Smart Meetings

In this episode of What One Thing?, Smart Meetings' Vice President and Editorial Director JT Long sits down with Shawn Pierce, President of Strategic Events, Meetings & Incentives at MCI-USA, to trace his extraordinary journey from humble beginnings on a Texas pig farm to leading a 130-person global team.

A new proposal is quietly targeting travel marketing. U.S. Travel warned that during the reconciliation process, the Senate Commerce Committee bill, led by Chairman Ted Cruz, proposed cutting Brand USA funding from $100 million to $20 million.

This thorough list of the best of the best in 42 categories has you covered on land, in the air and at sea—yep, we asked about cruise lines, too. You will want to bookmark this list and refer to it all year long so when anyone asks, “Where should we go next?” you will be the smartest one in the room.

The temporary world in an expo hall represents hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment on the part of the organizer and the sponsors. But is it working? Nick Borelli, marketing director of Zenus.ai, a company specializing in ethical AI facial analysis, attended Smart Meetings Innovation Experience in Atlantic City and explained that the answer to the ultimate return on event questions are rooted in data, not guesswork.

At Smart Meetings Innovation Experience in Atlantic City—a destination of firsts, from the first computer conference to the first female African-American millionaire—top meeting professionals met to explore what is possible in the future of events.

Club Ichi circled planners in Nashville for a spontaneous think tank about the state of producing events.

In the eternal quest to answer the question, “What’s new?” Cvent Connect brought an estimated 4,000 people to Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio for an unveiling of the latest technology, experiences and destination news. A big emphasis from stage was on new AI capabilities, the return of virtual (some 6,000 registered to […]