Hybrid and participant-driven meetings were in the spotlight during HSMAI’s MEET National in Washington, D.C., which featured the organization’s debut of its re-branded mission and focus.
With 20 years of success connecting planners and suppliers at its HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings annual events in Washington, Chicago and California, Hospitality Sales and Marketing International renewed its commitment to growing business for hotels and their partners with an event format designed to serve planners and suppliers at all levels of industry experience, and a new logo and refurbished sessions lineup that reflect an organizational re-engineering.
Attendees’ educational choices at HSMAI’s MEET National included case study workshops and sessions about best practices and emerging industry ideas. Speed learning tools and tips were also on the two-day docket, whereby participants explored topics to save time, contain costs and increase productivity.
MEET On sessions about hybrid meetings offered online access and explored social media for meetings, free and low-cost web tools that can be effective for meetings and an overview of tools and logistics to consider for virtual meetings.
Industry technology expert Corbin Ball presented an overview of mobile applications and Web tools for increasing productivity and reducing event expenses, such as join.me (a free screen-sharing tool) and Skype. He also demonstrated Google Plus, the new social network tool from the Web’s leading search engine company.
Steve Boyce with INXPO, a provider of virtual events and business environments that connect audiences in various locations, advised participants about tools that are necessary to set up virtual meetings.
Virginia: Web to Wine
In other MEET news, Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) unveiled its new Virginia Declaration of Meeting Excellence at Wednesday’s HSMAI’s MEET luncheon of about 1,000 meeting planners and suppliers
The effort is the state’s first-ever campaign to target the meetings and conventions industry. The new virginia.org/meetings website is designed to give planners quick and easy access to meetings venues and facilities, attractions and events. Quick venue searches by locality and size, side-by-side venue comparison and a fast RFP submission feature that goes directly to selected locations are among the site’s features.
Alisa Bailey, president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corporation, said the initiative aims to ensure meeting planners know about Virginia’s convenient East Coast location, affordability and economic diversity. Virginia winemakers were also on hand at the state’s trade show booth to draw attention to one of Virginia’s fastest-growing industries and to offer attendees free product samples.
