Meetings and Events Industry News

An independent lifestyle hotel collection specifically geared for corporate meetings seems like an inspired idea. The challenges include building brand awareness and convincing corporate procurement departments to work with independent hotels.

Here's a bunch of meeting industry shifts ranging from new Wi-Fi experience design in Orlando to convention center design in Sydney.

Meeting planners are asking hotels with large convention space to prove the quality of the Wi-Fi before signing any contracts. They're also willing to pay for solid Wi-Fi versus always asking for comp'd service.

The original vision at Icehotel 26 years ago combined a love for sustainability, creativity and local culture in a hotel environment, which has come to define today's corporate incentive programs.

Virtual events, the Internet of Things, crowdsourced marketing, and globalizing knowledge are just some of the trends fundamentally reworking the meetings and convention user experience.

Meetings must evolve to keep things interesting for attendees, and the ability to offer them unique interactions helps set cities apart.

It's surprising that more destinations don't create virtual trade shows like this. Although with virtual reality looming on the horizon and growing numbers of millennials moving into decision-making roles, that could motivate more cities to build these platforms in coming years.

Destinations from Vienna to Los Angeles are promoting their smart city infrastructure and technology to engage meeting planners and attendees.

At last, a U.S. tourism bureau has developed its digital meetings content and user interface on par with the best leisure content/UI available out there.

Vienna represents the missing link to date between the rise of smart city infrastructure development and destination marketing aimed at next generation conference organizers.