Erica Hegarty

Pacific World, a global destination and event management company, announces the promotion of Erica Hegarty. She previously held the position of head of sales, and will be promoted to vice president of Incentive Conference & Event Society Asia Pacific (ICESAP) in South East Asia. Hegarty will also serve on the advisory board of Pacific World with global manager director, Selina Chavry.

Chris Ferrier

Chris Ferrier will become director of food and beverage for Airlie in Warrenton, Virginia. Ferrier brings with him 28 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. He has worked for Hyatt Lost Pines Resort & Spa and The Lodge at Pebble Beach. Ferrier was most recently executive chef for National Conference Center.

Christine McDaniel

Christine McDaniel was appointed to the role of director of operations at Airlie in Warrenton, Virginia. She has over 15 years of experience in hospitality management. She previously worked for MGM National Harbor, where she was managing transportation operations.

Dale Krogman

Dale Krogman was appointed director of sales and marketing at Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown. He was previously director of sales for Starwood Mexico Resorts, where he managed resorts spanning 10 states. Krogman has 20 years of experience in the hospitality and sales industry. Krogman will marketing the property, assist the sales department, service teams and catering sales department.

Do you have an announcement about a new executive-level job appointment? Email us the good news at [email protected]. 

Brooke Kravetz

Brooke Kravetz was named chef de cuisine of BALEEN, LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort’s signature restaurant in Naples, Florida. She has a passion for creativity in the kitchen and practices this by taking classic recipes and flavor combinations and transforming them into new creations. She previously served as executive sous chef at Sea Salt Naples and received a degree from Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Kristin Wenger

Kristin Wenger

Visit Pittsburgh appointed Kristin Wenger to communication director of the official tourism promotion agency for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. She previously worked for Keebler Company in Charlotte, North Carolina and began working at Visit Pittsburgh in 2000. Wenger has helped Pittsburgh gain positive media coverage regionally and nationally through press tours and press events within her role in the communication department. She graduated from Geneva College with a degree in communications and public relations.

Mike Dinucci

Mike DiNucci

RAR Hospitality announced the appointment of Mike DiNucci as director of sales of DoubleTree by Hilton Phoenix North. He previously served as general manager and director of sales positions for the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Tempe. DiNucci began his sales career at the Handlery Hotel San Diego and has held positions in San Diego, San Francisco, Boston and Phoenix.

Do you have an announcement about a new executive-level job appointment? Email us the good news at [email protected].

It’s that time of year again—Smart Meetings‘ 14th annual Platinum Choice Awards! This exclusive awards program honors exemplary standards of excellence in service and amenities including ambience, amenities, breadth of resources, facility quality, guest services, recreational activities, dining options, technical support and more.

Nominations are made by dedicated industry professionals (multiple submissions accepted) and receive a thoughtful review by the Smart Meetings Editorial team who selects the final honorees. Winners will be featured in the December issue of Smart Meetings‘ print and digital magazines. These first-class properties helped make your meeting unforgettable—show your gratitude and elect them with the 2017 Platinum Choice Awards. Nominate now through September 15 and be automatically entered to win a $250 gift card.

Enter Your Nominations Here

Looking for a meeting destination that offers arts, culture and rock and roll; diverse dining and a friendly environment? It’s time to consider Cleveland. Located within 500 miles (a two-hour or shorter flight) of nearly half the country’s population, Cleveland is an unconventional but increasingly more popular choice.

Business travelers can step outside their hotel or the convention center and easily walk to locations throughout the lakeside city. World-class experiences without the world-class ego are accessible to visitors, including:

  • One-of-a-kind attractions like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
  • Award-winning, chef-owned restaurants serving familiar to fancy fare
  • The largest performing arts center outside of New York
  • Three professional sports teams
  • And an urban park in the heart of the city – just 10 of more than 55,000 acres in the region.

But before the fun begins, Cleveland offers peace of mind to meeting planners who need to know the convention package basics are covered.

State-of-the-Art Meeting Facilities Await

Opened in 2013, the 750,000-square-foot Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland is a high-tech complex that includes direct access to the Global Center for Health Innovation, Cleveland Public Auditorium and the new, 600-room Hilton Cleveland Downtown. The Convention Center features:

  • 225,000 square feet of exhibit space
  • 30 meeting rooms totaling 93,000 square feet
  • 32,000-square-foot column-free ballroom with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Erie
  • Mobile phone reception throughout the facility

For out-of-the-ordinary meeting spaces, planners have choices … from music venues like the world’s only Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to arts and culture sites like Cleveland Museum of Art or sports venues including Quicken Loans Arena.

We’ve Got the Room

After meetings and events, travelers can relax at one of the 18 hotels in Downtown Cleveland or the many hotels in Cleveland’s suburbs.

From chic boutiques to convention-sized spaces, Downtown Cleveland offers nearly 5,000 hotel rooms within a 15-minute walk of the convention center, while the region boasts nearly 24,000 rooms. Recent downtown hotel openings include:

  • Hilton Cleveland Downtown: 600 rooms; 55,000 square feet of meeting space
  • Kimpton Schofield Hotel: 122 rooms; 3,800 square feet of event space
  • Drury Plaza Hotel: 189 rooms; 3,900 square feet of meeting space

 

Dine, Recline and Do Business

Outside the walls of meeting rooms and hotels, Cleveland offers a combination of a thriving dining scene and diverse entertainment options. Visitors will walk away satisfied at any of the 100 eateries in Downtown Cleveland where options include restaurants like Mabel’s BBQ, Lola Bistro, and The Greenhouse Tavern – all owned by James Beard Award-winning chefs in the East 4th Street entertainment district. Waterfront dining in the redeveloped Flats East Bank and neighborhoods filled with ethnic eateries and breweries are also possibilities.

For post-dinner fun, attendees have plenty of selections – from a show in the Playhouse Square theater district to slots or table games at JACK Cleveland Casino to cocktails and conversation at one of the city’s lounges and clubs. In Cleveland, you don’t have to follow the herd to have fun.

Anaheim, Orange County remains a vibrant and evolving destination for meetings. Centrally located in Southern California, Orange County is accessible from four major airports so guests have plenty of arrival options. Plus, the Anaheim Convention Center, the largest on the West Coast, is about to open an additional 200,000 square feet of flexible, carpeted space which will include 100,000 square feet of column-free space on the top level and finished ceilings with movable air walls offering a variety of meeting room layout options. With our new flexible meeting space, your set-up can be as creative as you are. We can give you small and intimate spaces or hugely impressive ones—all at the same time!

If you had a venue along our 42 miles of coastline in mind, our destination experts can help you create an extraordinary local experience steeped in Southern Californian charm. For Visit Anaheim, it’s all about surprising and delighting your imagination and making you, and your guests, feel special.

GET AN EARLY ADVANTAGE

Visit Anaheim offers pre-meeting services guaranteed to build excitement among your exhibitors and attendees with complementary customized marketing and welcome programs.

BUILD AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE

Leverage our knowledgeable team to help you create an effective bid strategy to maximize your room blocks. Visit Anaheim will also arrange site inspections and provide you with details on community events that will impact your meetings, as well as the latest hotel renovations and destination updates.

OUR AWARD-WINNING TEAM, AT YOUR SERVICE

As true destination experts we’re excited to be able to assist you in finding the right hotels, venues, transportation, and dining and entertainment options. We’ll help you discover all that Anaheim and Orange County have to offer.

Learn more about meeting in Anaheim and Orange County.

From recently renovated hotels, to our newly built Huntington Convention Center; Cleveland is a hot spot to host your event! If your attendees are looking for great restaurants, arts & culture, entertainment, or even an exciting night life scene, Cleveland can offer all of that and more.

Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland

Located in the heart of Downtown Cleveland, the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland offers more than 390,000 square feet of flexible exhibit and meeting space for conventions, tradeshows, meetings, conferences, and special events.

Connected to the 600-room Hilton Cleveland Downtown and within walking distance of nearly 5,000 hotel rooms, Cleveland’s convention center campus is a convenient location to host small executive meetings or large industry tradeshows.

The Huntington Convention Center offers 225,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, more than 140,000 sq. ft. of meeting and event space, 30 breakout rooms and a 32,000 sq. ft. Grand Ballroom divisible into three spaces. Our flexible space is perfect for any meeting or event!

Global Center for Health Innovation

There are many reasons to host a meeting at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, but one major draw is the Global Center for Health Innovation. The connecting healthcare facility provides natural light in the ballrooms, executive boardroom, and conference center.

The Global Center provides a gateway for leaders to gather and learn from Cleveland’s rich concentration of medical excellence. Built specifically to host and educate the country’s medical community, the Global Center offers far more than just meeting space. Healthcare companies and associations meeting in Cleveland can partner with the Global Center’s network of influencers to provider educational content or host hands-on training in its technologically advanced spaces.

This one-of-a-kind facility sits among some of the industry’s finest institutions and was built specifically to host and educate the medical community. The center partners with 45 of the world’s leading healthcare, health IT, and medical innovation brands, including GE Healthcare, Cisco, MetroHealth, SmartShape, and the Cleveland Clinic.

For more information: Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland and Global Center for Health Innovation — Judy Kent, Director of Sales and Marketing; (216) 920-1449; [email protected]; www.clevelandconventions.com  and www.theglobalcenter.com.

Join us in honoring the hotel, destination and CVB industry experts who helped make your meeting a successful and truly memorable event—share your gratitude and let them know how much you value their dedication.

We’re looking for truly exceptional individuals who are making a significant contribution to the industry, their brand and their meeting planner clients. These honorees should reflect strong leadership, enterprising work ethic, an indomitable spirit for innovation and success, and an overall exceptional performance and passion for their craft.

From ambitious up and comers to high level CEOs and directors, honor the colleagues who shine through their resolve, industrious and resourceful attitude, and their contagious zeal for the hotel industry,

​Nominations are made by dedicated industry professionals and will receive a thoughtful review by the Smart Meetings Editorial team who selects the final honorees. Winners will be featured in the November issue of Smart Meetings’ print and digital magazines. Entry deadline is September 21—submit your nominations today!

Enter Your Nominations Here

executive retreats

What do plush couches, lemon-scented candles and yellow sticky notes have in common? They are all tricks of the trade for turning a stuffy meeting into a creative groundswell of ideas.

When a group of decision-makers goes to an off-site venue to discuss organizational challenges and collaborate on next steps, their success depends greatly on how the planner sets up each aspect of the retreat. On one hand, participants must be made to feel comfortable and somewhat relaxed so that they can focus on business. However, these experienced professionals must be willing to listen to their colleagues, and be open to other perspectives in order to move the organization down the right path.

Try these three strategies to set the mood for creative confabs.

  1. Add cozy furniture: “To get senior participants comfortable at retreats, planners request that couches, oversized soft chairs, coffee tables and household lamps be brought into the meeting spaces,” says Laura Manriquez, director of sales and marketing for Visit Santa Cruz County, where many Silicon Valley startups and established firms hold executive events.
  2. Invest in a diffuser: “Aromatherapy is another element that’s being used a lot, both in meeting spaces and in break areas,” Manriquez says. For instance, citrus scent is known to stimulate the brain, while lavender scent is known to relax the brain. Using each scent at the right moment helps participants perform better and feel healthier throughout the day.
  3. Trade sticky notes: Once participants are comfortable, planners could consider using unusual formats to maximize creative thinking and spur progress on organizational challenges. Art Markman, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Texas, suggests a unique format for a brainstorming session where participants’ input isn’t overly influenced by their colleagues’ input. Called the 6-3-5 method, it works this way: Six people sit at a table and each person writes down three ideas. They pass their ideas to the person next to them, and that person adds their own thoughts to each idea. When each person has seen the other five sets of ideas, the brainstorming session is complete—and the amount of individual thinking has been maximized, even as participants shared their thoughts with each other.
  4. Pump up the Play: Venues themselves can also help create unique session set-ups to promote creative thinking. At Marriott Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, the Mighty Oaks room is the hub for children’s programming, but also doubles as meeting space. Executives can brainstorm on chalkboards, chat while they play foosball, or discuss issues and possibilities in an area that overlooks acres of manicured lawn flanked by moss-draped live oaks and a lagoon. Planners are also encouraged to incorporate quick bursts of exercise or play to jump-start participants’ energy.
Read more about executives retreats in the September 2017 issue.

While it’s now common for convention centers to include sustainability initiatives in their operating policies, not all such programs are created equal. Planners in search of an environmentally responsible venue can book these convention centers with a clear eco-conscience.

Austin Convention Center

The LEED Gold certified Austin Convention Center is taking steps to support its home city’s ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2020. A dedicated Green Team Committee works with the Austin Climate Protection Program to conceive and implement a groundbreaking Departmental Climate Protection Plan. Environmentally conscious measures affect systems such as lighting, water, HVAC, indoor air quality and cleaning.

Colorado Convention Center

At Colorado Convention Center in Denver, every meeting is a green meeting. As a LEED Gold certified facility and the first venue to be meet the certification requirements of the ASTM Environmentally Sustainable Meetings, Events, Trade Shows and Conferences, Colorado Convention Center boasts impressive credentials. Its Environmental Procurement Policy expresses a preference for regional, organic and sustainable materials, in addition to vendors who share the facility’s environmentally conscious values.

Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland

The Rust Belt isn’t top of mind in terms of sustainability, but Huntington Convention Center proves it should be. The convention center complex, which includes the Global Center for Health Innovation, earned LEED Gold certification on the strength of eco-conscious initiatives such as installing environmentally friendly design elements, recycling or reusing 67 percent of generated waste, and even operating a sustainable farm to supply the in-house catering team.

Vancouver Convention Centre

British Columbia’s waterfront convention center is a green meetings trailblazer. The world’s first LEED Platinum convention center operates at the forefront of sustainability technologies. Examples include a 6-acre living roof featuring 400,000 native plants and grasses, plus four honey bee hives; a heating and cooling system powered by seawater; and a restored marine habitat contained inside the foundation of the West Building.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s hotel scene is bursting at the seams like never before. After reaching a record 1 million room nights in 2016, development is at an all-time high, and by next year the city will also have more hotel rooms than ever. One of the first SLS LUX brand hotels to open in the United States, a new W Hotel just off the Avenue of the Arts and a new Four Seasons Hotel will be just a few of the exciting new offerings.

With such fierce competition, existing hotels are stepping up their game with cosmopolitan menus and inventive create-your-own dining experiences, while attracting corporate event clients from around the world.

The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia recently completed a multimillion-dollar renovation with all new guest rooms and suites, meeting and event spaces, and Aquimero, a new lobby restaurant. A fun new food option is South Philadelphia Lunch Buffet, which encourages guests to play with their food. The “build your own” Philly Cheesesteak with beef, chicken and Cheez Whiz is a new twist on a proud Philadelphia tradition. Don’t be afraid to go heavy on the Cheez Whiz.

Loews Philadelphia resides in the city’s first skyscraper. A new street-level bar and restaurant, Bank & Bourbon, offers the perfect atmosphere for a group hang, with a cocktail menu and extensive bourbon selection that will keep the party going and bourbon lovers thrilled.

The 202-room Le Meridien Philadelphia recently underwent a $1 million renovation including the lobby, and bar and restaurant Amuse, a classic French bistro that excels at all the tasty dishes attendees will crave: French onion soup, frisee aux lardons and escargots.

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown has added a multitude of food choices intended for group consumption. Make a splash by having cold brewed coffee served in the grand foyer dripping through sleek, giant test tubes. Street food continues to impress; the Marriott will source and provide food trucks for receptions and events of all sizes—from tacos to tasty dogs to barbecue, even breakfast. Finally, planners can arrange for a towering live herb garden wall to be rolled into the ballroom. Guests are then encouraged to clip and create their own garnishes and salad dressings, a la carte, fresh off the wall.

Read more about new developments and exciting attractions in Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania cities in the September issue of Smart Meetings.