Meetings and Events Industry News

With a flood of smart development, downtown Phoenix is positioning itself as a top-flight meeting destination with the ‘round-the-clock amenities, fresh infrastructure, and local flavor that today’s attendees demand.

Solid stage production design enhances guest experience and wows your audience even before they see the main entertainment or presenter. It sets the tone, it intensifies audience response, and it often doesn’t come cheap. But mastering the basics of stage design and then creating your own unique touches will help your audience take notice and increase social spread.

Attendees are tired of conferences in the same old locations, and it just so happens that secondary cities are more affordable for planners. Expect to see increased diversity in event location in the years ahead.

Traditional conference cities are still the default choice for events organizers, but rising costs and strained capacity are making secondary cities more appealing. And some are working hard to show their unique benefits.

Hotels throw away hundreds, or even thousands, of unused soap bars and hygiene products daily. Now, planners and hotels are thinking of new ways to recycle these items for a good cause through corporate social responsibility initiatives on the tradeshow floor.

Eventbrite's rise should be a lesson for the overall event tech ecosystem: Make something that is easy to use and powerful enough to scale, and customers will come.

Eventbrite is still losing money as it grows, but now has strong revenue growth and plenty of cash to spend while getting back on track. The state of the booming global events business is a big help.

Planners expect 2019 to be another tough year, with more commission cuts and increased expenses on the horizon. Succeeding will require doing more with less and getting creative about crafting killer events with a smaller bankroll.

Planners have to get creative as both expectations and costs are set to increase in 2019. Technology can only do so much and event design will shift to reflect the financial priorities of organizations holding events.

Meeting planners are reimagining the way they approach event design. The Five Rooms experience exemplifies how creativity and innovative thinking can transform a blank space into a multi-sensory playground.