A Win-Win for Meeting Planners and Sports Venues — Meetings Innovation Report

The Future of Meetings & Events

Perhaps one of the most glaring remnants of the recent Olympic Games in Brazil are the empty sports venues dotted throughout Rio de Janeiro, and it’s not a problem faced by Rio alone.

Many cities around the world are finding their stadiums and arenas are empty when they’re not hosting sporting events, let alone a spectacle as large as the Olympics.

But what if those venues could be repurposed as venues for non-sports meetings and events when they aren’t being used for competition? That’s exactly what some cities and sports teams and venues are discovering and they’re now making more of an effort than ever before to court meetings and events groups, as writer Sheryll Poe discovered. Read the full story here.

It’s yet another example of how meetings and events can benefit communities by choosing to meet in more unconventional settings.

— Deanna Ting

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Social Quote of the Week

“The 10 Best Ways to Promote Your Event Online:” https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/academy/10-best-ways-promote-event-online/ #eventmarketing via @Eventbrite

— @Eventbrite on Twitter

The Big Picture

Planners Look to Sports Venues to Host Innovative and Immersive Events: The use of sports stadiums and parks for non-sporting events is a growing trend in the meetings and events industry, and professional sports teams who are eager to create additional revenue and leverage investments are promoting their state-of-the-art venues as a unique alternative for hosting conferences, trade shows, meetings, and events. Read more at Skift

How iOS 11 Will Bring Augmented Reality Straight To Events: Apple iOS 11 is coming this September and augmented reality (AR) will be baked in, making it the biggest AR platform in the world. Read on to find out how that will impact events. Read more at Event Manager Blog

What Generation Z Wants From Events Now: Skift took a look at this last week, and this week BizBash takes a look at the inaugural Girl Cult festival, created by Galore magazine and Goldenvoice, as an example of what Gen Z wants from meetings and events. Read more at BizBash

Proceedings and Conclusions Arising from the 2017 IMEX Politicians Forum: “How can the meetings and events industry most effectively contribute to the development of regions and cities in a world environment where globalisation, urbanization and the free movement of people are changing the structure of society and the way we live?” That was the crucial question at the heart of the debate at the 15th annual IMEX Politicians Forum where more than 30 politicians and policy makers from around the world met with 80 industry leaders during IMEX in Frankfurt 2017. Read more at IMEX Frankfurt

Next Generation Meetings UX

Ultrasonic Beacons and Events: Ultrasonic beacons have breached the concert ticketing space, and events are next in line. Read more at Cramer

These SXSW Panel Proposals Include DC Tech Leaders: Voting is open for SXSW’s PanelPicker. Byte Back and Crowdskout are on the ballot. Read more at Technical.ly

Six Tips for Reimagining B-to-B Events From the Offbeat C2 Montreal Conference: The brainchild of Sid Lee and Cirque du Soleil, C2 is an offbeat hybrid of a TED talk and a theatrical performance that reimagines and challenges the standard conference format. Read more at Event Marketer

How Event Tech Helped Turn a Conference Into a Global Movement: The 3% Conference tackled the issue of gender imbalance in the advertising industry — five years later, it has evolved into an international community that is enacting real change.
Read more at PCMA Convene

Skift Global Forum 2017

This Is Not a Freakin’ Trade Conference: Year Four: Skift has lined up one of the biggest gatherings of CEOs and founders in the travel industry, ever. Check it out, and join us in September if you can. Read more at Skift

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The Skift Meetings Innovation Report is curated by Skift Hospitality Editor Deanna Ting [dt@skift.com] and SkiftX Editor Greg Oates [go@skift.com]. The newsletter is emailed every Wednesday.

Subscribe to the Skift Meetings Innovation Report