In Your Dreams
Author: Hunter Holcombe
April 2008
Techno Files
Have you ever been so focused on a project that you actually dreamed about planning your event?
Maybe it’s a nightmare, and you can’t even find the light switch in time. Or the event could be a breeze, and you’re mentally swapping out various flower arrangements to go with the tablecloths.With the latter scenario in mind, a new “virtual meeting planning” program initiated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Mexico seeks to bring the technology of virtual design right to your laptop.
“This idea was created after an analysis about meetings, banquet processes and timelines,” explains Federico Isuani, marketing manager, Mexico & Central America, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Latin America Division. “We want to take the hotel to the planner, instead of making them come to it.”
Launched at several pilot properties—Sheraton Hacienda del Mar (Los Cabos), Sheraton Ambassador (Monterrey) and Sheraton Maria Isabel (Mexico City)—the technology allows planners to go online and plan out their event, choosing everything from specific meeting rooms to seat configurations to the color of the tablecloths. As you (virtually) drag around your tables, chairs or podiums, you can view a full 3-D version of the room while it is created and altered. Every component of the room can be changed or moved and, at any point, you can watch a 3-D virtual tour of your meeting space as a “camera” pans 360 degrees.
Finally, once you’re satisfied with the setup, you may customize the staging of the meeting, with breaks and meals, or add things like extra staffing, A/V equipment or office supplies. Once you’re finished, a final click of the mouse sends your detailed plan to the sales department as an RFP.
“All the steps are very simple and everything is very user-friendly,” Isuani says. “You spend less time trying to explain what you want.”
Isuani says that Sheraton is now in the process of integrating the technology into all of its Latin American properties, and he hopes to expand to all major U.S. and European properties by Q3 of 2008.
Starwood Hotels has some experience with virtual planning—it launched its new aloft hotel product on the popular virtual-reality website Second Life, allowing users to tour the prototype property virtually and offer feedback on the design, which gave Starwood the opportunity to make changes before building the hotels in real life.
Each Starwood property with virtual planning capability has its own website. To try the program at the Sheraton Maria Isabel, go to http://shopcapilare.pointinspace.com/sheraton/?language=es&EM=M8_259_LAD.
