Meetings Today Podcast

During IMEX’s Smart Monday powered by MPI, SITE Chief Marketing Officer Padraic Gilligan took to the stage to moderate a panel discussion breaking down the data. We caught up with Gilligan after the panel to learn more about this new report from SITE and to find out more about where the meetings and events industry is headed.

Greater Phoenix is on a growth spurt that is welcoming new industries into the Valley of the Sun, with a robust tech sector in particular leading the way. Deborah Lahti, director of resort and hotel sales for Visit Phoenix, shares how the fifth-largest city in the U.S. is continuing to expand, with spectacular new hotels and resorts and improvements to traditional favorites transforming its meetin...

Gaming and hospitality giant Caesars Entertainment is upping its wellness ante via a new Wellness Menu that not only offers healthy food and beverage options for its meetings and events clients, but also selections such as wellness speakers, activities and services. Caesars Entertainment Vice President Catering and Convention Services Las Vegas Don Ross delves into the new wellness initiative as w...

Attendees at IMEX America are in for a special treat in the form of the Google Xi CoLaboratory, where the tech giant is teaming up with other exhibitors and speakers to stage sessions and spaces focusing on experience design and inclusion. Meetings Today’s Tyler Davidson spoke with Kate Walsh, Megan Henshall and Naomi Clare Crellin to discover what Hello! Destination Management, Google and Storycr...

Meetings industry veteran Eric Rozenberg is one of the foremost experts on international business events, having served as chair of MPI's International Board of Directors and by running his own business serving a global clientele. Rozenberg is also an author of business books and a speaker and instructor on the topic of entrepreneurship, especially in the meetings and events industry. Meetings...

From a spectacular new 976-room Signia by Hilton headquarters hotel rising from the site of the former Georgia Dome to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Centennial Olympic Park and the Georgia World Congress Center itself, Atlanta's 200-acre Georgia World Congress Center Campus--the largest combined convention, sports and entertainment campus in North America--is a meetings and conventions powerhouse. Be...

EventMobi recently acquired virtual events platform Run the World, which held an astonishing 50,000 virtual events during the pandemic for heavy hitters such as Forbes, Meta, Amazon, the United Nations Development Programme and Harvard University. Meetings Today's Tyler Davidson sat down with event management software company EventMobi founder and CEO Bob Vaez to explore the benefits of the ac...

Omni Hotels & Resorts has embarked on its first brand refresh in more than a decade, coinciding with an impressive growth phase that figures convention hotels large in the equation. Dan Surette, chief sales officer for Omni Hotels & Resorts, explains how the privately owned hotel company is placing a premium on the customer by working with global experience transformation company Materials...

The meetings industry is losing a vast reservoir of institutional knowledge with the retirement of Christine "Shimo" Shimasaki, whose most recent position was managing director of 2SYNERGIZE, a Simpleview consulting company specializing on delivering intelligence to DMOs. Meetings Today's Tyler Davidson caught up with Shimo shortly after the retirement announcement to discuss her 40...

Feeling boxed in and not recognized for your accomplishments? Lifelong hospitality industry veteran Dr. Lalia Rach has a prescription to help you manage your evolution within your profession, and in particular women executives and those climbing the organizational ladder. The author of Managing the Book on YOU !, who is also executive managing director of Strategic Consulting Service, a division o...

Georgia World Congress Authority (GWCA), which owns and operates Atlanta’s 200-acre Convention Campus, including the Georgia World Congress Center, prides itself on sustainability. From bee hives to its Intentional Gatherings program, launching the Making HERstory Tea for Women's History Month, career-building efforts for local youth and DEI and food rescue efforts, the Georgia World Congress...

Like many of the leading issues that were top of mind until the pandemic sucked all the oxygen out of the room, in-person event risk management is once again being discussed as the industry ramps up to pre-pandemic levels and attendees are traveling for meetings. But while DEI and sustainability have regained their status as key industry concerns as the pandemic wanes, many believe now is the time...

KiKi L'Italien, CEO and host of Association Chat, an online community for the association industry, always calls it like she sees it, and her observations from ASAE 2023 are no exception. From association talent pipeline struggles and the impact of AI to what she believes is the curious lack of a hybrid component at "The Super Bowl of Meetings," L'Italien is one of the leading, a...

Non-profit organization CreatiVets helps veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries by teaming them with songwriters to share what are sometimes their most guarded experiences and emotions. Meetings Today got to experience the concept of this musical magic firsthand when it brought in CreatiVets to facilitate the writing of songs about meeting and event planning at...

Curious about generative AI and its applications in the meetings industry...but didn't know to ask? Meetings technology expert educator Jim Spellos previews his upcoming webinar, "Everything You Need to Know About AI...But Didn't Know to Ask," on this disruptive technology and the benefits and risks of its use. While the ramifications--and possible regulations--regarding generati...

Fresh from participating in Maritz Global Events' Innovation Lab at IMEX Frankfurt, Amy Kramer, innovation leader for the global events leader, discussed the "new language of events," which includes disruptive technology such as NFTs, the Metaverse and generative AI. How close are meeting and event planners to including these new technologies in their programs, and how are younger me...

Wolfgang Puck transformed the way Americans thought about cuisine and is the O.G. celebrity chef. Meetings Today's Tyler Davidson asked Puck about his journey to become a entrepreneurial cuisine legend, the 25th anniversary of Wolfgang Puck Catering and what he believes his legacy will be. Along the way, the Austrian-born chef dishes out stories about some of the entertainment industry celebri...

Leading Asian American inclusivity consultant Jolene Jang discusses the many facets of the Asian American and Pacific Islander culture and the challenges faced by this massive demographic in the meetings and events industry. From assimilation and the complexity and wide scope of the myriad AAPI cultures to safety issues and representation, Jang is a staunch advocate for inclusion. and moving the i...

Meetings Today sat down with Eugene Blabey, director of event planning and operations at Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel, to discuss the unique ways in which the hotel infuses local culture into its offerings, welcomes guests to a "West of Zen" experience and provides top-tier meeting services through the R.E.N. Meetings program, offering planners opportunities to try somet...

For Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) May 18, Meetings Today sat down with Stephen Cutchins, senior product manager-accessibility at Cvent, to discuss his work around driving accessibility in Cvent's meetings and events technology tools and raising awareness about accessibility across the meetings and events industry. 

As we move through 2023 with the mindset of making meetings and events industry trends a long-term reality, Alicia Jenelle, a multi-hyphenate professional and international experiential design expert from Toronto, shares how to push the DEIB conversation one step forward.

DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion, is an unstoppable force in the meetings and tourism industry and beyond. Meetings Today touched base with two leading DEI proponents, Greg DeShields, executive director of Tourism Diversity Matters, and Sheila Alexander-Reid, executive director diversity for PHL Diversity (a division of the Philadelphia CVB) to get their take on successes as well as the cha...

As the leader of the association representing major conference centers in Europe and North America, IACC CEO Mark Cooper is in a unique position to gauge the recovery of the segment, which was hit especially hard by the pandemic. How is the conference center segment currently faring? How are corporations using these facilities to gather a workforce that in many respects was scattered to the wind,...

In some respect, the pandemic allowed the islands of Hawai'i to heal, as mass tourism came to a halt. The break only solidified the realization—long held by many Native Hawai'ians—that it is paramount for the unique culture of the islands to be understood, and respected, by visitors. John G. Reyes, senior vice president and chief MCI sales officer for Meet Hawai‘i, shares how Hawai'i&#...

While millions know Coyote Peterson as the guy who gets stung and bitten by just about every animal under the sun in his YouTube hit Brave Wilderness –where his videos have been viewed more than 4.3 billion times worldwide–he's also a fan of his adopted hometown of Columbus, Ohio, headquarters of his media company. After meeting him during a familiarization trip to Columbus before PCMA Conveni...