Industry Update HOTELS & RESORTS 54
PEOPLE NEWS
60
SNAPSHOTS 62
WHAT ATTENDEES WANT
New study identifies five macro-trends that will impact the future of meetings and events. Research courtesy of PCMA Fo u n d a t i o n a n d Ma r r i o t t International
“THE MEETINGS AND EVENTS industry’s future is being shaped by so many factors—from people’s desire to be part of a broader community to their expectations when they travel. [‘The Future of Meetings & Events’] brings a real-world and provocative lens to where planners, attendees and suppliers will be heading in the years to come,” says Tammy Routh, senior vice president for global sales at Marriott International. Download the full report at pd.pcma.org/FutureTrends2019.
52
COM+E
| SUMMER 2019
1.
EMOTIONAL Intelligence Designing with the end-user in mind
Meetings and events will need to move past reactive adjustments to adopt a proactive approach to personalized experiences, understanding the needs of participants before they arrive. At meetings and events, participants can no longer be treated as a homogeneous crowd or a series of behavioral data points, but instead must be recognized as individuals, understood on a deeper emotional level, and treated accordingly.
SUPPORTING SUB-TRENDS ––– AI and Tech to Unlock Intelligence ––– Employee Agency to Act on Their EQ
PEOPLE PROFILE 64
2.
ORCHESTRATED Serendipity
Engineering and embracing the unexpected for more meaningful moments Experiences must embrace freedom and surprise, freeing consumers from the constant constraint of schedules or agendas. By embracing the unexpected, we can engage participants and leave a lasting impression. “There’s that whole concept of ‘sweatworking’—like SoulCycle—let’s arrange a workout in the morning that fosters some serendipitous connection. That’s how you end up meeting people that you wouldn’t normally meet. I like those things where people who are organizing these structured events are actually thinking beyond the event itself. What will people do outside of our programming? How can we structure that? The point of this whole event is to create these human collisions.” —Amy Blackman, senior advisor, A Hundred Years
SUPPORTING SUB-TRENDS: ––– Create Human Collisions –––Leverage Context ––– Embrace Natural Serendipity ––– Deprioritize Convenience
