Our final Meetings Today LIVE! event of the year welcomed attendees to the sunny city of Orlando, which has ranked No. 1 on Cvent’s list of the top 10 meetings destinations in North America seven years in a row.
A fully hosted-buyer event, Meetings Today LIVE! South took place Nov. 17-20 and gave attendees the chance to experience the best of Orlando, from being hosted at the brand-new Evermore Orlando Resort and touring some of the top meetings-friendly properties in the area to networking one-on-one with industry suppliers and even getting a sprinkle of some Disney Meetings & Events magic.
Discover the highlights of Meetings Today LIVE! South in Orlando—the perfect wrap-up event to a successful and productive 2024!
Opening Reception
After attendees arrived one by one at Evermore Orlando Resort on Sunday, November 17, Meetings Today LIVE! South officially kicked off with a tour of the 1,100-acre property, “Orlando’s first and only beach paradise” offering world-class golf, a variety of dining outlets and accommodations including 41 villas, 206 flats and 69 homes surrounding the crystal-clear blue waters of Evermore Bay.
“Those who are not able to make it [to Meetings Today LIVE! South at Evermore Orlando Resort] are missing out on an experience unlike anywhere else, an experience specifically designed to bring people together, which is what Evermore is all about,” said Lisa Crosby, director of sales at Evermore Orlando Resort. “The attendees are staying in our unique four-bedroom flats, indulging in our exceptional culinary offerings, enjoying high-level hospitality and services in our variety of indoor and outdoor meeting space. And it’s all happening amongst our awe-inspiring backdrop of Evermore Bay.”
The centerpiece of the resort, Evermore Bay is comprised of eight acres of water surrounded by 20 acres of tropical white-sand beaches. Around the water, visitors can find plentiful seating including hammocks, lounge chairs and swings as well as nighttime firepits.
Evermore Orlando Resort also gives visitors the opportunity to rent kayaks, paddleboards and floats to enjoy the water during their stay, which groups can utilize for outdoor teambuilding activities guided by the resort’s onsite expert recreation team.
The view of Evermore Bay may have distracted us for a bit, but 13,600 square feet of indoor function space was waiting to be toured. The Boathouse at Evermore features a 2,300-square-foot ballroom with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Evermore Bay, while the 10,000-square-foot Evermore Meeting Center offers a 3,100-square-foot ballroom with a private terrace and event lawn.
For our evening welcome reception, Meetings Today utilized one of the property’s 15-plus event-capable beaches and lawns. Evermore Orlando Resort, with the help of Just Right, a local destination management company (DMC), organized a reception that showcased the group-related possibilities at the resort while giving attendees a chance to enjoy Orlando’s year-round perfect weather.
“Our team is here to ensure that your vision comes to life, and we will work with you to achieve all of your objectives, creating a ‘wow’ experience that will be remembered forever,” Crosby said. “There are many unique options only available at Evermore that we can help curate, such as in-home meetings and in-home chef experiences.”
For us, the Evermore team organized an evening on Barbara Ann’s Beach, where women dressed as flowers greeted us and a retro Volkswagen van-turned-beachfront-bar served drinks in pineapples and coconuts. Colorful lanterns hung overhead as attendees dined on made-to-order poke bowls, huli huli chicken skewers and macadamia nut bread pudding.
We all walked back to our rooms with hand-painted postcards and sandy feet.
Day One
Once attendees were awake and caffeinated, the first full day of Meetings Today LIVE! South in Orlando started with an engaging education session led by Jessie States, vice president of MPI Academy and one of our Meetings Trendsetters, that was sponsored by Experience Columbia SC.
States’ session, “Meetings Unbound: A Catalogue of Inspiration to Fuel Creativity for Next-Era Events,” shared insights from a new catalogue of unique experiences created by MPI in partnership with Radisson Hotels. States asked attendees to consider how they can use new experience formats to help participants exchange knowledge through personal conversations and connections.
She took attendees through a variety of common event experiences, such as teambuilding, experiential learning and network building, and had them share some activities they’ve participated in before that stood out and gave them the opportunity to try something a little different.
One attendee said she’d experienced a “live-action Angry Birds” teambuilding activity, while another shared her “Walk & Talk” experience at MPI’s 2024 World Education Congress, where a group would gather, be assigned a topic, take a walk and discuss the topic at hand to help one another solve problems and brainstorm new ideas.
The session wrapped with some friendly “pop-up debates” about trending topics in the industry, a dynamic and spontaneous education format that fosters collaboration and lively discussion. The informal, impromptu conversations are designed to encourage participation from all attendees—and they come with a twist.
When each team had the chance to argue for their perspective on a certain topic, from artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability to networking and virtual events, they also had to take into consideration their “constraint.” One team had to act out everything they said with movement, another had to relate their argument to bananas and another had to quite literally “talk to the hand.”
Immediately following the morning’s education session, attendees participated in 24 one-on-one appointments, during which planners had the opportunity to network and connect with some of the industry’s top suppliers in Evermore Orlando Resort’s Magnolia Ballroom—and all that talking made us hungry!
When one-on-one appointments wrapped up for the day, we departed for Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek, a complex comprised of four properties: Wyndham Grand Orlando Bonnet Creek, Signia by Hilton Orlando, Waldorf Astoria Orlando and JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa.
“The Bonnet Creek Connection provides groups of 2,000 to 2,250 rooms on peak the opportunity to take over a secluded collection of upscale hotels on the southeastern corner of the Walt Disney World Resort,” said Mitch Jordan, complex director of sales. “Meeting Planners choosing to host in this unique environment are inspired to draw inspiration from the destination and create a one-of-a-kind Creative Campus to both motivate and inspire.”
Our progressive lunch tour on the 500-acre property started at Wyndham Grand Orlando Bonnet Creek, a AAA Four-Diamond resort with more than 400 guest rooms and suites and 32,000 square feet of meeting space.
After a quick bus ride, Meetings Today LIVE! South arrived at Signina by Hilton Orlando, offering more than 223,000 square feet of meeting and event space and over 1,000 guest rooms.
Following some much-needed pizza, the group walked through the prefunction space outside Signia by Hilton Orlando’s ballrooms and arrived at the lobby of Waldorf Astoria Orlando, offering 498 guest rooms and suites and nearly 42,000 square feet of function space.
Our final stop was JW Marriott Orlando, a 516-room property offering 50,000 square feet of meeting space (and more than 30 hidden fairy doors throughout the hotel!). Attendees gathered at Illume, the property’s ninth floor rooftop lounge and bar, for desserts and a view overlooking Orlando’s iconic theme parks before heading back to Evermore Orlando Resort.
The evening wrapped at Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin, comprised of three distinct properties: Walt Disney World Dolphin, featuring 1,516 guest rooms; Walt Disney World Swan, featuring 756 guest rooms; and the relatively new Walt Disney World Swan Reserve, a 349-room property that opened in 2021 and was recently named the best Marriott Autograph Collection hotel of the year.
In total, the 160-acre complex offers more than 360,000 square feet of meeting space and is currently undergoing renovations and an expansion. All guest rooms at Walt Disney World Swan have been recently renovated, while guest rooms at Walt Disney World Dolphin will be undergoing renovations in the near future, and meeting spaces across both properties will soon be upgraded.
The hotels will add 120,000 square feet to their pre-existing meeting and convention spaces, bringing the total to 469,000 square feet across the Swan, Dolphin and Swan Reserve by late summer 2026.
Dinner at The Vue on Walt Disney World Swan Reserve’s 15th floor overlooked the nearby EPCOT theme park, and attendees crowded The Vue’s balcony for a bird’s-eye view of the park’s Nighttime Spectacular firework show—ending the day with a BANG!
Day Two
There are morning meditations, and then there are morning motivations. Marilyn Sherman, a hall of fame keynote speaker with UpFront Presentations, is an expert in the latter (though, she does enjoy a good meditation every now and then!).
Prior to another morning of productive one-on-one appointments between planners and suppliers, Sherman presented her inspiring session, “Front-Row Success: How Top Performers Never Settle for Balcony Seats,” highlighting how it’s time to “recommit and reignite some energy to motivate people to get excited about their work life again.”
Throughout her session, Sherman helped attendees identify what their goals are, taking stock of where they are now in relation to where they want to be—in their career, in their relationships, in their friendships, in their health journeys and more.
Some attendees may already be in the front-row seat, “where life is lived,” Sherman said. Others may be sitting in general admission, while those up in those balcony seats are watching life pass them by from the nosebleeds—but Sherman shared a tool with them to help them change that.
To make your way to that front-row seat, Sherman said, there are four easy steps to follow and, conveniently, the acronym for these steps is SEAT:
- See the outcome.
- Be energy-focused.
- Adopt a positive attitude.
- Have tenacity at max capacity.
By the end of Sherman’s session, the whole group had laughed, some had cried but we were all motivated to find our way to the front row.
But first, we had to find our way to lunch! Our journey to Conrad Orlando was quick, as the 433-room property is nestled within Evermore Orlando Resort’s 1,100-acre property. The hotel, which marked the Conrad Hotels & Resorts brand’s debut in Orlando, features five distinct dining venues, the serene Conrad Spa Orlando and Water Garden and easy access to Evermore Bay. (If you’re ever on property, be sure to keep an eye out for Sunny the Bunny!)
Conrad Orlando’s 65,000 square feet of meeting space was inspired by Florida’s 1,000-plus natural springs—the largest concentration in the world—and the adjacent 500-acre nature preserve. The hotel’s space includes two ballrooms, seven divisible meeting rooms, two terraces, the Lotus Boardroom and the multi-use, turfed 9,000-square-foot Lyonia Lawn, where our group gathered for lunch beneath the Florida sunshine.
Of course, no Orlando meeting is complete without a little Disney Meetings & Events magic. So, to wrap up a fun few days together, the group departed for Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resorts, “a grand, Martha’s Vineyard-themed hotel at Walt Disney World Resort” featuring more than 1,400 guest rooms, 275-plus villas and over 20 suites.
Before our site visit, attendees explored the property’s nearly 100,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event space, where tables were set with embroidered Mickey Mouse ears personalized with everyone’s name.
An entertaining, and quite engaging, presentation about Disney Meetings & Events introduced us to a witty, bubbly and free-spirited character with a passion for event design and teaching meeting planners about the opportunities they have to host magical events across Disney properties.
Following a quick site tour, attendees boarded a bus to EPCOT and were led to the American Adventure Pavilion in EPCOT for a Fall harvest-themed dinner with entertainment featuring classic American songs and Disney hits. At the end of the meal, the group was joined by a special guest—none other than Mickey Mouse!
Once everyone got their photo with Mickey, we all walked over to a private space in the Italy Pavilion overlooking the World Showcase Lagoon and Spaceship Earth, our ears sitting comfortably atop our heads. Each attendee received their own special pair of glasses to watch Epcot’s newest nighttime spectacular, Luminous: The Symphony of Us, that turned every firework into dozens of mini Mickey Mouse silhouettes and made the show all the more memorable.
Then, it was time for our final surprise of the evening, a private ride on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, a 4D experience that takes riders on a “daring culinary caper” with Chef Remy of the 2007 Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille.
The evening was full of so much magic and energy, it followed us all back onto the bus, where attendees created their own impromptu singalong all the way back Evermore Orlando Resort.
All it takes is a little faith, trust, pixie dust—and Disney Meetings & Events magic—to make a meeting in Orlando memorable for everyone involved, and Meetings Today LIVE! South is one that won’t soon be forgotten.
Attendee Feedback
Here's what our Meetings Today LIVE! South attendees had to say about their experience in Orlando:
- "When it comes to accessibility, compared to other shows, you all get it right. From the moment I emailed the team telling them what's going on to now, I have not felt like a burden to anybody," said Lakesha Moore, events associate, Chiefs for Change. "You all made sure I got to go to everything without making me feel like I was causing any extra hassle or trouble. I know at other shows, I will never get that level of care. It's the extra things that you all do that make me know you could do this for anybody. If you go above and beyond for me, you'll go above and beyond for everybody."
- “This was a very well-organized event, from beginning to end,” said Nicole Hillman, corporate planner at Jetset Events. “Truly, you guys have it planned down to the minute.”
- “This event is major magic,” said Mary Rieger, director of southeast sales at Kiawah Island Golf Resort. “I’m 54 years old, and I’ve never had my picture taken with Mickey Mouse before.”
Meet the Mentee
As part of a new mentorship initiative between Meetings Today and the University of Iowa’s event management certificate program, we’ve sponsored a student attendee at each of our live events this year.
Lexie Rudolph, a recent University of Iowa grad, joined us in Orlando for Meetings Today LIVE! South, where she had the opportunity to shadow representatives from our host property, Evermore Orlando Resort, learn about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into Meetings Today LIVE! events and participate in one-on-one appointments with events industry professionals to get their advice about how to start her career in the industry.
"I learned throughout this experience that it’s so important to build a solid network because it’s all about who you know in this industry," Rudolph said. "Creating and maintaining good relationships is so valuable between event/meeting managers, and it’s crucial to get to know people so that you can build trust from the beginning.
"The people I met during this conference are kind, passionate, welcoming and motivated individuals who all support and uplift one another," she continued. "It’s truly an amazing community of professionals. Seeing this firsthand makes me very excited and inspired as someone who has just entered the industry after graduating from college!"
Thanks to Our Sponsors
- Evermore Orlando Resort
- Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek
- Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort
- Conrad Orlando
- Disney Meetings & Events
- The BrandIt Agency
- Eventive
- Grand Wayne Convention Center
- Experience Columbia SC
- Wandering Maverick Photo & Film
- Visit Orlando
- Global Gifting
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