The Las Vegas Strip.

Gaming resorts, once shunned by some corporate meeting hosts and planners as taboo because of their negative association with gambling, have evolved as a go-to resource for many planners over the last few years, primarily because of the extraordinary value they offer and the simple fact that they offer an exceptional range of dining and entertainment options under one roof.

It’s no secret that gaming has, for decades, helped Las Vegas secure and keep top-dog status as a meeting destination. And the city’s hotel product continues to reinforce its formidable status.

Las Vegas

Top Las Vegas options include the 2,716-room Wynn Las Vegas and the 2,034-suite Encore. Between them, the two hotels hold more Forbes Five Star restaurant awards than any other resort in North America. Wynn features 14 restaurants, including a trio of steak houses, three acclaimed Asian restaurants, seafood emporium Bartolotta and Italian restaurant Sinatra. Wynn also features a Forbes Five Star spa and the No. 1 golf course in Las Vegas. Wynn and Encore offer a combined 260,000 sf of meeting space.

Rivaling Wynn for status as the most lavish property in town is The Venetian, a 4,027-unit, all-suite mega-resort property whose sprawling convention complex, with a 2.25 million sf of meeting and exhibition space, includes The Sands Expo Center and sister property Palazzo. The Venetian offers an array of celebrity chef restaurants, including Delmonico Steakhouse, Table 10 and Lagasse’s Stadium from Emeril Lagasse; modern American cuisine outpost Postrio and Cut steak house from Wolfgang Puck, and Bouchon from Thomas Keller — current consensus holder of the “America’s Best Chef” title. Like its key competitors, The Venetian also offers a world-class spa for pampering attendees.

MGM Resorts operates the city’s signature portfolio of gaming resorts, including a globally acclaimed trio of spectacular properties: Bellagio, MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay, which virtually define “the best of Las Vegas.” The company’s long list of other properties, each of which offers a distinctive theme at a particular price point, include Aria and Vdara at the MGM Resorts-owned hotel-dining-entertainment-shopping complex City Center; Monte Carlo, New York, New York, Luxor, Excalibur and Circus-Circus. The most recent addition to the MGM Resorts collection is the Delano Las Vegas, sister property to the landmark Miami Beach hotel that helped create the South Beach phenomenon in the mid-1990s.

Rounding out the list of properties that help define the current hotel inventory in Las Vegas is the Forbes Four Star, 390-room M Resort Spa Casino, which features eight restaurants, including the flagship Anthony’s Prime Steak & Seafood; seven bars and lounges; a 23,000-sf spa; 92,000-sf casino; and more than 90,000 sf of meeting space. For budget-conscious planners and attendees, its Studio Buffet has been twice named the best buffet in Las Vegas over the last few years by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Golden Nugget Las Vegas transformed their 20,000-sf Convention Center into a modern business space. The project included new flooring, enhanced lighting, new wall coverings, upgraded technology and a state-of-the-art digital signage system throughout the existing space. The center now houses 13 breakout rooms, which can then be customized for individual group needs, as well as the 5,000-sf Bel Air Room that includes a prefunction foyer.

Additional convention space at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas includes the 12,000-sf Grand Event Center located on the casino floor.

The Golden Nugget Las Vegas, the most luxurious resort on the Fremont Street Experience, offers more than 2,400 deluxe guest rooms and suites; a casino, world-class restaurants such as Grotto Italian Ristorante and Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse; a luxury spa and salon; and The Tank, a year-round outdoor swimming pool complete with a live shark aquarium and the new H20 poolside lounge.

A Planner’s Perspective

When Jim Emme, president of Bloomingdale, Illinois-based Now Foods, a manufacturer and wholesale distributor of natural foods and nutritional supplements, was looking for a venue for the company’s August 2014 Western Retailer Conference, for the first time ever, he chose a gaming resort — the AAA Four Diamond Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno, Nevada.

Why did he choose a gaming resort for one of the company’s most important meetings?

“Since we had never used one before, we just wanted a facility that would allow our attendees to experience that type of venue,” Emme says.

Gaming itself was simply one of the many options such a property would offer attendees in their free time. “If people wanted to participate in that kind of activity, they could, Emme says. “And if they didn’t, there were many other things at the resort they could do.”

“If people wanted to participate in…(gaming), they could. And if they didn’t, there were many other things at the resort they could do.” — Jim Emme

Given the many options he had, Emme says that he selected the 1,623-room Peppermill — named the No. 1 hotel in Reno in January by U.S. News & World Report — for three key reasons:

“The first was its proximity to the airport,” he says. “Logistically, it was easy. The second was that it’s also convenient to the manufacturing facility we have there. And a tour of that facility was an important part of the meeting. The third reason was the price. It offered us good value. It wasn’t the lowest-cost venue we looked at. But for the price, they were able to accommodate us and also offer special meal choices, whether that meant vegetarian or vegan or what have you. And for everyone else, they also offered wonderful food choices so that everyone could have a first-class experience.”

Such broad dining options are especially important to Now Foods, since a disproportionately large percentage of their attendees are either vegetarians, vegans or simply very health-conscious.

“And on that count, Peppermill did a great job,” Emme says. “The staff at the resort also noted that they had really never had such an eclectic group as ours when it comes to food and beverage dietary preferences and options. But they were able to accommodate all of our people with first-class meals that satisfied everybody.”

Value Proposition

Like many meeting hosts and planners before him, one of the things that most surprised Emme about using a gaming resort was the bang for the buck it delivered.

Planners are often surprised to find that dollar for dollar, gaming resorts offer more bottom-line value than any other kind of property. Emme agrees with that perception.

“We were pleasantly surprised with the feedback we got about the value that a gaming resort in general — and Peppermill in particular — had to offer for the price,” he says. “We do a survey after the meeting, and 100 percent of our attendees said they were pleased with Peppermill. And to me, that’s really how you measure value.”

By the same token, Emme was very satisfied with the meeting infrastructure and support services Peppermill delivered.

“On a scale of one to 10, I definitely give them a 10 for their meeting facilities, including the meeting space, the technology and the support services,” Emme says. “When you have a meeting today, everybody brings their own smartphones and laptops. And outside speakers bring their own devices, content and files. So getting all of that hardware configured to the internal audio-visual network at the facility is often clunky. And that was a seamless process at Peppermill. They were outstanding in their technical support of us. There was always someone available in the room to help us.”

He also rates the overall level of service at Peppermill very highly. “The service we got, across the board, was top-notch,” he says. “Again, on a scale of one to 10, it was a 10. And from researching Peppermill, we expected that high level of service. But it was actually even better than we expected. We didn’t have any kind of problem. Everything went very smoothly from start to finish.”

And that was very important to the success of his meeting, primarily because its retailer attendees are the backbone of his growing business.

Many of Now Foods’ retailers are small mom-and-pop operations. “They are the mainstay of our business,” Emme says. “So one of the things we do with our meeting is try to help them add value to their businesses. And our Western Retailer Conference is where we do that for our retail customers from that part of the country. And we want them to have an enjoyable experience. So one of the things that was important to us in the selection of a gaming resort like Peppermill was that they could pick and choose whatever they wanted to do.”

Not all of his attendees actually gambled. But all of them found the range of entertainment and leisure options, such as a world-class spa, to be an important element of the meeting.

“And that makes it easier for us in terms of planning the meeting.” Emme says. “It also makes it easier and more convenient for our attendees. The feedback we got from many attendees was that they liked the fact that everything they wanted was under one roof. They liked the fact they had so many other choices, like the bars and lounges and entertainment. There was something for everybody.”

In fact, attendees liked Peppermill so much — and Emme felt he got such practical value for his money — that Now Foods will likely go back next year.

Peppermill Resort Spa Casino features 10 restaurants, 16 bars and lounges, Spa Toscana, casino, a 4,000-sf boardroom, and 106,000 sf of meeting and convention space in the resort’s Tuscany Tower.

East Coast Options

Although Las Vegas rules the roost as the top U.S. gaming destination, Atlantic City offers a convenient choice for planners looking for an East Coast option that delivers sizzle.

The 2,000-room Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa features 11 restaurants, multiple bars and lounges, a full-service spa and 70,000 sf of meeting space. Within the complex is an 800-room The Water Club hotel that is even more upscale and exclusive. Borgata will add two new entertainment venues later this year.

The 1,140-room Caesars Atlantic City Hotel & Casino features 15 restaurants, including the flagship Morton’s The Steakhouse and Nero’s Italian Steakhouse, as well as the more casual Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill; a full-service spa, one of the largest casinos in town and 28,000 sf of meeting space.

The 2,079-room Tropicana Atlantic City features a total of 20 restaurants, including seven fine dining establishments and 13 casual dining options. Flagship restaurants include The Palm for steaks and seafood, P.F. Chang’s for Chinese cuisine and Cuba Libre. The Tropicana, now undergoing a $35 renovation, also features a Bluemercury Spa and 122,000 sf of meeting space.

Native American Properties

Although Las Vegas and Atlantic City have been widely appreciated as gaming destinations for more than a half-century, casinos owned and operated by Native American tribes have become a popular new niche for meeting planners over the past decade.

The AAA Four Diamond Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, features 497 guest rooms and suites, upscale and casual dining options that include the flagship Orange Sky Restaurant for aged beef and fresh seafood and Blue Coyote Cafe for distinctive American cuisine, the Spa at Talking Stick, and more than 50,000 sf of meeting and event space that includes a 25,000-sf Salt River Grand Ballroom and 22 individual meeting rooms. The resort also features 50,000 sf of outdoor meeting space that takes advantage of the sensational Southwestern landscape. Also located in the Talking Stick Cultural and Entertainment Destination on the Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Reservation is Casino Arizona.

Located in the Pacific Northwest, in Marysville, Washington, the 370-room Tulalip Resort Casino ranks as one of the most popular Native American gaming resorts in the U.S. for meetings and events. It offers five restaurants, including the signature Tulalip Bay; a full-service spa; and 30,000 sf of meeting space.

Connecticut features two state-of-the-art Native American casino resorts, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods.

Mohegan Sun, which currently has 1,200 guest rooms, will open a second, 400-room hotel, called Earth Hotel, in fall 2016. Mohegan Sun features 40 restaurants, bars and lounges; a 20,000-sf Elemis spa; three entertainment and event venues, including a 10,000-seat arena, a 400-seat cabaret theatre and 350-seat Wolf Den; three casinos; and more than 100,000 sf of meeting space. The resort also includes a 17,500-sf outdoor terrace and a 130,000-sf retail shopping complex.

Located in Mescalero, New Mexico, the 273-room Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort & Casino, owned by the Mescalero Apache Tribe, features five restaurants, including the flagship Wendell’s Steak & Seafood Restaurant; a championship 18-hole golf course; and 40,000 sf of meeting and banquet space. Activities in the scenic outdoor setting include hiking, mountain biking and bird watching.

Located in Mashantucket, Connecti­cut, the Foxwoods Resort Casino features four individual hotels, including the AAA Four Diamond Grand Pequot Tower, Great Cedar Hotel, Two Trees Inn and Fix Tower, as well as the intimate 23-suite The Villas. Signature restaurants include the AAA Four Diamond Paragon for fresh seasonal fare, as well as Italian eateries Al Dente and Alta Strada, David Burke Prime steak house and Cedars for beef and poultry. The Foxwoods complex includes 150,000 sf of meeting space.

The Southeast

The 100-acre, 481-room Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in South Florida, is another of the country’s top-ranked Native American gaming resorts. It features 17 restaurants, including the flagship Council Oak Steaks & Seafood, 11 nightclubs, a 22,000-sf European spa and 20,000 sf of meeting space.

Also in the Southeast, the AAA Four Diamond, 1,740-room Beau Rivage, located in Biloxi, Mississippi, and operated by MGM Resorts, ranks among the most unique and popular gaming resorts outside Las Vegas and Atlantic City. It features five restaurants, including the flagship BR Prime steak house and Jia for innovative pan-Asian cuisine. The resort also features The Spa at Beau Rivage, the Fallen Oak Golf Course and 50,000 sf of meeting space. C&IT

The future looks bright for incentive travel. Each year, the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) Foundation conducts an analysis of the motivational events industry and releases its projections for the future. In its most recent study results, the foundation reported that incentive travel continues to be on an upswing and is predicted to grow into 2016.

Kurt Paben is president, channel and employee loyalty, U.S., for the loyalty program company Aimia Inc. and also serves as president of the SITE Foundation. His company works with clients in a variety of vertical markets, including automotive, high-tech, pharmaceutical and health care. “We’re seeing the use of incentives as a business tool just continuing to rise,” he says. “We see more and more of them. I think our customers, along with our help, have gotten really good at understanding what the business value is and how to structure incentive programs so that by running them, they drive business results for the company.” He says that those results might be related to sales, service, employee retention or another company goal.

Paben noted a few trends that he’s seeing in incentive programs. “International travel continues to be popular and on the rise. That said, the length of programs typically has shortened by a little bit to anywhere from four to six nights on average.” He says the challenge is to figure out the best way to construct an incentive program when a shorter time frame is involved.

The Personal Touch

“The notion of a trip where everyone does the same thing has gone away,” Paben explains. “It’s now much more customized to the individual, and I think that’s a very big change. You have multiple generations in the work force, so how do you construct things in a way that really makes sense for the participant? I think what we see is a huge trend toward making business personal and how, although you’re doing group incentive travel, you create experiences that are meaningful on a personal basis that connect with individuals.”

“The notion of a trip where everyone does the same thing has gone away. It’s now much more customized to the individual, and I think that’s a very big change. — Kurt Paben

Paben says that creating a personalized program is a multifaceted process. “It’s how you create every touch point to be a more personal one, so it’s not just about activities. There’s a lot more work done on really understanding what the demographics of the group look like, so we look a lot at the different personas and types of folks we have on client programs and plan experiences so they can really connect in a very personal way. I think it can go all the way down to the kinds of gifting that you do on incentive programs as opposed to giving everyone the same room amenity or the same room gift. It’s trying to understand what they are interested in; what would be meaningful to them. The more we can learn about people and the more they’re willing to share gives us the ability to construct a whole experience — not just activities — in a way that I think is much more meaningful.”

Generational Differences

The SITE survey also found that generational diversity needs to be considered in program design. According to the report, “There is no significant difference in beliefs about the effectiveness of motivational tools based on generation. However, it is apparent that it takes different rewards to motivate different generations. Boomers continue to be most motivated by extrinsic rewards. There is strong agreement that millennials are less motivated than other generations although traditionalists come close.”

Changing Communications

The way in which incentive trip sponsors communicate with their attendees is also changing. “Most of that has moved to the handset,” Paben says. “Mobile technology allows you to have very individualized, personalized communication. It’s where you can drive personalized itineraries, drive personalized communications, right on their handset, about information that they specifically need to know versus what everybody needs to know. It can also be a place to have contained social media within the group. If you look at the way that consumers, in general, interact with brands, you can bring that similar mobile experience to events.”

Kristin Twombly, global event manager for Zynx Health, plans an annual sales incentive trip that ranges in size from 25 to 75 couples. She also is seeing technology playing a bigger and bigger role in her programs. “We’ve always done event registration, but we’re really into mobile apps right now. We have been doing those for different events to generate excitement before (the event) and to make the information and agendas easily accessible to people while they’re onsite. It’s great for incentives, because they kind of want us to be hands off and be able to do their own thing when they’re on these trips. It’s a way to keep in touch with everyone and provide them with updated information, but also not be calling or emailing them all the time.”

She says that her company has always created personalized itineraries, but that in the past, creating them manually was a very tedious process. “Using some of these technological tools that are available now makes it really easy from the planner’s point of view,” she describes. In the SITE study, 86 percent of those surveyed indicated that the use of smart/mobile technology is either important or very important in their program operations.

Finding Inspiration

Laura Miller, CMP, holds the position of firmwide events and sustainability manager for McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, a law firm headquartered in Atlanta. Her company has offices in 15 cities, and it is her responsibility to plan an annual retreat attended by 300 partners. “It’s the only time each year that most of these people see each other face-to-face. While we do have business meetings during the event, the main focus really is bringing these people together to network.” While this is not an incentive trip (attendance is expected), Miller is tasked with planning a compelling annual event that the partners can get excited about attending.

In order to accomplish this goal, Miller took a novel approach. On the advice of several of her suppliers, she joined SITE so that she could learn how to take elements from successful incentive programs and use them to make her own programs more successful and appealing. “I’m able to borrow the ideas and compare my meeting with the incentive meetings more than I am to some of the other corporate meetings that really should be apples to apples but aren’t,” she explains. The strategy worked, so much so that her meeting planning peers from other law firms have asked her how she achieves such high attendance at her retreats.

“A lot of law firms have their meetings in the same location three and four years in a row,” she states. “I would have a very hard time generating excitement for people to go if we went to the same place over and over again.” So, similar to many incentive programs, Miller uses only four- and five-star properties and moves the event to a new destination each year to keep the interest level high.

In addition to the partner meetings that are part of the retreat, Miller makes sure she builds time into the agenda for recreation. “We offer golf, spa and local tours,” she says, adding that her group is usually more interested in high adventure than golf. “We always seem to max out the things like the ATV tours, and the paddleboarding and ocean or river kayaking.”

Another page she borrows from the incentive trip playbook is to present each attendee with a special welcome gift such as Maui Jim sunglasses when the group met at Terranea Resort in Southern California or a squall jacket when the retreat was held at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay Golf Resort, Spa and Marina in Maryland.

Making a Difference

The SITE survey also reported that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is here to stay. “We certainly see a lot of corporate social responsibility being integrated into incentive programs,” Paben notes. “We see more and more of that.”

Miller also incorporates a CSR element into her programs. For example, her firm has brought the Clean the World program into hotels that weren’t already donating their leftover toiletries to the nonprofit organization, and her attendees have packed hygiene kits to be donated to those in need. Another year, the firm brought in a group of service dogs in training who needed to gain experience being socialized around different types of people in a hotel setting. “We had puppy petting, and people interacted with the puppies,” Miller explains. “People loved it.” She purchased a supply of large dog beds for the event and then donated them to a local shelter afterwards.

This year, when their group met at the Hyatt Regency Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona, McKenna Long brought in the team from Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy Camp. Partners who wanted to participate in the camp were divided into four bands that practiced together and then performed on the last evening of the retreat. The audience voted in this battle of the bands, and the winning band got to choose a charity to which the McKenna Long Foundation would donate. They chose Legal Aid of Washington, DC. The event generated funds for a worthy cause and provided entertainment for the group at the same time.

Desirable Destinations

From a destination standpoint, traditional favorites continue to be selected, while new choices are being added to the mix. “From an international standpoint, certainly the major European capitals are always popular,” Paben notes, listing London, Paris and Rome as examples. “Italy continues to be very popular. We’re also seeing people going to more off-the-beaten-path places in those countries to explore them in a more intimate kind of way. The other thing that we see are destinations like Dubai coming on very strong. People have a very big interest in that. Cruising also continues to be popular. It’s a great way to travel internationally and see multiple destinations without unpacking.”

Wining and Dining

Food and beverage choices also are being given greater attention. “I think food and beverage has really changed,” Paben comments. “(It) has become much more an integrated part of programs now. There are so many different food trends that are out there. How you string all of that together is much different than it used to be. Destinations, whether it be through hotels or caterers, are able to make food and beverage an experience within itself. That’s the trend that we see more and more.”

Since Twombly’s company is in the health care business, wellness is an important focus when she plans her programs. “It’s something we’ve been doing increasingly throughout my time here, having programs and food and beverage that support that. When I’m looking for a destination or hotels to partner with, that’s definitely something that I think about.”

Breathing Room

Another challenge that’s involved in designing a successful incentive program is finding the right balance between scheduling group events and giving attendees some much appreciated free time. Paben believes that the days of jam-packing a program full of content are a thing of the past. ”There’s definitely a blowback from that. They want to have that balance of being together with the group and interacting with fellow winners and the executives, but they also want to experience the destination in the way they want to do it.

“In the past,” he continues, “you might have scheduled every single night and every single day. It’s not unusual now for them to have a night on their own, a day on their own. You want people to be able to experience the destination in the way a leisure traveler might. It’s also about balancing that out. One of the great things about incentive programs is that you can quite often create experiences that a normal traveler couldn’t, so how you put the two together in a meaningful way is the trick.”

Twombly explains, “We have a couple of organized events for them, but we do try to give them a lot of downtime, too, because it’s supposed to be a vacation. We want to try to keep their commitment to a minimum so they can enjoy time with their spouse or their guest. There’s a little bit of an awards component, so we’ll do a dinner one night. We also have some optional things that they can participate in. For example, we’ll do a networking breakfast one morning.”

More Ways to Motivate

Incentive trips also can be used to motivate employees who aren’t part of the salesforce. “Certainly, sales continues to be the No. 1 reason people do incentive programs,” Paben states, “but it’s not the only one. We definitely have clients who reward other employees. They may be the types of employees that are in call centers. They’re the voice of the brand, so they’re the ones that make sure that customers have a good experience. There is definitely more of this notion of not just rewarding sales but also rewarding those that can provide excellent service to customers and that’s a really good thing.

“It brings a huge return,” he continues. “Quite often, those types of employees have not been the recipients of these types of opportunities, so it goes a long way. There are good results, but there is also good will that comes out of offering incentives to employees beyond the sales organization.”

Twombly also has had experience planning these types of programs. “In 2014, in addition to our sales (incentive), we also did a client service kind of award so people who were nominated by executive leadership could go on a similar incentive trip, as well.” She also shared a similar experience she had with a former employer. “We had a really large client that did an incentive every year for their on-the-ground teams. It was really outstanding, because a lot of them don’t travel as much as sales teams. For some of them, it was their first time ever going on a trip like this, so it’s really rewarding to plan. A lot of sales teams are used to traveling to all of these lavish places, but with the service teams, it’s really great to see their reactions to some of the prizes and excursions and things like that that they don’t normally get to experience.”

Measuring Success

According to the SITE report, the requirement for companies to measure return on investment (ROI) or return on opportunity (ROO) will continue. “One of the biggest changes in incentive programs is making sure you have a clear way to measure the success and the business value of it,” Paben elaborates. “I think that’s really important. We work with customers to do that so that they can confidently articulate the business value of the investment in incentive travel.

“If the program was structured properly, you can normally tell whether it worked or not,” he continues. “I think when the incentive industry was probably unfairly attacked several years ago, companies weren’t in a position to clearly articulate the business value of what they were doing. Now, I think clients are in a much better position to say ‘we spent this amount of money on an incentive program and for that amount of money, we got X amount of incremental sales, or we grew our customer satisfaction scores by X or we’ve been able to retain a higher percentage of our top performers.’ I think if you can measure that and articulate what the business results of incentive travel are, that’s a really good thing.” C&IT

At the Walt Disney World Resort, keynote speaker Bobby Flay explored the design decisions made in the cooking process while preparing delicious dishes on stage at Learning 2014. Credit: Ed Burke

This may or may not be good news. Kale salad is out. So are beets, caviar, Asian fusion and the appletini (was that even still in?).

For 2015, the trending foods, flavors and drinks are cauliflower, sea urchin, umami (a word borrowed from the Japanese meaning a pleasant, savory taste) and cocktails made with 15, yes 15, ingredients. French cuisine is apparently returning to favor and salad lovers will be munching on cabbage.

Just when you thought nothing could make coffee trendier, along comes nitro, which has already ignited the craft-beer world. Aficionados swear that the gas improves coffee, too, reducing acidity, increasing creaminess and making a cuppa joe naturally sweeter.

Not to worry if your favorite foods have dropped off the trending list. It will all change again, at least that’s the word from Andrew Freeman & Co. (AF&Co.), a San Francisco-based restaurant and hospitality consulting, marketing and public relations group that publishes a much-anticipated annual F&B trend report.

AF&Co.’s Food Trends Index reveals that instant gratification, education and participation will be recurrent food & beverage themes throughout restaurants and hotels in 2015.

Millennials rule nowadays. Thus, the economic upturn, coupled with the desire to attract millennials, has led to a surge of hip new concepts, personalized service and customized experiences geared towards satisfying this “demand” generation, according to AF&Co.

Chefs, restaurateurs and hoteliers are providing experiences that are less formal yet high in quality, more interactive and rooted in catering to the pleasure-seeker, says Freeman.

The one thing unlikely to change is that food is no longer just about filling stomachs.

Brain Food

One dominant meal concept involves foods that help boost or maintain cognitive power, of particular importance for attendees at all-day conferences. Over the past few years the meetings industry has begun to embrace the science behind healthful, low-sugar meals and snacks that help keep attendees focused rather than launching them into a sugar high followed by an energy low.

Brain-boosting foods include blueberries, nuts and seeds, wild salmon and broccoli.

No hotel company has done more work in this area of food & beverage than Radisson Blu, which offers nutritionist-developed Brain Food menus specifically for groups. Brain Food is the culinary component of the brand’s Experience Meetings concept, which launched in 2013 in North America at IMEX America in Las Vegas and a year earlier in Europe.

Menus are built around six brain-food principles:

• Lots of fish, whole-grain products, fruits and vegetables.
• A focus on fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
• Pure ingredients with minimal industrial processing.
• Less meat and a maximum of 10 percent fat content.
• Natural sweeteners and never more than 10 percent added sugar.
• A focus on good taste as well as satisfying diners’ senses.

According to Christer Larsson, vice president of Food and Beverage, Ameri­cas, for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, parent company of the Radisson Blu brand, the brain-food concept is particularly popular for morning and afternoon meeting breaks as well as breakfast and lunch. “This is a trend that’s here to stay,” Larsson says.

Anne Madden, CMP, president of the Philadelphia Area Chapter MPI, held the chapter’s 2014 spring board retreat at the Radisson Blu Warwick Hotel, Philadelphia and found the brain-food menu a plus. “Our goal was to keep the attendees fed, satisfied and energy levels up. We wanted to avoid any crashes, which happens so often with high-carbohydrate and high-sugar foods.”

She says the menu’s breakfast options, including turkey sausage and egg whites, allowed attendees to indulge in favorites without feeling weighed down or guilty. “And those individuals who were not egg-eaters had a nice alternative option with the yogurt parfaits; there was something for everyone.” There also was a lot of variety in snacks from one break to the next, she adds, so attendees felt they had many choices.

For Madden and her group, Radisson Blu’s brain-food menus were a success. “The menus offered were consistent with meeting goals that included keeping attendees fed without inducing a food coma after lunch,” she says, particularly important because the meeting was a very intensive two-day retreat with heavy financial discussions. “The food kept our energy levels up and was (healthful). It was not your typical empty-calorie, high-sugar menu that so many attendees experience.”

Madden believes healthful foods are increasingly important for hotels to provide to groups. “The brain-food concept is great,” she says. “We all know food can make or break your meeting. In addition, everyone is doing more with less. Management expects to get the most out of employees’ time out of their office while attending conferences. Supplying healthier alternatives to attendees will help keep their physical and mental capacities to the optimum level. With so much emphasis on health consciousness and food allergies being so prevalent, venues cannot afford to fall behind on what is requested for our convention attendees today.”

Food & Beverage as Fun

Food & beverage also can be fun, and for that reason it’s a natural ingredient in programs seeking to bond attendees and provide a forum in which networking takes place organically. Case in point: MGM Resort’s wine vs. beer pairing, during which attendees sample beer and wine pairings and vote on favorites. It’s an event that highlights the ongoing craft brewing movement in this country, which has elevated beer into a sophisticated beverage with nuances similar to those in wine, its tastes and aromas varying with regional ingredients and techniques such as barrel aging.

Typical of the selections is Bigeye Tuna Tartare paired with Easy Jack, Session IPA from Firestone Walker Brewery and a 2009 Herman Story Tomboy Southern Rhone White Blend from Santa Barbara County, California.

During the 2014 IBM Insight Con­‑ference at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, conference manager Martha Moreau used the pairing event as a new way for attendees to experience the expo and to connect attendees with sponsors and partners. “We had tasting stations set up throughout the exhibit hall,” she says. “We paired one food item with a beer and a wine (chosen by the certified cicerone and sommelier) and had all three on a station. We had one large station in the center of the exhibit hall with all of the food and drink pairings, and the cicerone and sommelier were walking around talking to attendees and telling them why each beer or wine worked with each food selection.

“Stations were placed near sponsors so sponsors could take advantage of the attendees being close to their booths, giving them the opportunity to meet new prospects and continue conversations with existing clients. The reception-style food and atmosphere allowed for the attendees to be more relaxed and to walk around and talk to people throughout the event. The food and drink pairings provided an instant talking point.”

The reception-style food and atmosphere allowed for the attendees to be more relaxed and to walk around and talk to people throughout the event. The food and drink pairings provided an instant talking point.” — Martha Moreu

Moreau says the event was successful on all levels. “We strive to deliver an exceptional attendee experience. We know this fun, hands-on activity helped us deliver exactly that.”

After a packed day of general sessions, keynotes, breakouts and meetings, Moreau says attendees want the opportunity to continue networking albeit in a more relaxed and entertaining atmosphere, which is what the pairing event provides. ”By the end of the evening,” she adds, “there was a nice vibe in the Expo, and we heard from several partners that they were pleased with the turnout.”

Moreau sees the experience as one that demonstrates IBM’s commitment to both its attendees and sponsors. “We know the No. 1 reason people attend Insight is to take advantage of networking opportunities. The pairings event allowed us to capitalize on that in a different and fun way. The experience allowed new relationships to be forged in a way that may not have happened otherwise.”

The event was so successful it’s already on the schedule for Insight 2015. “We will absolutely do the beer vs. wine pairing again,” she says. “The experience helped us deliver an exceptional attendee experience in a fun, low-pressure atmosphere while ensuring our partners and sponsors saw strong booth traffic.”

Although some groups actually vote for beer or wine, Moreau says her group didn’t take a formal vote. “In my mind,” she says, “both options were winners.” And regardless of favorites, everyone learned something during the event. It was win-win.

Stay Well Meetings

Like Radisson Blu, MGM Resorts also has developed a program focusing on healthful eating as part of its overall Stay Well Meetings initiative, which was launched at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in August with the help of Dr. Deepak Chopra, world-renowned health and wellness expert. MGM Resorts is responding to what it sees as a comprehensive trend in which wellness is penetrating the hospitality industry and work environments in a significant way.

The program includes everything from air purification and new cleaning protocols to lighting, acoustics, ergonomics and aromatherapy. More attention to hydration for attendees and healthful menu options are important components. The menus, which have the designated Go! Healthy seal from nutritionists at Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute, are available for all meals and snack breaks.

The break menu includes such options as honey-chia muesli bars; a farmer’s basket with raw, roasted and pickled vegetable dips and spreads; baked and dehydrated fruit and vegetable chips; and nuts as well as infused waters and tropical-fruit nectar.

Sharing the Joy of Food

At Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, food & beverage impacts meetings in a variety of creative ways, including team-building programs and events. “We’ve put a lot of emphasis and energy behind coming up with these unique event concepts,” says Robert Gilbert, executive chef with catering operations at the resort. “Regardless of the size of the group, it’s all about creating a sense of camaraderie between guests,” he says. “Nothing does that like learning about and sharing the joy of food.”

The newest culinary experience, available at Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, is a Create Your Own Lunch program in which participants cook together and engage all senses. Attendees work in small teams to create a four-course meal. The program is perfect for all group sizes, even up to 1,000 attendees, thanks to the use of satellite kitchens.

Elliott Masie, chair and CEO of the Learning Conference, sees F&B as an increasingly important aspect of meetings on multiple levels. The 2014 conference was held at Walt Disney World Resort, and food played an important role during the event.

“I believe food is the new interactive experience,” says Masie of The Masie Center in Saratoga Springs, New York. “When we go to a restaurant, we’re not only interested in what’s on the plate, we’re interested in what went into the food and how it was cooked.

“I thrive on going to restaurants when I can sit at a chef’s table and see the food being prepared. We believe that’s a form of interaction and engagement, and that it responds in a very modern sense to things that stimulate and arouse curiosity in our participants. That’s exactly what any meeting planner wants to do.”

Masie used food in a couple of different ways during Learning Conference 2014.

“We decided to build a multilevel food experience for people from an activity point of view. In our general session, 1,671 people spent an hour seeing Bobby Flay interviewed by me around things such as how he learns, what his background is and how he follows recipes. But he also actually cooked them a delicious Thanksgiving turkey dinner that was done in a fry pan interestingly and with a lot of humor.”

Masie says that part of the food & beverage program was an intriguing way to stimulate thinking about corporate learning, which is what’s at the core of the conference. He then added another component to move the learning from a gigantic classroom to something more intimate.

“We wanted to create a smaller and more intimate experience, even though in each case we had 120–150 people,” he says. “So we reached out to our contacts at Disney and asked them to construct a one-hour experience, which we ran with some variations twice that day.”

The program, put together by the chef at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, included a cooking demonstration and interaction from conference participants. “People were able to see what the chefs were doing and how they were doing it,” Masie says. “Attendees were able to ask questions and…actually taste some of the experience.”

Another nice component was that it also gave conference participants a chance to see the chefs who were actually preparing the food served during the three days of the meeting and to interact with them.

As for what makes food such a critical element, Masie believes the answer lies in our traditional family experiences and most fundamental human interactions.

“Nothing is more bonding than when you taste and smell the same thing,” Masie says. “When you think about it, as human beings, our bonding experiences are always about food. Anytime you talk about visiting your aunt or grandmother, food comes up. I think it ought to be a similar case for conferences, and it’s not about how much expensive champagne we pour. It’s about giving people a look at food and an experience with food in which they see it as a constructive, simple element. And so while we do have that process during the dining and snack breaks at an event, why stop there? Why not actually use food as a metaphor and a teaching experience as well as a bonding experience?”

Food as the Learning Experience

Masie sees a variety of ways in which food experiences translate to corporate learning.

He offers the example of competitions involving food, which have become so popular on TV. That same type of gamification, he says, also has become an important element of meetings in one form or another, including food competitions with attendees. Masie points out that celebrity chef Bobby Flay has been in competitions and hasn’t always come out on top. Flay’s view about that, however, rather than the specific results, is what has valuable application in the workplace.

“It’s not that I lose,” the chef Flay said, “it’s that other people win!’

It’s easy to see how that perspective can eliminate negative aspects of competition in the workplace, turning them instead to something more collaborative, supportive and productive.

For planners wanting to test those waters and make food a learning component of meetings, Masie has this advice: “I think we have to make a shift of moving away from seeing food as a break or as a dietary requirement and view it as an interactive experience. …I think what meeting planners need to do is view themselves as meeting architects. As a meeting architect, you are there to design an experience that has great content, great context and great intensity and collaboration. I think that food can play that role significantly more than just feeding people. I think it can be used as engaging and highlighting.”

The biggest trend in food may be that it is far more than sustenance in the traditional sense. It’s also a cognitive-boosting, interactive, learning, relationship-building, experiential element that meets the needs of meeting attendees and planners on multiple levels — some of them, thankfully, quite delicious.  C&IT

The Hogwarts Express travels between the two different lands of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort.

Although Orlando has been among the country’s top 10 meeting destinations for years, in 2013 it achieved the lofty status of being named the No. 1 destination in the U.S. by Cvent.

That distinction comes as no surprise to the many loyal corporate meeting planners who have considered the Magic City a go-to choice for about as long as they can remember.

“First of all, it offers sunshine in February,” says Judy Smith, CEM, director of dealer markets at Memphis, Tennessee-based Orgill, Inc., a wholesale hardware supplier to the U.S., Canada and 62 other countries. For the last eight years, Smith has used Orlando for the company’s citywide Spring Dealer Market, which uses 1 million sf of total space at the Orange County Convention Center and draws 28,000 attendees from across the country and the world. The event is booked in Orlando for every year except two through 2026.

“It also offers attendees the opportunity to both work and play well,” Smith says. “And with the variety of hotels to choose from at every price point and the theme parks, Orlando continues to be the best destination for our show.”

Brent Sutton, senior event director at San Francisco-based business-to-business media enterprise 1105 Media, has used Orlando for seven of the last 10 years — the last four consecutively for a five-day information technology and developers conference that attracts more than 1,000 attendees. The company will return for a fifth year this fall for Live! 360. “The reason I keep going back to Orlando is that they continue to offer so much not only for our conference attendees, but also their families,” Sutton says. “The majority of my attendees have their attendance paid for by their companies. So that makes it easy for them to decide to also bring their families and make it a vacation as well, which more than half of our attendees do each year. But for me as a planner, Orlando also delivers all of the other things I typically look for in a destination.”

Such loyal testimonials come as no surprise to Jane Scaletta, general manager of local destination management company AlliedPRA Orlando.

“It’s exciting to host a meeting in Orlando. If you were here last year, we have something new for you this year. If you come this year, we’ll have something new for you next year. And it’s because of that, primarily, that Orlando is and remains an exciting destination.” — Jane Scaletta

“The most important thing to know about Orlando right now is that we are on the move as a major meeting destination,” Scaletta says. “We are growing. It’s exciting to host a meeting in Orlando. If you were here last year, we have something new for you this year. If you come this year, we’ll have something new for you next year. And it’s because of that, primarily, that Orlando is and remains an exciting destination.”

Airlift

In addition to excitement, Orlando also offers formidable airlift and what is arguably one of the nicest and easiest to navigate major airports in the world — Orlando International Airport.

Airlift is particularly important to Smith for her citywide meeting that draws attendees from all over the world.

“The airlift into and out of Orlando and the quality of the airport, in terms of being easy to get into and out of and offering a lot of good restaurants, is very important to us and our attendees,” she says. “And we also get good value on airfares, no matter where someone is coming from.”

Hattie Hill, CMM, CEO of Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF), a private leadership development entity supported by a consortium of food-service companies to help women reach senior management positions in the industry, cites airlift as one of the key reasons why she has brought WFF’s 3,000-attendee annual meeting, which also attracts international attendees, to Orlando every other year since 2000.

“The airlift is important, because the people that attend our meeting are busy businesspeople,” Hill says. “And they want to be out of the office for the shortest amount of time possible. Because Orlando has great airlift from around the country, that means that many of our attendees can catch a flight after their office hours and still get to the meeting.”

Sutton also praises both Orlando’s airport and airlift. “The airport is easy to get into and out of, and it’s easy to get flights to and from,” he says. “We have attendees from all over the country, as well as internationally, and all of our attendees can either get direct flights or get there with just one connecting flight.”

Hotel Inventory

It comes as a big surprise to many meeting planners who visit Orlando for the first time that the city offers 450 hotels and a whopping 118,600 rooms, Scaletta says. And as the destination continues to evolve and increase in sophistication, its hotel product is leading the way, she says.

Most recently, Orlando has benefitted from the conversion of the landmark Peabody Orlando, perennially cited as one of the top meeting hotels in the country, to a Hyatt Regency. And its importance is enhanced by its location in the center of International Drive. The Hyatt Regency Orlando is connected to the Orange County Convention Center and offers 315,000 sf of flexible meeting space. Just up the street is the AAA Four Diamond Hilton Orlando, another major property connected to the convention center.

The new Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort, which opened last August, further burnishes Orlando’s growing reputation, Scaletta says, especially for high-end meetings and incentive groups. “Four Seasons is a great luxury hotel brand,” she says. “And they have really outdone themselves in Orlando. And because it’s an ‘at Walt Disney World Resort’ property, you also get all of those incredible benefits, such as the venues within the Disney complex.”

Smith likes the city’s hotel inventory because of the wide range of options and price points it offers. “All of our attendees pay their own way, and a lot of them are mom-and-pop hardware dealers, even though we also have large dealer attendees,” she says. “But we treat them all the same, whether they’re a $3 million a year dealer or a small one. So one thing we like about Orlando is that you can find a hotel room anywhere from luxury to economy.”

Her hotel room roster includes the Hilton Orlando and Hyatt Regency Orlando, as well as more properties conveniently located near the convention center.

For the more than 1,000 internal employees who attend the meeting, Smith uses the Marriott Village Orlando in Lake Buena Vista. This campus of hotels can accommodate her entire team and also offers good value. “We also like the fact it is convenient for people because it’s centrally located to things like dining and shopping,” Smith says.

Hill has remained loyal to the Marriott Village Orlando since 2000, primarily because of the quality of its staff and the relationship she has developed with them. “You can find rooms and meeting space anywhere,” she says. “But you can’t always find a good partner. And we have a great partnership with Marriott World Center, and one that truly values the fact that we keep coming back every other year. We are in the food business, so the food and beverage we get at a hotel is a very important part of the expectations of our attendees. And again, Marriott World Center does a great job for us every time.”

And the third factor in her longtime use of the hotel is that its size perfectly fits her meeting. “We like to have everything under one roof,” she says. “So when you combine the staff, the service we get, the great relationship we have and the quality of the food and the ability to do everything under one roof, that makes the Marriott World Center ideal for us.”

Sutton is an equally loyal user of Universal properties, most notable the Loews Royal Pacific Resort.

“I’m an absolute fan of all the Universal Orlando hotel properties, but especially the Loews Royal Pacific,” he says. “It’s a magical place as far as a venue for conferences. It not only has all the amenities I need for a large group program, but the hotel itself, from the décor to the South Pacific feel it creates, really transports our attendees and makes them feel like they’re on a very special tropical vacation. It’s also very family-friendly. For us, it delivers the total package we’re looking for. And then you have the fact it’s very close to the Universal theme parks.”

For its F&B, Sutton gives the Loews Royal Pacific a nine out of 10. “Not only do they have good conference (catering) food,” he says. “But year after year, we also get high marks from our attendees for the food they receive in the various restaurants.”

And in a budget-conscious, post-recession marketplace, he says, especially now that hotels have regained their pricing power as a seller’s market, the other key benefit he gets with Universal is a strong value proposition. “They have been our true partners, especially ever since the recession,” he says. “They work with us to make sure that we have a package to offer attendees that is affordable to their companies. And that means it has to work on every level, from the room rate to the F&B and all the other costs associated with people being there. And Universal does a great job on every aspect of all that.”

Dining Scene

Yet another factor in Orlando’s popularity as a meeting destination is its diverse and constantly evolving dining scene, which features everything from restaurants operated by top celebrity chefs to budget options and everything in between.

“The dining options and the food in Orlando are amazing,” Sutton says. “It really does offer something for every taste and budget, from upscale gourmet restaurants to budget choices. My attendees and I like the fact that it has such as range of options from high-end to low-cost, as well as midmarket options. That’s very important to us, because we have quite a few attendees that are on a strict per-diem budget from their companies. But we also have attendees that are looking for high-end dining options like celebrity chef restaurants you hear about on the food channels, and others that are looking for chain restaurants where they can eat inexpensively.”

The ever-growing roster of good restaurants also is a major factor in Smith’s ongoing annual use of the destination. “It’s been unbelievable how the dining scene in Orlando has evolved over the last few years,” she says. “It’s the best thing that ever happened, as far as we’re concerned. And as we continue to expand our dealer markets and enhance the experiences of our attendees, we give them a lot of information about the local restaurants before the show.”

She and her attendees are particularly fond of “Restaurant Row,” which is centrally and conveniently located along bustling Sand Lake Road. “You have a lot of dining choices and they’re all good,” Smith says. “And it’s easy to get there inexpensively by taxi.”

Even though Sand Lake Road and the spectacular CityWalk dining and entertainment complex at Universal Orlando continue to reign as the most popular restaurant locations of choice for meeting planners and attendees, International Drive and the area formerly known as Downtown Disney — now transitioning to Disney Springs — are coming on strong, Scaletta says.

For example, International Drive offers Pointe Orlando, a dining and entertainment complex near the convention center that offers an array of popular venues including a Capital Grille steak house, B.B. King’s Blues Club and Cuba Libre Restaurant and Rum Bar.

Meanwhile, a number of new restaurants have debuted at Universal’s CityWalk, including Vivo Italian Kitchen, Hot Dog Hall of Fame and Antojitos Authen­tic Mexican Food.

“We recently did an event at Antojitos and it was fantastic,” Scaletta says, adding that the new Disney Springs will feature an upscale restaurant from Food Network’s Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.

Convention Center

For larger meetings, the Orange County Convention Center, which now ranks as the second largest in the country, with 2.1 million sf of exhibit space plus meeting rooms and breakout spaces, continues to play a major role in Orlando’s success. To remain competitive, the facility has launched the next phase of a five-year capital improvements plan with the renovation of West Halls E & F and meeting rooms. Hall WF will be converted into a 50,000-sf ballroom and four boardrooms. Meeting rooms in W340 will become signature rooms with wood flooring, bamboo ceilings and a scenic outdoor mezzanine deck for entertaining. The latest phase of the facility’s makeover will be completed in 2017.

Smith, as a major user of the convention center, gives it high marks. “First and foremost for us is the quality of the people we work with,” she says. “They know us. We’ve built a good relationship that is now a real partnership. They’re there for us, no matter what we need. But in addition to that, in terms of cleanliness and service, Orange County Convention Center is just an excellent facility.”

The exceptional quality of the facility’s technology is also very important to her.

“They have made some major changes with regard to wireless technology that really help us, because everybody has a wireless device or tablet now,” she says. “And our show is a buying show, so technology is very important to the success of the meeting.”

A Top-notch CVB

The final factor in the city’s phenomenal recent success is its CVB, Visit Orlando, with former Disney senior executive George Aguel as its passionate and visionary chairman.

“They are one of the top CVBs I’ve ever worked with,” Smith says. “In fact, I would rate them No. 1. The people I work with are the best I’ve ever worked with. They know us, and they work with us very well because they know the things we need, and they deliver those things. They stay on top of everything, and they keep me posted on things like new hotels or restaurants. We source our own rooms and negotiate our own deals, but they help me find more rooms when I need them, and they help me find and manage the temp service we use for registration.”

Hill also has high praise for Visit Orlando, with whom she has worked since 2000. “One key reason we continue to come back to Orlando is that we have a great relationship with the CVB,” she says. “But the other reason is that Orlando is the most visited family travel destination in the world. And our excellent relationship with the CVB makes it easy for us to keep coming back.”

In her experience, Orlando is second to none as a destination, Hill says. “The most important thing for us and our attendees is that in Orlando, we have a destination where our staff and attendees get to work hard and then, when the conference is over, they can bring their families in and enjoy the city,” she says. “That’s why Orlando works so well for us.”

Smith agrees that Orlando lacks nothing as a meeting destination. “It has great hotels, great restaurants and it’s easy to get to,” she says. “It also has everything you need right around the convention center, and it’s a ‘walking’ city. And it has great shopping. So for a meeting of our size, it’s everything you could ever ask for in a destination.”

New and Notable

According to Visit Orlando, there is great news for groups meeting in Orlando starting with the May 4 opening of The Orlando Eye at I-Drive 360 — the new entertainment complex on International Drive. Groups of up to 15 attendees can reserve their own fully enclosed, air-conditioned glass capsule for an intimate cocktail party on the 400-foot-tall observation wheel.

Madame Tussauds also will find a home this spring at I-Drive 360, providing groups with the ultimate celebrity experience. Groups of 15 or more are eligible for a special discount.

The Sea Life Orlando Aquarium, coming to I-Drive 360, will provide groups with interactive options such as a hands-on touchpool experience, face-to-face encounters with sharks, a 360-degree Ocean Tunnel and more than 5,000 creatures.

The Boathouse is an upscale, waterfront dining restaurant coming to Disney Springs. Guests can listen to live music or take a romantic captain’s guided tour aboard The Venezia, a 40-foot wooden Italian water taxi.

STK Orlando blends two concepts into one — the modern steak house and a chic lounge. STK Orlando will boast the only rooftop dining venue in Disney Springs. STK has outposts in London, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Atlanta, and three in New York City.

For an adrenaline-raising experience, groups can consider the I-Drive NASCAR, a new indoor high-performance kart-racing facility. Three meeting rooms totaling 4,400 sf are available for groups.

Universal Orlando Resort debuts its newly renovated guest rooms at Hard Rock Hotel. The hotel offers 6,000 sf of flexible meeting space, as well as 140,000 sf of additional function space at the nearby Hard Rock Cafe and Hard Rock Live venues at Universal CityWalk.

By fall 2015, Loews Royal Pacific Resort — already the largest meeting hotel at Universal Orlando — will expand its meeting and event space from 85,000 sf to more than 140,000 sf. The new space will feature a nearly 36,000-sf ballroom, divisible by 12, along with four additional breakout rooms and prefunction space. The Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando will open in the summer of 2016 and will have 131,000 sf of meeting space. Together, the Loews Royal Pacific and Loews Sapphire Falls will have 272,000 sf of combined meeting space.

Polynesian Villas & Bungalows at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort will feature 20 bungalows on Seven Seas Lagoon and 360 deluxe studios.

The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel is getting the largest makeover in its history. The hotel has launched a multiphase, multiyear, $125 million redesign project that will transform every guest room in the 758-room Swan Hotel and the 1,509-room Dolphin Hotel. C&IT

The threat of terrorism reaches beyond the Middle East with attacks like the one on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish deli in Paris. Credit: Cloud Mine Amsterdam/www.Shutterstock.com

The U.S. Department of State’s Office of American Citizens Services and Crisis Management continuously updates travel warnings and alerts for countries across the globe. As of January 2015, the top alert listed was a “Worldwide Caution” regarding “the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world.” The world today can indeed be a scary place. For meeting and incentive program planners, the first step to risk assessment is risk awareness. Two of the most feared, terrorism and disease outbreaks, have dominated the news of late:

The atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaida formed in 2006, continue to make headlines as the group seeks to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria. The group’s activity shows that risk of a terrorist attack, founded in Islamic extremism, is still very much a factor that group travel planners must reckon with.

The Ebola Crisis

And in West Africa, the Ebola outbreak has had a documented impact on the meetings industry, with SITE board member Daryl Keywood, managing director of Walthers, a South Africa DMC, reporting that several incentive and meeting groups have cancelled their programs.

SITE member Adam Lawhorne, CITE, CIS, who serves as CEO of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois-based Meeting Incentive Experts, notes that “Kenya right now is really hurting as far as trying to draw groups because it is close to some of (the affected) countries. In addition, Cape Town is losing some of its airlift from Europe because there’s not as much demand, and those are top places for safaris.”

According to Keywood, “Whilst Ebola remains a concern in parts of West Africa, there are signs that slowly but surely the health workers and government agencies involved are winning the battle. Nigeria, Congo DRC and Senegal have been declared Ebola-free, and infection rates are slowing.”

Keywood further observes that the understanding of the state of the outbreak has improved among travelers. “Although there were some cancellations to Southern Africa, we have seen bookings and enquiries increase now that travelers better understand the situation. Many are realizing that they have had more infections in their own country, e.g., the U.S., than, for example, Southern and East Africa, where there have been no cases whatsoever. We are confident that tourism to the non-affected countries is slowly returning to pre-Ebola outbreak levels.”

Intelligence-gathering

Gathering such in-depth intelligence on a potential meeting destination from reputable sources is the foundation for effective risk assessment. One of Lawhorne’s clients, a multinational, U.S.-based software company, routinely conducts risk assessment for group travel and “they need numbers, they need data,” he says. “For example, they did a program for 900 people in Los Cabos in May, and needed data from the Mexico Tourism Board on safety, including crime ratio per capita. That’s the kind of information that security looks for, which is now part of procurement’s buying habits.”

Apart from hard data, perception of the risk level also can factor into site selection. If attendees think the company is taking them to a destination where they will be at risk, the company will seem irresponsible to them and “they also might not see it as an incentive,” Lawhorne says. Partly due to the perception of the risk involved with travel to the Middle East, another software client of Meeting Incentive Experts recently moved the program to Riviera Maya in Mexico, he relates.

Even when a country, region or city is deemed to be generally safe, the operative word is “generally.” “Maybe a country or city as a whole doesn’t have a problem, but there are some pockets that do,” notes Lawhorne, who last year contributed to the SITE Foundation study “Incentives Move Business: Risk Assessment/Management for Incentive Events.” “There are certain places in Chicago I wouldn’t go to, for example, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do a program on Michigan Avenue.”

Assigning Levels of Risk

Depth of investigation into a locale is key, but so is addressing the breadth of potential problems. Anne Daniel, senior manager of travel, meetings and events with Newport News, Virginia-based Fer­guson Enterprises, notes that “Political unrest, economic instability and crime rate are all taken into consideration when selecting an international destination.” That adds to health threats such as Ebola, SARs, swine flu, etc., extreme weather forecasts, and air/ground transportation disruptions. “From the assessment, we label the destination low, medium or high. Low risk level is usually given a green light. We evaluate the ‘potentials’ for medium risk and make a subjective decision. High risk is removed from consideration,” Daniel explains, adding, “Should a risk level elevate to high, we would work toward relocating the meeting before an outright cancellation.” To make the determination, the company uses “a multitude of information sources,” including the Department of State’s travel warnings, and security and safety firms iJet, NC4 Inc. and International SOS.

In the SITE Foundation study, global event strategist John Hooker, managing director of JHCP, suggests a simple quantitative way to make the risk-level determination for a given contingency: “Allocate between 1 and 3 to the harm/severity involved and between 1 and 3 to the probability of it happening. Multiply these two values to produce a figure between 1 and 9 — the risk factor. The range runs from low risk (1 to 3) to high risk (6 to 9). For low risk, no action may be necessary. For medium risk, look at methods to reduce the risk of the activity, if possible, and implement controls to minimize the chance for it to occur. For high risk, consider methods to reduce the risk or, if that is not possible, consider eliminating the activity from the program. If you cannot do so, tell the client and participants about the risk, in writing, and implement significant controls to minimize it.”

Incentive Travel Risks

Medium- to high-risk scenarios are perhaps more prevalent in incentive travel today due to the adventurousness of many groups, who sometimes heighten the risk of crisis — particularly medical emergencies — with activities designed to create an “out of the box” experience.

“We have younger, more energetic, more adventure-seeking clients now that go overseas and bungee jump off a bridge over a river, where there may be no emergency medical services available within three hours,” observes Kevin Mellott, president of Dallas, Texas-based Erase Enterprises, a safety and security provider that works with corporate clients. “Our job is to give them the best information possible so they can make a good decision on the risk.”

As Hooker suggests, groups that are considering medium- or high-risk destinations or activities should be aware of the controls they will need to have in place to minimize risk. “Every solution has a different financial commitment,” says Mellott. For those extreme physical activities in remote areas, “We make sure that our travelers have top-quality travel insurance, where we’ve got at least $1 million to extract them with. People don’t realize how much it costs to do a removal of an injured person in a faraway place in the middle of nowhere. If you don’t have any EMS in the area, we need extra equipment, vehicles and medics.”

“People don’t realize how much it costs to do a removal of an injured person in a faraway place in the middle of nowhere. If you don’t have any EMS in the area, we need extra equipment, vehicles and medics.” — Kevin Mellott

Once the planner is made aware of the risk level and costs involved in the contingency plan, there are “three possibilities,” he explains. “The client says, ‘Forget it, we’re not doing that.’ Or they say, ‘OK, we’ll do that but we’re telling our employees and our attendees it’s not an officially sponsored event, you’re on your own.’ The third version is that they sponsor it and pay to bring in the additional personnel or whatever we need to be able to properly cover a crisis that could occur.”

When the Show Must Go on

If the potential crisis entails the complete disruption of the meeting, the overall value of the meeting to the host organization must be considered. If “the show must go on” due to the value of the event, then a higher budget for contingency planning is often justified. “If the meeting doesn’t take place, if they have to evacuate the area or cancel, or if the area loses power, what’s the financial damage to them?” Mellott asks.

“For example, one of my clients does an annual meeting that has to go on because after the meeting they have a spike in the hundreds of millions of dollars in sales for the next couple of months. So because that meeting is so critical, there is a large budget for hiring companies like ours, or buying generators to have on standby and fly in from another city. But if the meeting is not that critical, let’s say it’s an incentive trip, then if something bad happened, we can reschedule a trip for 50 people. So it may not be worth spending all that money to have resources ready for a ‘what if.’ ”

Meetings with very high, proven ROI can thus be considered part of a company’s assets that must be protected. Its human capital is another kind of asset that can be put at risk during meetings-related travel, and not only by safety/security threats at the destination. “I have some clients who do risk management for flights,” says Lawhorne, “where only a certain number of people from the company can be on each flight.”

Information Security

A third kind of capital is information, and while companies have become more savvy about information security, Mellott has not seen employees generally getting better about data protection during offsite meetings.

According to a study conducted a few years ago by the Ponemon Institute, 78 percent of the 709 IT and IT security professionals surveyed indicated that their organizations have experienced a data breach as a result of negligent or malicious employees or other insiders. The study identified losing laptops and mobile devices as being among the root causes of data breaches.

“Everybody today wants to click a button and make it happen right now, and if security takes an extra step, they think it’s inconvenient. We try to make it as convenient as possible,” Mellott says. “For example, at a social event after a presentation, we’ll have a room with our security personnel where someone can drop off their laptop bag. Our guys can check it in and hold it while they’re at the social event, so it’s not sitting on the floor in a bag where someone walking through the convention area can pick up that bag and walk out with it. We also do a lot of education by sending out bulletins, and we’ll even have signs on easels reminding attendees that they’re dealing with sensitive data.”

Attendee Education

The attendee education component must not be left out of any contingency plan. The host company can do its best to select low-risk destinations and recreational activities, and to supplement medium-risk scenarios with spending on security/safety resources. But contingency plans work best if attendees themselves understand what to do in an emergency and how to avoid risk in the first place, whether that means safeguarding a laptop, staying hydrated during physical exertion, avoiding certain areas of a city during free time, and so on.

And if attendees do not have contact information for all local authorities that can assist during a crisis, then they should at least be able to easily reach event support staff who do have those contacts.

Daniel notes that Ferguson Enterpris­es has increased staff training on risks and contingency plans: “The onsite staff receives a full country briefing from our Security and Risk Management group, along with contact information for various assistance groups, such as medical, police and local embassies.” That briefing may turn out to be the most important pre-con meeting of all. C&IT

Mary MacGregor is Corporate Vice President – Event Solutions for BI WORLDWIDE (BIW), responsible for all operating areas of the BIW Event Solutions Group including purchasing, design, delivery, group air, individual incentive travel, onsite operations, technology, communications and merchandise. She leads a team of more than 175 industry professionals who deliver memorable experiences and measurable results for their customers. www.BIWORLDWIDE.com, info@BIWORLDWIDE.com

Taking your “show” on the road can be a fantastic way to communicate your message, engage your audience, get real-time feedback, conduct interactive training or put your product right into the hands of your very best prospects. It also can be a time-consuming, logistical nightmare that can drain your budget without generating the results you need.

Making sure your multilocation event or road show meets your objectives requires careful forethought, extensive and highly detailed planning, tremendous flexibility, creative thinking and access to a broad network of subcontractors and suppliers.

If you’ve never done a multilocation event before, it can be hard to grasp how complex they can be. In almost all cases, your best strategy is to hire an experienced event planning agency to help you. Their first-hand knowledge and extensive network of technology, logistics, transportation, hotel, facility and destination partners will be invaluable.

“If you’ve never done a multilocation event before, it can be hard to grasp how complex they can be.”

Whether you decide to take your show on the road yourself or work with an agency, here are 11 insights from BI Worldwide, an industry leader in event planning, to keep in mind to make sure your show goes on!

1. Analyze your objectives to determine if a multilocation road show is the best fit for you. Road shows are a good way to create more face time and close interaction with your audience. They are excellent when you need to do hands-on training or get prospects to test-drive your products. Road shows can give regional management a chance to personalize their local messages. They can mean less travel time/out-of-office time for attendees and offer attendees flexibility to choose dates and locations that meet their schedules.
   The engagement benefits are outstanding with smaller audiences, but they come with two critical caveats: time and money. Road shows almost always cost more than a single location, large audience event. And, they often can require substantially more upfront planning time.
   If time and budget are extremely tight, a road show is probably not your best choice.
2. Plan MUCH further ahead than you normally would for a single location event. Finding appropriate space at the specific locations you want according to the exact calendar flow you hope for is easier the further out you plan. The tighter your time lines, the more flexible you’ll need to be.
3. Define your event needs before setting the schedule and selecting venues. Outline your event content ASAP as it will determine the types of venues you need, technology required, setup and tear-down time, and travel time between events. It’s simply not possible to have hands-on demos of heavy-duty equipment in many hotel parking lots, often due to zoning ordinances. And, no matter what the weather, you can’t get two semi-trailer trucks of demonstration equipment from Denver to Baltimore in 16 hours.
4. Evaluate your event sites carefully. Suitability has to take precedence over price. The venues must be able to accommodate your needs and be convenient for your participants to access. While smaller, out-of-the-way locations can be less costly than larger convention centers or full-service hotels, they may not be able to provide the support services you will need to demonstrate product, make and maintain high-speed technology connections, provide suitable food and beverage service, have enough or the right kind of hotel rooms, or give you access to subcontractors for drayage, set construction and tear down and other specialized needs. If participants need to fly to your event, larger airports provide more frequent service and often offer better airfares.
5. Visit calendars before picking the event dates based on your audience profile. Industry trade shows, holidays and school schedules can impact whether participants choose to attend. For example, if your industry traditionally has a major trade show in early October that your desired participants attend, you’ll want to avoid scheduling too close to those dates.
6. Communicate clearly, frequently and use a wide range of media. Publish your event calendar or issue invitations as soon as your dates and locations are confirmed. Be clear about registration deadlines and your policies for switching dates or attending locations outside of the participant’s region. Use all types of media: print (via USPS), email, social media, text messaging and voice calls. Send reminders and request a response. You want to make sure that you aren’t holding spots for people who won’t attend while turning down registration requests from others due to lack of space.
7. Put your brand front and center. Your brand is more than your logo; it’s your organization’s personality. At every turn, consider ways to infuse each touchpoint with the intangible factors that differentiate your brand (tone, values, beliefs, etc.). When vetting creative partners, make sure that candidates have extensive experience utilizing brand identities to unify all aspects of execution, from graphic and/or scenic design to written copy to interactive elements. By creating an inviting, cohesive, personal experience for your audience, you have an opportunity to clearly and holistically distinguish yourself from the competition in an emotionally compelling way.
8. Make the experience fun and memorable. No doubt, you have a clear objective for putting on a road show, but you also need to view the event through the eyes of your attendees. Give them a reason to stay involved by wrapping your subject matter into something that will immerse them into your brand AND be enjoyable. Attendees who have fun will most certainly appreciate your efforts, but more important, they will reach a deeper level of engagement! Offering an entertaining experience will come back to you twofold: You’ll get immediate results via increased engagement, and your attendees will be eager to attend future events.
9. Make technology your partner. Whenever possible, give participants the ability to download materials onto their phones, tablets and laptops or access the material digitally when they return to their offices. Invite them to participate digitally and share their experience with friends and colleagues via relevant social media platforms. Consider creative ways to incentivize digital engagement through giveaways, recognition and/or competition.
10. Staff up. You will need more staff for a multilocation event. Everything will take longer as you need to set up and tear down at every location. You may need bigger advance teams based on the complexity of your event. You may even need to have “two of everything” so one show can be moving and setting up while another is operating.
11. Evaluate and adapt as you go. Define clear goals and create tools to measure the success of those goals at each and every location. Ongoing feedback gives you the ability to make needed changes before the next location. This keeps you from dealing with the same challenges at every event.

The opportunity to maximize audience engagement is a strong reason to use a multilocation strategy to communicate your message and achieve positive results. Making sure you have the time to plan and having the budget resources to execute well are the keys to your success. Doing it yourself is possible, but working with an experienced event planning agency will likely save you from making costly missteps that can mean the difference between a blockbuster road show and a tedious over-the-road trip to nowhere. C&IT

Norwegian’s first-ever ropes course has more than 40 different elements, including a zip track and the Plank, a platform that extends 8 feet over the side of the ship.

More and more meeting planners are embracing the idea of conducting incentives and meetings at sea as they become aware of the substantial rewards: incomparable value, an ever-expanding variety and range of amenities and activities, and most of all the often exotic and exceedingly memorable experience.

These attractive advantages are just what the doctor ordered for Eldon Gale’s groups. As the director of events for Scentsy, a Meridian, Idaho-based candle warmer and fragrance company, Gale is eagerly gearing up for his next cruise in June — the third in the last 18 months.

Gale is arranging a seven-night Royal Caribbean cruise for 900 salespeople that kicks off from San Juan, Puerto Rico and includes such ports of call as St. John and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; Antigua; St. Lucia and Barbados.

Gale left no stone unturned in planning the cruise. “I’m going down to San Juan and sail the trip beforehand to experience everything and know what to anticipate,” he says. “I’ve never seen the ports of call. I need to know what to expect when we get there. How long is the walk from the pier into the city? Are there things in the city they shouldn’t miss or things they should avoid? I need to know so I can tell attendees and executives so they can have a great experience.”

 “I’ve never seen the ports of call. I need to know what to expect when we get there. How long is the walk from the pier into the city? Are there things in the city they shouldn’t miss or things they should avoid? I need to know so I can tell attendees and executives so they can have a great experience.” — Eldon Gale

Gale paid the same attention to detail in planning two previous cruises, and he visited ports of call in advance. Last year, he took a group of 1,000 salespeople on a seven-night Royal Caribbean cruise to ports of call in Mexico, Jamaica and Haiti. Gale’s group needs certain types of meeting spaces, and the ship’s theater was ideal for one event. “We met there for a few hours for recognition awards,” says Gale. “The space worked fine. Royal Caribbean makes it a point to have meeting space.”

Previously, Gale took 300 salespeople on a seven-night cruise to Alaska aboard a Celebrity Solstice-class vessel. The ship sailed from Seattle and stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Victoria, British Columbia. “At the ports, you can do almost anything within a 20- to 30-minute drive — off-road jeep tours, dog sledding, sea planes or walking on glaciers,” says Gale. “We gave them cruise credits to use any way they wanted.”

Why Alaska? “It was on a lot of our people’s bucket list,” says Gale. “Cruising is a good way to see Alaska because it’s so big. The group loved it. But Alaska’s weather is tricky. You have to be educated about what you are getting into and prepared for any weather scenario.”

The Value Proposition

Gale is among droves of meeting pros who are regularly rotating cruises into their incentive travel program mix. Why? The incredible value is a major factor.

The value of cruising is boosted by all-inclusive programs that often cost comparatively less than land-based programs. “The value proposition is a major thing,” says Jo Kling, president of Miami, Florida-based cruise event and ship charter specialists Landry & Kling Inc. “There are up to six brands in the cruise industry that are all-inclusive. You don’t have all of the miscellaneous after-bills that show up with a hotel. It’s much more manageable.”

Most all-inclusive packages include meals, meeting space and venues, cabins, activities, AV equipment, shows and entertainment as well as taxes and tips.

According to Kling, cruising’s value and the improved economy have sparked an upturn in corporate cruise budgets. “The budgets are back,” says Kling. “There is a regeneration of the classic incentive business the cruise world has always enjoyed so much. That is exciting for planners who are doing what they did on cruises during the days before the economic downturn.”

Cruise incentives and meetings typically have a lower per-guest cost than land-based events. According to cruise industry experts, cruises save 20 percent to 30 percent on a package of meals, entertainment, meeting space, presentation equipment and sleeping rooms. In addition, cruise contracts typically contain less restrictive cancellation fees and attrition clauses.

Daniel J. Young, CMP, the director of event planning and recognition for Minneapolis-based Thrivent Financial, raves about the lower per-person cost of cruising. “The average per person cost for our Mediterranean cruise for 270 people was $6,500 per person for everything including airfare,” he says. “The next year we had a land program in Ireland that was close to $9,500 per person. Our cruise to Alaska was $5,700 per person, and Mexico was $4,700.”

Young cites several reasons why cruising is such a boon for planners and attendees. “They are easier and less time-consuming for planners to run. You don’t deal with a lot of food and beverage or meeting issues. We don’t book separate excursions at each destination with DMCs. That would be overwhelming. We wouldn’t cruise every year because people want to see other locations. But we add the cruise option about every three years.”

Full-charter Options

Young started rotating cruises as an incentive reward in 2008. “It was the Mediterranean cruise on the 125-cabin Silversea’s Silver Cloud,” he says. “It was seven nights, a full-charter buyout. It was the first incentive we ever did that scored a perfect five out of five in attendee satisfaction. They found absolutely nothing to complain about. From that point on, we decided to do more cruising.”

In 2011, Young set up a seven-night, full-charter cruise to Alaska aboard the Regent Seven Seas. The cruise scored a satisfaction score of 4.86 out of 5.0 among the 250 attendees.

Earlier this year, Young arranged a seven-night Scandinavian cruise aboard Silversea’s Silver Cloud, which included ports of call in Sweden, Denmark and Germany. “We used the ship as a floating hotel, staying two nights in a port” says Young. “A lot of planners go to a different port every day. They think it’s the best way to get the best bang for the buck. But I don’t think it’s the best use of time because you can’t experience the location.”

Young also is considering another full-charter cruise to the Greek Islands in 2018.

Another benefit of booking a full-ship charter is the freedom to tailor the events to match the company’s meeting objective. For example, Norwegian Cruise Line allows a company to incorporate its brand and logo into every aspect of the ship, from banners on the side of the vessel to ice sculptures, napkins and menus. Planners can customize itineraries as well as activities, parties and entertainment.

And at Carnival Cruise Line, for instance, planners can use the Carnival Corporate University to tailor teambuilding, communication and leadership programs.

Cruise Trends

Groups also are taking longer cruises, says Shari Wallack, president of Buy the Sea, a Plantation, Florida-based, all-inclusive resort brokerage company. “There is a willingness to book seven-night cruises in order to experience more exotic destinations. Years ago, shorter cruises were more in fashion,” she says. “Sparing time away from the office is always more of an issue than the budget. A land program in Europe tends to be more expensive than its cruise counterpart.”

River cruising has come a long way, too. “The hottest charter at the moment is the river cruise,” says Wallack. “Years ago, no one understood the river cruise industry. Now there is a big market for it. The only downside is that you can’t put more than about 180–200 people on a river cruise ship. The ships are small — but luxurious. They are like boutique hotels that happen to move.”

“A big trend is more restaurants,” says Wallack. “They are coming up with alternatives to the regular dining experiences.” Carnival’s recently christened Regal Princess features several dining options including Chef’s Table Lumiere, a private dining experience that surrounds guests in a curtain of light. Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas, which recently received an $80 million makeover, features three new restaurants — Izumi Japa­nese Cuisine, Giovanni’s Table, an Italian trattoria and Chops Grille, a steak house.

The Carnival Leg­end, which recently set sail following a multimillion-dollar makeover, offers Bonsai Sushi and Redfrog Pub. The ship also features Hasbro, The Game Show and Waterworks Aqua Park.

Health and wellness programs are trending for land meetings, and cruise meetings are no exception. Celebrity partnered with Canyon Ranch, a leading spa and wellness brand, and now offers Canyon Ranch Spaclub at Sea facilities on 10 Celebrity ships. The Canyon Ranch facilities feature spa, wellness, beauty salon and fitness facilities. Treatments and services are tailored to guest preferences. Group classes and private consultations also are available.

Improved Internet access and other technology are also trending. Carnival recently introduced what the company hails as the cruise industry’s first-of-its-kind hybrid wireless network called WiFi@Sea. The enhanced high-speed service was launched during the last quarter of 2014 for ships sailing in the Caribbean and will eventually be available on all of Carnival’s ships in 2015 and 2016.

WiFi@Sea will integrate a unique combination of strategically located land-based antennas installed along cruise routes, Wi-Fi from a port connection and advanced satellites, forming an innovative network that is a first in the cruise industry on this scale. The “smart hybrid” network is designed to provide passengers and crew with faster and more stable Internet access throughout their voyage.

Regent Seven Seas has completed a multimillion-dollar upgrade to Internet systems on every ship. The cruise line also introduced unlimited complimentary Internet access for all guests sailing after January 1, 2015 for guests booked in Master, Grand, Seven Seas, Horizon, Mariner, Navigator and Voyager suites.

MSC Cruises has launched a new, interactive mobile app, which allows travelers to easily explore the fleet’s 12 ultramodern ships and the multiple destinations visited around the world.

The free MSC Cruises app is packed with easy-to-use functions, tips and information, from finding the perfect itinerary and shore excursions to 360-degree virtual ship tours in which users can view actual staterooms, restaurants, lounges, pool decks, the theater and spa.

More Meeting Space, Entertainment, Activities

Large and small cruise ships are catering to groups with meeting space. Royal Caribbean has at least 22 ships with conference centers. The cruise line’s Quantum of the Seas features the Royal Theater, a state-of-the art, flexible venue that accommodates 1,300 people.

There also is a greater variety of entertainment and activities. Royal Caribbean’s Quantum class ships feature the Two70˚ entertainment venue. By day, guests can relax and enjoy the breathtaking 270-degree views and by night, the space evolves into an exciting entertainment venue that fuses technology with entertainment using robotic video arms, dramatic digital projection, and high-flying aerialists and performers. The ship’s North Star activity elevates guests 300 feet above the ocean, and the Sea-Plex entertainment venue features bumper cars, roller skating and more. Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas features the FlowRider surf simulator and a 3-D cinema.

Crystal Cruises offers Magic Castle, a magic show for small groups. Celebrity Cruises has partnered with 54 Below, a Broadway cabaret, to bring in New York theater performers.

New Ships

Celebrity Cruises, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, recently signed a letter of intent to build two new ships under Project Edge. The two vessels will offer small-ship itineraries with large ship amenities. The first Project Edge ship is scheduled for delivery in fall 2018, with the second arriving in 2020.

Royal Caribbean International is building its third Quantum class smart ship, Ovation of the Seas, which will be delivered in fall 2016. Royal Caribbean also introduced two Radiance-class ships — Rhapsody of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas — earlier this year.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises will debut the 750-guest Seven Seas Explorer in summer 2016. The ship will feature one of the highest staff-to-guest ratios in the cruise industry. Regent also recently completed a multimillion-dollar upgrade of the all-suite, all-balcony ship Seven Seas Mariner.

Carnival recently christened two new ships — Regal Princess and Costa Diadema. In addition, Carnival’s P&O Cruises UK and Aida brands will each launch a new ship in 2015. Carnival plans to add an additional seven ships between 2015 and 2017.

The small ship cruise line Seabourn recently unveiled the names of its two new ships — Seabourn Encore and Seabourn Ovation. The first will launch in late 2016 and the second in spring 2018.

Seabourn Encore and Sea­bourn Ovation will maintain the line’s high ratio of space per guest, enabling highly personalized service by close to one staff member for each guest on board. With the addition of the two new ships, Seabourn will have the youngest and most modern ultra-luxury fleet in the industry.

Seabourn En­core and Seabourn Ovation will be configured with one additional deck, newly expanded public areas, and modern design elements and innovations consistent with Seabourn’s reputation for understated elegance. The new 40,350-GRT vessels are expected to carry 604 guests each, based on double occupancy, and every suite will feature a private veranda.

Hospitality design icon Adam D. Tihany has signed on to design both Seabourn Encore and Seabourn Ovation in their entirety. He will design all indoor and outdoor guest areas, including the multiple dining venues, The Spa at Seabourn, showrooms, casino and lounges, outdoor deck areas, and the popular Seabourn Square, the social hub of the ship with a club-like ambience.

Final Thoughts

What’s not to like about meeting at sea and rotating cruises among incentives? All-inclusive pricing makes budgeting and planning simple and less time-consuming. There is a range of ships — from large luxurious cruise ships to smaller deluxe vessels — that meet the needs of groups of all sizes. Planners can select from 3- to 10-day cruises as well as full-ship charters.

Gale described it best: “A cruise ship can be a city by itself with everything you need aboard the ship. You can do things you can’t do on land, and you still have the land stuff to do when you dock at ports.” C&IT

The Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

Promoting a city effectively is in part an educational effort: convention and visitors bureaus seek to correct any misconceptions about their destination and raise awareness of its lesser-known virtues. It is of course a boon to the local tourism and meetings industry when the town receives positive attention in the national media, but simply being noticed will not create a full appreciation of what the city has to offer.

Rediscovering Nashville

Nashville, for example, has been increasingly in the news in recent years with Music City Center opening in May 2013 and the Country Music Hall of Fame completing a $100 million, 210,000-sf expansion last year. The press that resulted, not to mention ABC’s “Nashville” series, which debuted in 2012, made the city “like a new discovery to a lot of folks. It’s been a great spotlight for us,” says Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp.

Yet a deeper knowledge of the city’s culture among the general populace, including some meeting planners, can still be achieved, Spyridon feels. “Everybody is aware of Nashville as the home of country music. It’s been a big benefit for us, but at the same time it’s kept a lot of people from understanding the depth and breadth of the city, the dining scene, the diversity of music and the overall quality of the destination,” he explains. “And that seems to be going through a transformation as well, where on one hand people have a broader understanding of how big country music is, and even better for us a broader understanding of the overall music scene in Nashville, which includes gospel, rock (and other elements of) Americana.” (Also see “The New Nashville” on page 44.)

Beyond a diverse music scene, Nash­ville boasts historical sites that the CVC often brings to planners’ attention, including Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, currently celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, and The Parthenon at Centennial Park, built in 1897. “So we have the home of a president and an exact replica of the Parthenon in Athens, both of which are incredible event venues,” says Spyridon. And it takes a little work to raise awareness of such features among corporate meeting planners, who naturally view the city mainly as a great place for country music-themed programs.

Clearing the Air in L.A.

On the West Coast, the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board (LATCB) has similar work to do in raising awareness of the new Broad Museum, opening downtown this fall. When planners think of Los Angeles, they tend to focus on offsite possibilities such as the L.A. Live entertainment district and Universal Studios Hollywood. Museums may not come to mind, but the Broad Museum could change that, insofar as it will house “the largest collection of contemporary art in the U.S.,” notes Darren Green, senior vice president of sales with the LATCB. “Customers are wowed about it when they visit: ‘I never expected that L.A. would offer that.’ ”

In terms of misconceptions, some planners may harbor a view of the country’s second-most populous city as highly congested and polluted. But Los Angeles’ transportation will be eased with the expansion of the city’s metro rail in the next couple of years, Green notes, and “you’ll be able to take the subway all the way out to Santa Monica from the convention center. Eventually you’ll be able to take the metro from downtown all the way to the airport.”

The L.A. Metro is one of the city’s underappreciated aspects, Green feels, but the TCB has made strides in that regard. “We had a customer advisory board meeting back in October and held it at Universal Studios. We put all of the customers on the metro and took the subway downtown. It was an incredible experience. The L.A. Metro is new, so it’s very clean, with no graffiti and very safe with a lot of security. Customers said they never knew L.A. had such a state-of-the-art transportation system.” The city’s cleaner air is also something to appreciate. “I lived in L.A. about 10 years ago before I came back, and there was an issue with smog at that time,” he recalls. “Now it’s practically nonexistent, and it’s a testament to our environmental initiatives.”

Sunbathing in Denver

Denver faces a more benign misconception, but one that still may impede some planners from considering it. “One of the biggest misconceptions about Denver is that we’re cold or under snow year-round,” says Rachel Benedick, vice president of convention sales and services, Visit Denver. “We actually have very mild winters. While the mountains get the majority of the snow in winter, Denver can be sunny and warm. Our golf courses and outdoor cafés remain open all year.” Visit Denver seeks to get that message across “through our trade and consumer marketing campaigns showing Denver’s brilliant blue skies, outdoor activities — such as year-round bicycling on our 850 miles of bike trails — or dining in outdoor cafés and on rooftop bars. And we invite planners to come to Denver at any time of the year. It’s more often we have a beautiful, sunny ‘bluebird’ day than a cloudy day.”

Michelle Harris, director of events with Columbus, Ohio-based Thirty-One Gifts, a direct sales company, planned a successful National Conference for about 6,000 of the company’s consultants in Denver last July. Gatherings for all the participants were held at the Pepsi Arena, while training programs, awards ceremonies and more were held at the Colorado Convention Center where they could break out the groups. Beginning with her site visit, the experience “enlightened” Harris on the metropolis’ smooth transportation logistics. “It’s so easy to get around and walkable,” she remarks. “And we went into it thinking that the location of the Pepsi Arena seven to nine blocks away from the convention center and most of the hotels was really going to impact what we did with traffic. Quite honestly, it never became a problem at all.”

A Studied Approach to Fam trips

“We do consumer research every year, and in our study, we found that people think of Denver as very friendly, diverse, young and active,” says Benedick. Accordingly, Visit Denver affords planners opportunities do something active on site inspections and fam trips, as opposed to just viewing meeting spaces and speaking with hoteliers. “We have plenty of urban adventures, such as biking around the city using Denver B-cycle (our citywide bike-sharing program), grabbing a beer at one of the more than 30 breweries in Denver, or even taking in a baseball game and a sunset at Coors Field,” she adds.

The LATCB is investing more in the fam trips, notes Green, but at the same time tailoring the programs to what planners will tend to want to do in the city with their groups. “Many planners who do incentive programs or themed events want to do a red carpet event similar to one of our award shows,” he says. “So we give customers some creative ideas on how to put that L.A. spin on their program when they host it here. We’ll try to do fam trips around the Grammys, the American Music Awards, the Emmy Awards and People’s Choice Awards. We have access to the shows and venues with our partnerships here at the LATCB, so we can select customers to come have that red carpet experience. Many will want to use those venues for their conferences.”

The Nashville CVC has been taking a more targeted approach to familiarization, says Spyridon. “If a planner is interested in coming we try to customize (the experience). If it’s one or two people at a time, that’s fine. We find we would rather talk specifically to someone who has interest. If we can spend quality time with quality prospects, our closing rate is significantly higher.”

The same effort to customize carries over to the destination marketing for the meeting itself. In providing marketing assistance, “we really try to listen and see what the needs are and come up with customized solutions,” says Spyridon. “It might be social media, designing a Web page, creating logos, etc.” And again, the emphasis is on moving away from generic country music themes. “If planners engage us, I’d say we have had a great deal of success in broadening that. If they do it in a vacuum, they tend to gravitate toward the easy, stereotypical approach,” he observes. “There are ways to use the music theme that are not as (predictable). For example, you might use lyrical words that tie into the brand, playing on words like ‘harmony,’ when you talk about bringing your attendees in harmony, and getting them in tune. Instead of boots and a banjo, how about a keyboard or a woodwind instrument? These are ways to leverage (the music theme) but also broaden it.”

Planning Tools

CVBs also can be part of the planning process by equipping planners and attendees with tools that help them navigate the city. Visit Denver has recently launched an interactive Denver Destination Planning Guide iPad app that allows planners to quickly and conveniently find everything from hotel maps and service provider listings to unique venues and itineraries in Denver and throughout Colorado, Benedick points out.

The CVB also has developed a “Come Early, Stay Late” program designed for pre- and post-meeting visits. “The program allows delegates to quickly and easily find great deals in world-class resorts within a two-hour drive of Denver,” she says.

According to Harris, the CVB “provided us links to things to do around the city that we included in our communications to our consultants as well as placed on our internal website. We also had a campaign with hashtag #Share31, where we tried to give back to the city. So we did things like 31 free coffees: We would give coupons that they could take to the local coffee shop so people in Denver realized that we were there.”

Future Client Satisfaction

As much as CVBs do for corporate clients before and during each event, they also can help to ensure that future meetings are successful by soliciting client feedback on their meeting venue projects. For example, while Los Angeles works to get a major expansion and modernization plan approved for its convention center, the LATCB is seeking feedback from both association and corporate planners on what kinds of features they would like to see in the new and improved facility. “We want to make sure we’re investing in the right areas that will attract the groups we want to bring to L.A.,” Green says. “We’ve drafted what we call a white paper asking questions about the ideal amount of meeting space, breakout space, connectivity, the flexibility of the space and so on.”

Similarly, Visit Denver has completed a yearlong study of the Colorado Conven­tion Center, “which offered recommendations on what we need to do to keep the building relevant to changes in the meeting industry,” Benedick says. An updated convention center will help the city fulfill what the CVB sees as a “potential huge growth in attendance in fields such as medical, bioscience, energy and technology/engineering,” she adds. These kinds of studies can certainly have a destination-marketing angle: They position the city as one that takes a proactive approach to planner satisfaction. C&IT

Bay Fireworks, which specializes in special effects displays for events, produced this fireworks waterfall backdrop to a high-octane Katy Perry performance for veterans.

Planning the entertainment for a corporate meeting is wonderfully simple: Decide on a well-known performer, pay the performer and wait for the accolades to roll in. Right? Not even close, says Jim Schultze, CMP, director of events for Chicago-based marketing and coaching consultant GKIC-Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle.

“Planners and event sponsors often have blinders on when it comes to big names,” he says. “Everyone wants the name as a draw, but the budget often isn’t there for the performer.” And it isn’t just the performer’s fees, though those can be pretty extravagant: Jimmy Buffett, for example, commands $1 million per performance. With a marquee name, a planner also has to budget at least 50 percent more for production costs such as lighting, and food and beverage riders.

Schultze booked a famous R&B group for a corporate event and remembers, “The food cost for Kool and the Gang — just the food cost — was $10,000 for their 300-person entourage.” Other knotty issues can crop up, too. In just one recent session, “the client’s committee suggested as possible performers Queen, Marvin Gaye and one other performer who had died.”

Going for Broke

For intrepid planners who do decide to go for a big name, Schultze recommends creating a memorable experience by focusing on and negotiating for crowd interaction. Sometimes the interaction can be spontaneous, as during an event where he booked Huey Lewis and the News.

“Looking down into the crowd, Huey sees an attendee on the phone,” Schultze remembers. “When he says he’s talking to his wife, Huey asks if she’s a fan. Oh, a huge fan! So Huey reaches out and grabs the guy’s phone, then tells the wife he’s performing right now but she and her husband can come as his guests to the next show and have some signed merchandise. Then he said goodbye, hung up, and told everyone to put their cellphones away. ‘I’m only making that offer one time,’ he laughed. The crowd loved it.”

Schultze advises planners to negotiate riders carefully and contract up front exactly how much and what type of interaction to have with attendees, especially VIPs, and to use their own connections to sweeten the pot with more than money. For example, Schultze once secured time on the links for avid golf fan Kenny Loggins in exchange for extra time appearing in photos with attendees.

“Do a big show with a big band one year; next year do an unplugged performance; next year do a comedian, juggle plates or chain saws, a variety show — so people remember your events in terms of the year they happened. Changing it up is a big deal,” he says.

Running for Cover

Schultze says he’s noticed a trend of moving away from headliners and toward entertainment that is more intimate, cheaper, more unexpected or some combination of the three.

Acts like the Neil Diamond cover band Thunder and Lightning, for example, are “plug and play”: Not only do they come minus the overhead and diva drama of a marquee name, but they also tend to “get the place jumping and interact well with the crowd,” Schultze says.

He advises planners who are thinking of booking acts on a budget to “develop parameters as opposed to focusing on names — here’s the kind of person we want, not we want this person — so you don’t have blinders on. It gives you flexibility on availability and price.”

Remote Control

Another way to save a bit is to engage entertainers who perform remotely. For one of Schultze’s events, Evan and Jaron, who sing “Crazy for This Girl,” performed in an hour-long live webcast from their studio for $1,000 vs. the $40,000 plus production plus travel it would have cost had they been onsite.

“No one’s saying this out loud, but we need to do something more on a smaller scale,” Schultze says. “Entertainment on small stages or in the background. You don’t want (attendees) in a seat again; you want them up networking, discussing, sharing, not watching a show for an hour.” Variety shows with multiple five-minute segments or setups with multiple small screens instead of one large screen encourage this, he says.

What Have We Not Done Before?

Changing it up is also the goal for Suzan Jenkins, executive administrative assistant, marketing/North America for Virbac, an animal-pharmaceutical maker based in Fort Worth, Texas. When Jenkins stepped into the role of meeting planner last year, she decided to take her company’s events in a different direction. “Activities were very dull before that; a dinner murder-mystery theater, nothing anyone would look back on and say ‘that was a fun night,’ ” she says.

Although her group of salespeople is naturally competitive, they’re not all sporty, and she wanted something both active and fun that didn’t rely on the group sitting around a bar all night, but also wasn’t paintball.

Her first at-bat was a teambuilding event for about 100 attendees, held at a new Dallas venue called Topgolf. The space offers a three-level driving range and caters to both low handicappers and first-timers. Jenkins had the event catered and hired a disc jockey for the event. It was the highest-rated sales meeting the company has ever had, she notes. “People are still talking about it.” The event offered just the right mix so that “everybody interacted and participated without putting a lot of pressure on any type of skill set, but there was still some kind of teambuilding and camaraderie.”

Especially effective was the chance for low-stakes interaction among people who typically don’t mingle — the salespeople and the corporate officers. Jenkins’ best advice for planners is to leverage their time by letting DMCs and CVBs handle hotel and venue negotiations while the planner focuses on creating a memorable event.

Humor on the Cheap

“It’s rare to get the crowd laughing at big corporate meetings during general sessions,” says Dustin Denis, Toronto-based district sales manager for Hayward Pool Products. “Usually the only laughter comes during an expensive guest speaker or comedian skit.”

Every winter, Denis’ company invites 300 of its best customers to attend an all-inclusive trip to a spot south of the border. When he discovered on a Friday that he would be the presenter the following Monday, he panicked. Holding a group’s attention can be difficult enough in a hotel ballroom, but in a meeting room in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, on a 90-degree January afternoon? He had to think fast.

To the rescue: the character “Willie Sellmore,” who performed from a script co-written by Denis and Jack Fiala of Corporate Sidekicks. Willie is no ordinary entertainer. He’s a video personality who somehow seems to know all the right buttons to push with specific attendees. He’s also a puppet. “The opening video was a fantastic icebreaker and made fun of my boss a little, and myself,” Denis remembers. “This led into introducing me during the crowd’s laughter. Perfect!” he says. After Denis’ short, funny presentation, Willie delivered a snarky bit on the company’s top 10 product highlights.

“Customers know we have flaws; nobody and no company is perfect. But addressing your problems, correcting them and presenting it all in a humorous manner is the way to do it,” Denis says. “I was a legend all week at this resort, with dealers inquiring about all the products I actually made fun of. So I got my message across to all the customers about all of our new products (while making fun of some known glitches that are now fixed), all while getting laughs. It just doesn’t get better than that!”

Fiala, an entertainer and the founder of Corporate Sidekicks in Dayton, Ohio, points out that one of the biggest trends in corporate entertainment of late has been “trimming the budget,” which means doing more — sometimes doing all — in-house. Where once his clients primarily lined up for live experiences that required an investment of time and money, more and more are opting for more cost-effective custom videos. These videos are either stock — with space to insert the company logo and pictures — or more targeted to the specific company dynamic, as at Denis’ and Cummins’ meetings.

What makes these videos so popular with corporate clients (document-handling company Iron Mountain, for example, chose to continue producing monthly updated sales videos inspired by a presentation he did for them, and Fiala has many such repeat clients), is that they are credible and personalized. “People in the audience think, who’s doing that? Is that Joe from marketing? They think it’s an inside job,” he says. And in a sense, that’s exactly what it is.

“People really want to be able to have a good time at a meeting, and that needs humor that is not external to but an outgrowth of the way they do things.” — Jack Fiala

The themes hit home with attendees because Fiala has researched the ins and outs of the company beforehand, talking to managers and salespeople, learning which issues will resonate. He can use Willie or another character to “acknowledge corporate issues of employees or customers or sales teams and helps to defuse the issues. People really want to be able to have a good time at a meeting, and that needs humor that is not external to but an outgrowth of the way they do things.”

Bespoke Events

Michelle Crosby, CMP, CTA, DMCP, national sales manager for destination management company AlliedPRA’s Dallas/Fort Worth office in Grapevine, Texas, finds that what attendees want from destination meetings is an individualized experience — “nothing kitschy or standard,” she says. Attendees want an experience they couldn’t orchestrate on their own. For example, in the DFW region, that means instead of visiting the usual tourist spots such as the JFK memorial, hold a chili cook-off at Southfork Ranch, home of the “Dallas” TV show. Instead of visiting the presidential library or a museum, Crosby suggests holding an event there.

Clients want to “live like a local,” and since Dallas is a big foodie region, culinary events often top the list of local delights. Her clients have, for example, held events featuring local celebrity chefs such as Stephan Pyles and Kent Rathbun. Planners can, depending on the budget, buy out half or even the entire restaurant so the chef can mingle with attendees, sign cookbooks or offer cooking demonstrations. Rathbun has even opened up his home to provide a private “chef’s table” of sorts, grilling by the pool and then eating with a small meeting group.

Service Compris

Sometimes, on the other hand, the ones serving are the attendees themselves: working at a food kitchen, building a new playground for a local school, reading to the elderly, volunteering at a shelter — these are all locally based activities that offer the attendees a chance to feel a real connection to the area, to their team and beyond.

Crosby finds the “market is shifting toward maybe a bit bigger than ‘our team,’ ” and that means opportunities for teambuilding that sometimes involve actual building, especially since attendees can spend some time in separate outings, then meet later to discuss their respective days.

Because the area has a lot of culinary schools, there are plenty of opportunities to eat well and to help at-risk children start out in the restaurant business. She’s steered planners to work with Trinity Groves, for example, a restaurant incubator program that offers grants to would-be restaurateurs.

Giving Back

Patrick Sullivan, president of AlliedPRA, New York, similarly finds giving back to the community to be a draw for corporate meetings. His clients have worked with Art Start, a collective of artists who offer children living in homeless shelters the space and education to blossom as artists and musicians.

“Maybe because groups are getting younger, experiences that happen in front of your face have become very popular,” Sullivan says. Seemingly retro entertainment such as illusionists who pull a rabbit out of a hat, acrobats, live wire acts or uniquely weird entertainers such as The Experimentalist — part entertainer, part mind reader — have worked well with groups.

Hiring the cast from iLuminate, a glow-in-the-dark dance troupe made famous from their appearance on “American’s Got Talent,” typically also makes a big impression on attendees.

And in New York, planners also can tap into the talent of the region by hiring Juilliard students to perform, for example, as a jazz or classical ensemble; create a Broadway revue; or form a marching band that spells out the organization’s name.

Planners can use the city’s own vibrancy and even its civil servants in their quest to entertain. Sullivan has organized city tours with entertainment specially planned for the group at each spot — a singer here, a magician there, someone set up at a three-card monte table at a third spot, costumed carolers at a fourth — so the city seems to have sprung up for the day especially to entertain the group.

At one meeting, an event space was set up like a New York City subway, complete with break dancers, subway seats and spray paint cans so attendees could create their own graffiti. For other meetings, actual graffiti artists can “tag” a reception area with a company’s logo. Even local firemen and policemen can be hired to entertain to raise funds for a local charity.

The moral of the story? No matter the form entertainment takes, it’s the level of attendee engagement and the memories made that count. C&IT

The live music scene in the Broadway Historic District, a.k.a. “Honky Tonk Highway,” offers more than just country.

As a meeting destination, Nashville is hotter than a country music star with a chart-topping hit. The city’s fast-growing meeting, convention and hotel space is attracting record numbers of meetings and conventions, including many corporate groups that had never before considered Nashville.

Such companies include Experian, a global information services company. Experian will hold its first-ever meeting in Nashville in April at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, which offers 600,000 sf of meeting space. Experian’s three-day North American sales conference is expected to attract 750 attendees.

Pleasant Surprise

Experian began to consider Nashville at the suggestion of the company’s former CEO. “About five years ago, he asked us about meeting in Nashville,” says Laurie Touchberry, CMP, Experian’s director of corporate events. “The suggestion really surprised us, but we looked into it. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Nashville has so much more to offer than we thought as far as properties and meeting space. We liked that downtown was close and that it’s a walkable city. And I didn’t realize what a great place for food it is. We are excited. This is a whole new type of destination for us.”

“We were pleasantly surprised to find that Nashville has so much more to offer than we thought as far as properties and meeting space. We liked that downtown was close and that it’s a walkable city. And I didn’t realize what a great place for food it is. We are excited. This is a whole new type of destination for us.” — Laurie Touchberry

Touchberry sought a property that could meet Experian’s considerable technology needs. “Most of our salespeople will have at least two devices,” she says. “We do real-time online polling during our presentations and 50 to 60 breakouts. We have to make sure people can tweet about sessions and share information online with others who couldn’t make it to the meeting.”

Experian also needed ample bandwidth for its meeting app. “The app has been pretty popular the last few years,” says Touchberry. “It offers lots of information about the meeting and breakout agenda so people can make their personalized agendas. We give them information about speakers and a map of the venue because it is huge. There’s attendee contact information so they can network before, during and after the event. We can also push out communications to attendees by email or text.”

Touchberry discussed her technology needs during her site visit. “We asked them specifically about the bandwidth and told them what our usage has been in the past,” she says. “They assured us they have enough bandwidth and gave us examples of how they met the technology needs of other corporations.”

The Experian meeting also will take advantage of Nashville’s musical heritage. “We will have a networking dinner at the Grand Ole Opry, where we will have some type of musical entertainment,” says Touchberry. “After that, many people will hit the places downtown.”

Record Numbers

Corporations meeting in Nashville for the first time are helping the city set records. The number of hotel rooms sold and the amount of hotel tax collected increased 48 consecutive months through 2014, according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. (NCVC). In October 2014, Nashville set an all-time monthly record for hotel room bookings. In addition, Nashville’s year-over-year hotel demand in November 2014 was the fastest growing in the nation, according to Smith Travel Research.

Nashville’s brand is broader then just country music. The city now has a dual reputation — music city and top meeting destination. “We have made ourselves into a very planner user-friendly city,” says Carol Norfleet, CMP, DMCP, executive vice president and COO of Destination Nashville, a local DMC. “The Gaylord, one of the largest convention and meeting hotel properties under one roof in the nation outside of Las Vegas, gave us the resort market. The Music City Center (MCC) gave us a downtown urban convention center property. So we have the best of both worlds for meetings — downtown urban and a resort in one city.”

The face of Nashville’s new reputation is the Music City Center. The city’s new 2.1-million-sf, state-of-the-art convention center features a 350,000-sf exhibit hall, 60 meeting rooms and the 57,500-sf Grand Ballroom. In addition, the MCC holds LEED Gold Certification and engages in environmentally sustainable practices, including maintaining a green roof with a 200-kilowatt solar panel.

Music City Center is a prime reason why Nashville booked meetings at a record pace in 2014, according to Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., who expects to set more records in 2015. “This will probably be the fifth year in a row of record sales,” he says. “We will probably show at the end of the year that we hosted four of the largest conventions in the history of the city. We are very competitive, and we are winning more than we lose against our competitors. The MCC has enough space to attract 75–80 percent of the convention business nationwide. We feel like that’s the sweet spot.”

Nashville is especially hot in the corporate meetings sector. Norfleet says the reasons are innumerable. “We are within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the U.S. population,” she says. “We are a Southwest Airlines hub. The meeting space within hotels and the convention center is fabulous. There is a lot to do. And there are many great venues.”

Norfleet notes that the downtown music venues are popular among corporate groups. “Our biggest showcase downtown is the Wild Horse Saloon, which is three stories,” she says. “It showcases country music and other types of bands. It has the biggest dance floor in town, and there is a lot of square footage for large groups. The honky-tonks, which are everywhere you turn, keep live music going almost 24 hours a day.”

In addition, Nashville offers posh private event venues. For example, Aerial, located on Broadway, hosts up to 250 people in a stylish space with a glass-enclosed rooftop and 2,000-sf patio.

Nashville’s many recording studios also are popular venues for events, receptions and teambuilding events. “We rent the studios for groups for an afternoon or evening,” says Norfleet. “Many times, as a teambuilding exercise, we bring in songwriters to write a song with attendees and they record it on the spot.”

In addition, the food scene has exploded over the last few years, Norfleet says. “There was a time when if it wasn’t a food chain or a basic restaurant, it wasn’t here,” she says. “Now we have everything from ethnic cuisine to fine dining. Celebrity chefs are starting to discover us. I keep a running list of restaurants I need to try. There are about 20 on the list. Most opened in the last year or will open soon.” Many of the restaurants are located within a few miles of the MCC, she adds.

Maximizing the City’s Offerings

Beachbody Inc., a Santa Monica, California-based direct sales company that markets fitness, weight loss and home-exercise DVDs, plans to take full advantage of most of Nashville’s venues. Beachbody will hold a three-day meeting for more than 20,000 distributors in Nashville this July.

The company is planning four parties for its top four tiers of distributors. “We are using the Country Music Hall of Fame for our top group,” says Kelli Gilbert, Beachbody V.P., global events and recognition. “We don’t know who the country music entertainer will be yet. We are closing part of downtown near Sixth Street for another party, and The Wild Horse Saloon for another.” For the fourth party, Gilbert will be shutting down Second Street or Lower Broadway downtown, the heart of the live music scene known as Honky Tonk Highway. The newly expanded Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is connected on several levels to the Omni Nashville Hotel and is across the street from the Music City Center.

Beachbody’s meeting functions will take place in Nashville’s most prominent meeting and convention sites: The MCC will host opening and closing sessions; distributor recognition events will take place at LP Field, a football stadium; and Bridgestone Arena will be the site of the general session.

There was a time when Nashville couldn’t provide meeting space and hotel rooms for 20,000 attendees. Not anymore. “We are contracted with about 43 hotels,” says Gilbert. “We are creating a shuttle service for guests. We have over 1,000 rooms at the Gaylord Opryland, and we are creating a separate shuttle system there for those people.”

The NCVC played a crucial role in helping Beachbody with the numerous details involved in planning such a large and complex meeting. “They have been instrumental in every decision we have made, including the vendors we selected, closing down parts of downtown, and the hotel package. They have been like a partner or extension of us. It’s the first time we have experienced that,” says Gilbert. And, she adds, “We feel like everything we are getting has been the best possible value for us.”

Beachbody selected Nashville after meeting in Las Vegas for three consecutive years at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. “We had great experiences there but we just wanted to try something different in another part of the country,” says Gilbert. “Nashville has gotten such a good reputation, and it’s something on people’s bucket lists. It is so different from Las Vegas, but that’s what is good about it.”

Gilbert and her staff leaned toward meeting in Nashville during their site visit. “When we saw Nashville, we thought it would be one-stop shopping for us,” says Gilbert. “They had the space and availability. It’s well-positioned in the U.S. for our distributors all over the country. And we liked how much they wanted us to be there.”

The only thing that limits Nashville from attracting even more and larger meetings is sleeping room supply. The demand for rooms exceeds the supply, says Spyridon. “The biggest obstacle for us in terms of getting more business is having enough room blocks,” he says.

More rooms are on the way. Plans call for building two new hotels: The Westin Nashville Hotel and a JW Marriott — across from the MCC. The 35-story JW Marriott hotel will be the tallest building in Nashville and will offer 500 to 600 sleeping rooms. The JW Marriott is expected to open by the end of 2017.

Developers broke ground on the 454-room Westin Nashville in mid-January. The Westin Nashville will feature two restaurants, as well as a rooftop pool and bar. Construction of the hotel is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. In addition, plans are underway to break ground on the Virgin Nashville Hotel this spring, which will bring another 240 guest rooms to Nashville in fall 2016.

The 800-room Omni Nashville Hotel connects to the Country Music Hall of Fame and sits across from MCC. The property offers 80,000 sf of meeting space. Both the hotel and the MCC opened in September 2013.

The 340-room Loews Vanderbilt Hotel has undergone renovations that include a redesigned lobby, refreshed corridors, and new public and guest bathrooms. The project also added a new Mason’s Southern brasserie-style restaurant and Mason Bar, which features live music, a nine-screen media wall and a Mason jar chandelier. The property offers 24,000 sf of meeting space.

The Hilton Nashville Downtown — the city’s only all-suites, full-service luxury downtown hotel — has completed a new lobby and renovated all 330 suites as part of a $32 million renovation. The hotel also improved its 17,800 sf of flexible meeting space, including the grand ballroom. In addition, the hotel has a new executive lounge complete with a grand fireplace. The AAA Four Diamond property has transformed its grand atrium lobby into a lively social space with a Nashville-inspired design that includes warm woods, polished marble and sleek metals.

The lobby features a new grand circular entrance and marble floor with modern rugs and elegant but comfortable furniture that invites guests to relax and network. The renovation also transformed the Parkview Café & Lounge and MarketStreet restaurant. The entire renovation project will be complete when the Hilton Nashville introduces a Trattoria II Mulino Italian restaurant this spring.

The hotel also features The Palm Steak House, a fine-dining venue with a reputation for attracting musicians including Harry Connick Jr., Lady Antebellum and Little Richard. The Sports Grille is currently being converted to an upscale Italian restaurant

Located across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Hilton Nashville offers Wi-Fi throughout the hotel and features onsite car rental service.

The Renaissance Nashville Hotel has completed the final phase of a $12 million renovation that included its 700 guest rooms, meetings rooms and grand ballroom. The project increased the fitness center’s space by 50 percent. Renovations also included a new lobby, guest floor corridors and the addition of a Starbucks. The 673-room property offers more than 31,000 sf of meeting space.

The 28-story Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel is undergoing a $25 million makeover. The renovation includes all 482 guest rooms; a brand new lobby featuring a floating wooden staircase; a 25-story glass chandelier; and custom seating areas. The property has 25,000 sf of meeting space.

The Sheraton Music City Hotel, which offers a resort-like setting, has refreshed its fitness center. Complimentary airport transportation is available. The 410-room property offers 33,000 sf of meeting space.

Any planner who still views Nashville as simply a great place for country music doesn’t know the destination. “There is not enough time to do everything you want to do in Nashville,” says Norfleet. “The hardest decision is what to leave out.” C&IT