The Latest News From Hyatt's Senior Vice President of Events Steve Enselein

The Meetings Today team is coming to you from the IMEX America tradeshow floor! Taylor Smith sat down this morning with Hyatt’s Senior Vice President of Events Steve Enselein to talk all the latest and greatest news in the Hyatt world that meeting planners should be aware of, including enhancements to Together by Hyatt and how planners can incorporate more sustainability and wellness into their Hyatt events. 

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Transcript:

Editors note: The following transcription was facilitated by AI program Otter.ai and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.

Taylor Smith
Taylor, hello and welcome to this Meetings Today podcast. I'm Taylor Smith, destinations and features content developer for Meetings Today, and I'm coming to you from the IMEX America trade show floor. I'm here today with Hyatt Senior Vice President of events, Steve Enselein, who will share with us all of the latest and greatest news in the Hyatt world that meeting planners should be aware of thanks for joining me today, Steve.

Steve Enselein
Taylor, it's really exciting to be here. Thanks for joining us.

Taylor Smith
Of course! So let's get right into it. I hear there are some reimagined meetings and events offerings through together by Hyatt that our meeting planner audience should be excited about and be in the know of. So can you fill our listeners in on what's new?

Steve Enselein
Sure, so let me go backwards just a little bit, just talk a little bit about what “Together by Hyatt” is and how it came about.

So obviously, the pandemic was very impactful for our industry, and as everyone was trying to determine what meetings and events were going to look like, we spent an enormous amount of time talking to meeting planners about what their challenges and concerns were going to be to bring people back to live events. Hyatt's purpose is to care for people so they can be their best, and one key part of that is empathetic listening.

Taylor, I'm not kidding when I tell you that I talked to more than 300, 400 meeting planners to learn what was important to them about meetings and events post-pandemic. That's where “Together by Hyatt” was developed, by listening to planners what their concerns were and how we were going to address them. So when you think about that world, safety was first and foremost, that was important. Second thing that they were worried about is how meetings and events were going to change. Everyone was talking about, “Are we going to be in a hybrid world? Is everything going to be hybrid? How do we have to do hybrid meetings and events?” How could we take care of people's well-being? People's attitudes changed and very focused on wellbeing, and how can we support people? So that was the beginning of together by Hyatt. We've continued this process and continue to talk to planners all the time.

About 18 months ago, we were hearing sustainability, sustainability, sustainability and how important that was. So we modified Together by Hyatt about 18 months ago to bring sustainability as one of our four key pillars, and we moved safety under well-being. Now we continue to listen to planners, and again, through listening to planners, we felt it was time to modify together by Hyatt again. So what we've done with together by Hyatt is we're really focused on how it's a benefit from the planner. What's in it for them? How can it make their lives better?

So we created a very basic philosophy for what together by Hyatt is and what our differentiation is. So our philosophy is that Together by Hyatt, will help deliver events that are better for you and your guests than any other place that can have meetings and events. And our differentiator is that you the customer and your guests will feel more cared for, more efficient, more impactful and more intentional.

These are all the key points that planners are telling us are important to them. Short term bookings. They need to be more efficient, less staff, they need to be more efficient. Cared for… Everyone wants to be cared for. Impactful, talking about sustainability and how we can make a difference in our hotels with your events, and then intentional, how do we bring that well-being piece in time? So those are the great that's the big outline of it, and super excited about what our planners are telling us.

Taylor Smith
Yeah, and I think it's great that you're getting planner feedback, right? You're not sending something out there into the world and then hoping it does well. You're talking to the people that you're building this for, and really getting the feedback from the people that matter most. And so, you know, I think we could all learn from that. And just, you know, don't be afraid to ask the questions and get the feedback that's going to help you succeed in the long run.

Steve Enselein
Our CEO has a great line he says all the time in our meetings, “you have two ears and one mouth, and you should use them in that proportion.”

Taylor Smith
I love that. Can you tell me more about Hyatt proprietary technologies like the event experience guide and the Hyatt planner portal. How do they support meeting planners?

Steve Enselein
Sure. We believe our technology is superior to any other brand that's out there right now. All of it was built by Hyatt through listening to things that are important. So you mentioned the event experience guide. That's our newest piece of technology. It reinvented what a banquet menu should look like. I'm kind of embarrassed I've been doing this for quite a while, and we really hadn't made major changes to banquet menus. They listed food and beverage. Well, there's so many more things that are part of a meeting or an event.

The event experience guide now shares that information with planners. Things about the hotel, floor plans for the meeting space, video tours of the meeting space.

Taylor Smith
Those are awesome!

Steve Enselein
Yeah, information about the suites, because you need that information when you're planning your event, food and beverage. Of course, food and beverage is a big part of it. Now we can talk about our philosophy of food, thoughtfully sourced, carefully served. It contains experiences. Each hotel has the ability to deliver very unique experiences. With the event experience guide, we showcase those for the planners so they can understand what's important. We talk about sustainability. We give information about Together by Hayatt. We talk about our suppliers, our partners that we work with. We introduce the team that they're going to work with, the key players, not just the salesperson and the events person, but the banquet team, the chefs. So they have a chance to know who they're working with.

And then we have a whole section that's focused on all the information you would need, what kind of questions you would have. We know planners are working on airplanes or working nights, they're working weekends. It may be hard to catch someone at the hotel. If you need to know where's the closest church, how big is the parking facility, all those basic pieces of information are in there. So we think that it's state of the art. It's got great imagery that will allow the planner to understand what the hotel and the experience is going to be like. So that's the newest piece.

Hyatt Planner Portal, to me, is a game changer. Last year, planners accessed the Hyatt Planner Portal and ran more than 250,000 reports, without even reaching out to anyone in the hotel. So those reports consisted of, you know what their group pickup is, who's made the actual reservations, who's canceled the reservation. They can access their group detail report that has all the information about the event, their group bill. So it's really a self-service platform for the planner. I joke that if planners ran 250,000 reports, that probably stopped like three quarters of a million emails. Yeah, you send me a note. “Please send me a pickup list?” “Yep,” I send it back. You say, “thank you.” I say, “You're welcome.” And then you say, “Oh, could you send me an updated one? So we think that that self-service access to that information really streamlines the process and makes it quite easy for a planner. They get to keep their history three years forward, three years back. So as you work with your team, they can access all the detailed information. So we're really excited about that technology.

Taylor Smith
Yeah, that's great. And with the artificial intelligence rise right now, I think a lot of people are becoming more independent and reliant on quick, easy self like self-serving platforms like that, where they could get it done on their own. They don't need to send those emails or make a phone call, like you said, and the answers are given to them right away because they've got this technology there to help them out. So Hyatt definitely seems to be staying on top of those trends.

Steve Enselein
We all want what we want when we want it. The ability to self-serve, I think, is super important.

Taylor Smith
You mentioned sustainability in our conversation today, and I know that Together by Hyatt emphasizes the importance and the benefits of incorporating sustainability into facets of your meeting. Would you be able to share a few examples, and maybe even you know sustainability goes into economic sustainability as well. It's not just being ecofriendly. And so what are some ways planners can take advantage of those offerings?

Steve Enselein
Sure, as part of the event experience guide, there's a whole section that talks about sustainability. And every hotel has developed a sustainability fact sheet. So that sustainability fact sheet will tell you very specifically what each hotel has done. Is it a LEED certified billing building? Do they have EV charging stations? What's the easiest way to get people to carpool from the airport or what other transit method they're having to get to the hotel? So it really detailed, specifically tells them what's happening.

We also have a thing that's an “event impact report” that we can give a planner an estimate of what was the carbon emission impact, what the waste and what the water usage was for their event. And if they make changes, how does that reduce the impact? And helping them see the choices you make on your event and change the sustainability of the event. So we think that that's super important.

We also have tips that we can give to planners as part of the event experience guide. What can you do to have a more sustainable event? We also have what Hyatt is doing, our commitment to sustainability, our 2030 goals, and exactly what Hyatt's doing. So it's kind of a three prong approach, what's Hyatt doing globally, what's this hotel doing independently and then what can you do at your event at this hotel to make it better? So we think that's one big part of it.

We also have our food philosophy. It's food sourced, carefully served, yes, and one of the key parts of that is our partners that we work with, using local farmers, local cheesemakers, local fishmongers, all of those different types of people in the community, helps reduce food miles and it supports the local economy. So there's so many great examples. Today at our booth, the next three days at our booth, we have Chef Thomas from the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, who's here with us. What Thomas is going to be doing is preparing plant-forward items. So that planners can see how they could incorporate plant based dining into their events, have it be tasty, have it be beautiful, have it be healthy and help with sustainability. Thomas can tell you firsthand about his relationship with the local farmers in his area, the local, diverse buyers that he has. So again, it's really a multifaceted approach to sustainability at our hotels.

Taylor Smith
Yeah, I love that. I think, you know, sometimes we have to show the planners what's possible, what's out there, what we can give them. And we give them new ideas when we take, you know, what we have in our resources, and kind of bring it to light like this. So I'm definitely going to stop by the booth this week so that I could check some of that out. And I've read a lot more too…

Steve Enselein
Carrot bacon on Thursday.

Taylor Smith
Carrot bacon? Yes, I will be here. Sign me up. I'm coming. I will be there, for sure. I'm… we're reading more about these, like plant first menus too, that I've seen where it's kind of like by default, you offer the plant based options and then give, you know your attendees, the option to opt-in to having chicken or beef or meat on their plates. But I think that's another great way that I've seen planners incorporating more sustainability by making that the default and showing them, you know, like we can have these good, hearty, healthy meals and still feel satisfied by doing good for the environment and using our local resources.

Steve Enselein
No doubt. Taylor, one of the other things that we do in our hotels is we have “Menu of the Day.” So menu of the day is designed to simplify the process for the planner. Many times the planner doesn't want to pick because food's so personal, right? And you have so many dietary restrictions. So chef Thomas was one of the key Innovators for us as we developed “Menu of the Day”. So Menu of the Day helps reduce food waste. By having each group have the same breakfast, lunch, breaks. Chef doesn't have to produce 6, 7, 8, 12 different menus, and their ability to have more control over the waste, this really goes a long way to sustainability. But it also helps with the plant forward dining that you're talking about. So as we work with the chefs, we ask them to incorporate into each one of these menus that the primary dietary restrictions and making sure that there's a plant-forward entree selection for the attendants. So again, we're very focused on both dietary restrictions and sustainability

Taylor Smith
Yeah, and that ties into the well-being factor too, and just offering healthier options at our events. So can you tell me more about Hyatt's commitment to well-being and how that comes to life for planners and events at your hotels?

Steve Enselein
Sure. So I'll carry on just a little bit more with food thoughtfully sourced, carefully served. So it's been our food philosophy for 20 plus years, and we're not prescriptive with the chefs, but we give them guidance and food thoughtfully sourced, carefully served, three key pillars, healthy people, healthy planets, healthy communities.

So healthy people, it's all about the products that they use, how they prepare it, what they add and what they don't add. So chefs are given 10 very key principles on how to prepare that food. When we talk about healthy communities, again it comes to who we're buying from, how the animals are treated, how the product is treated. So we think that helps with well-being our hotels and our event planning managers create a Know Before You Go, and we send that to the planner to forward to their attendees. So that person has a lower level of anxiety when they're leaving their families.

Taylor Smith
Those help me every time I need those know before you go emails. 

Steve Enselein
No matter how experienced a traveler you are, you always have angst when you walk into a new hotel. Don't know where the first event is, don't know what you're supposed to wear, don't know what the weather is going to be… look like. So those know before you go really help set the stage.

As people come into our hotels, and they come to our events, we have care stations. You can experience a care station here in our booth, little things that you might have forgotten. You know, do you need a pen, pad of paper? If the meeting room's a little cold, there'll be a pashmina. There's mints, there's a shout light, you know, so if you spill something. So little things that you might need to make you feel more comfortable, there's power at those care stations, because, God forbid, your phone starts to lose charge.

Taylor Smith
I deal with that all the time at this show.

Steve Enselein
Yes, so we think the care stations go a long way to take care of well-being. We have a very strong partnership with Headspace.

Taylor Smith
I've read about this,

Steve Enselein
Yeah, if you're a member of World of Hyatt, you have access to Headspace content that helps you sleep better, get yourself in the right headspace. So we think that that's super helpful from a well-being point of view. We also lean into our expertise, our resort, our Miraval resorts.

Taylor Smith
Beautiful.

Steve Enselein
Yeah, they are beautiful. Focus on well-being. So we've curated some of the best experiences from those Miraval resorts, and we have videos that you could incorporate into your sessions to help people relax, get them to focus, get them to open up, get them to have fun, get them to smile. Again, it’s here in our booth at IMEX. We have a little experience you can try, and it's floating meditation. So I hope you come back, talk with Erica.

Taylor Smith
Ooooh. Yes, Erica, I will be following up for the carrot bacon too.

Steve Enselein
Yeah, you can have… come back on Thursday and do both, because after three days of the show, you're going to need a little care.

Taylor Smith
I'll need that little reset for sure.

Steve Enselein
Excellent.

Taylor Smith
Well, Steve, those are all my questions for you today. But do you have anything you want to add or talk about before I sign us off?

Steve Enselein
You know? I think that, you know, I would just say that as a group, we understand what the planners are focused on right now. Our teams are laser-focused on being support for them. We understand their staffs are smaller and that our job is to make their lives easier. And as we make their lives easier, we have to give their attendees experiences that make them want to come back. That's what our team is dedicated on doing right now.

Taylor Smith
Yeah, well, you're doing a great job.

Steve Enselein
Thank you, and we're not done with Together by Hyatt. It’s gonna continue to change, it's gonna continue to modify and it's gonna continue to hopefully serve the needs of our planners and make sure their events are great.

Taylor Smith
Yeah, well, you know where to find me when that news comes out, and I'll make sure they're in-the-know and know what Hyatt’s got to offer.

Steve Enselein
Thanks so much, Taylor. It's great talking with you.

Taylor Smith
You too! That was Steve Enselein, senior vice president of events at Hyatt, once again, I'm Taylor. or Smith destinations and features content developer for Meetings Today, and I want to thank you all for tuning into this Meeting Today Podcast. If you're interested in more podcasts or checking out some of our IMEX America coverage, visit us at www.meetingstoday.com And thanks again for listening.