Consumer Technology Association CEO on The Evolution of Innovation at CES: Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which produces the annual CES tech show, spoke to Nissan about how companies are partnering more to grow faster and stay relevant "because no company is good at everything anymore." Read more at Nissan

Austria's Deep Space 8K Exhibit Marries Event Tech and Data Visualization: The new Deep Space experience at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria includes huge floor and wall video screens where one artist is converting nature data into immersive digital environments. Read more at Ars Electronica

Cognitive Dance Party Brings AI to the Club: The Daybreaker group, which organizes morning dance parties, partnered with IBM to integrate the Watson artificial intelligence platform into one of its events to help like-minded dancers meet each other. Read more at CNN

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

Subscribe to the Skift Meetings Innovation Report