Marriott has launched a new concept designed to change the way meetings are planned.
The hotel company’s new ‘Meetings Imagined’ programme features a new online platform (meetingsimagined.com) offering a range of ideas and tips from experts, designed to offer a bit of creative inspiration to meeting planners. Customers can then get in touch with hotels to design a custom-made meeting experience.
Paul Cahill, Marriott’s senior vice president of brand management, said the new concept was designed to provide a more “sophisticated approach [to event planning] based on objectives and outcomes”.
“While others may focus on just meeting logistics, Marriott is reimagining the experience for the next generation,” Cahill said.
The new concept has been initiated following internal Marriott research that showed a shift in the way people work and use technology. Having analysed the 40,000 meetings hosted at Marriott’s hotels every year, and talked to customers, the company identified seven key purposes for meetings: to celebrate, decide, educate, ideate, network, produce and promote.
By focusing on the purpose of the event, rather than simply on dates, rates and room layouts, Marriott believes it is able to enhance the overall quality of the meeting. In addition, the new website will offers ideas for how to hold a successful meeting, including tips on F&B, music and technology.
The new Meetings Imagined concept is initially being trialled at five Marriott properties in the US, before being rolled out to hotels in London, Paris, Munich and Amsterdam in 2014.
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