Meetings and Events Industry News

Brands from Hilton Worldwide to Google are injecting more value into their events at every touch point, ranging from experiential culinary design to advanced event tech and content distribution.

A lot of hotel groups are providing healthy food options for their meeting groups, but attendees are still dozing off in the afternoon. So Hilton is pairing its meals with fitness and team-building experiences to try and inject greater energy and focus into meeting sessions. More research needs to be done on this.

Security, mobile device usage, the sharing economy, and positioning events as marketing vehicles are among the top challenges for event planners in 2016.

The meetings and event industry desperately needs to break down all of its silos so members in all of the different segments have access to a greater breadth of industry insight at a global level.

While everyone is looking to event technology to create better opportunities for attendee engagement, event organizers first need to free up the time and space in their programs for people to actually connect.

Few other Olympic Games in recent memory created as much controversy as Rio 2016, but all of the airport, hotel, and transportation upgrades bode well for continued tourism development over the long-term.

New event apps use matchmaking algorithms and dating app functionality to help conference attendees tap into the collective knowledge of the entire event community.

Innovation is no longer the sole domain of tech companies, media visionaries, and Millennials. Today, everyone is at least attempting to integrate more inspiration and creativity into their events to resonate with more diverse audiences.

Based on a directive coming straight from the Prime Minister's office, Visit Britain needs to collaborate more closely with its convention industry partners. Now that the government has ponied up the necessary funds to do so, Visit Britain has detailed its plans.

2016 is shaping up to be the year that everyone revolts against boring meetings, and many event owners, meeting planners, and hospitality executives are paying attention.