Robert “Bob” Pfeffer, senior director of Marriott's Convention & Resort Network (CRN), vividly remembers the first CRN Summer in the City event he attended in Chicago.
“It had to be 20 years ago,” Pfeffer said. “I was a hotel sales leader, and it’s hard to get an exact date for when these events started, but at the time, it was all built around the Wrigley rooftops and the Arlington racetrack.”
The historic former horse racetrack in the Chicago suburbs may no longer be, but the CRN’s Summer in the City event has held steady for more than two decades and is now part of a larger effort from the CRN, Meet With Momentum.
I had the opportunity to experience my second Summer in the City and Meet With Momentum event July 10-12 in Chicago, and it’s easy to see why the CRN has managed to take what used to be merely connecting at Cubs game and turn it into a nationwide meetings industry networking tour.
[Related: On the Scene: Experiencing Marriott’s Meet With Momentum Series in Chicago]
What Is Summer in the City?
“About three years ago, the CRN started producing about 12 to 14 events that bring planners and hotels together in an intimate setting that’s built around some kind of unique event,” Pfeffer said, like this year’s Summer in the City event in Chicago, which was centered around the city’s well-known Windy City Smokeout barbecue and country music festival.
“It’s about relationship-building and generating business. It’s an opportunity for planners to earn CEU credits,” Pfeffer said. “We want them to be introduced to new and innovative venues, speakers, content and ways of creating incredible meetings.”
Meet With Momentum is Marriott’s CRN’s way of achieving that.
The series started as a grassroots effort put together by half a dozen individual Chicago-based hotels, but when Arlington International Racecourse shut down, “it kind of lost a little bit of its luster,” Pfeffer said.
“So, we came in and decided to totally reimagine the event,” he continued. “Our anchor event [in Chicago] is now Windy City Smokeout across from the United Center, which has 25,000 people attending. This year’s headliner was Thomas Rhett, and we have a VIP private suite and private pit master with some of the best barbecue.”
In addition to being planned around a major city event and delivering on destination experience, Meet With Momentum also delivers on building business. Each event typically includes around 25 hotels and 25 meeting planners and numerous networking activities, from mini tradeshows to happy hours and more.
“The relationship-building that goes into these events is incredibly deep,” Pfeffer said. “I personally found some of my lifelong friends as a result of these events.”
In the end, though, Meet With Momentum is all about showcasing various destinations across the country and giving meeting planners the opportunity to connect with the people and resources they need to host a memorable gathering.
“We work extremely close with our partners to create that win-win strategy for planners, hoteliers and the partners we choose to work with,” Pfeffer said. “Planners are hosting meetings all over the world. It’s impossible to know what makes each location unique or exciting, so they rely on our recommendations to create excitement of their meeting delivery.”
[Related: Chicago Is Making a Comeback. How the City Is Set Up for Meetings and Events Success]
Summer in the (Windy) City Highlights and Experiences
As a Chicago native, it’s hard for the city to surprise me, but Marriott’s CRN has managed to do so two events in a row. This year, the CRN team took it up a notch by introducing a “tradeshow crawl” that allowed planners the opportunity to connect with suppliers while simultaneously experiencing multiple venues throughout the city.
Here are a few Summer in the City highlights:
- Tradeshow crawl: Starting at 3:15 p.m., hoteliers began making their way from the host hotel, Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, to their assigned tradeshow location at either the JW Marriott Chicago or Color Factory, an interactive art museum themed around the concept of color. Planners started their tradeshow crawl in the JW Marriott Chicago ballroom and, after an hour, made their way to the Color Factory, where they were invited to walk through exhibits and installations and continue networking along the way.
- Color Factory: The Color Factory itself was another major highlight of Summer in the City, giving planners the opportunity to experience ways to immerse attendees in the unique offerings of Chicago and fun photo ops to make it memorable.
- Odyssey River Boat Cruise: Personally, I think taking a ride down the Chicago River is the best way to experience the Windy City. Whether it be an architectural boat tour or a breakfast cruise, like ours at Summer in the City, these experiences boast some of the best views of Chicago and always lead to connections and conversations. (Plus, more photo ops!)
- Dinner at The Dalcy: This private event hall in the historic Fulton Market District almost has a speakeasy feel. Sharing the third floor with Aba, a Mediterranean and California-inspired restaurant, The Dalcy is tucked away behind Aba’s main dining room, lined with vines and plants. Getting to the space is a very VIP-type of experience, with a designated elevator and massive doors leading to a 6,000-square-foot room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
- Windy City Smokeout: Need I say more? Never in my life did I think I’d ever be so close to singer-songwriter Thomas Rhett, but Marriott’s CRN can apparently make dreams come true. Our VIP suite provided all the food, refreshments and air conditioning we needed between laps around the festival grounds, which was lined with tents selling some of the best BBQ in Chicago.
Read this next: Insights from the 23rd Annual Hospitality and Tourism Summit Chicago
