GLOBAL MEETINGS INDUSTRY DAY RECAP ’21
On Thursday, April 8th the meetings industry celebrated Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) around the world. I can’t tell you how excited we were to attend some of the events in person! Our first event of the day was at The Artisan in Dallas, sponsored by MPI and Caesars Entertainment. During this event we were able to network with some of our industry colleagues and watch the GMID21 telecast from Las Vegas.
The GMID telecast featured a panel event at the Las Vegas Convention Center’s new West Hall, a 1.4 million-square-foot expansion of the facility, and included Steve Hill, CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority; Chandra Allison, senior vice president of sales and marketing, The Venetian Resort; Chris Flatt, executive vice president of hotel sales and marketing, Wynn Resorts; Stephanie Glanzer, chief sales officer and senior vice president of sales, MGM Resorts International; and Michael Massari, chief sales officer, Caesars Entertainment. About 50 people attended the event—socially distanced.
The panel addressed a range of topics, including the recent expansion of more than 2 million square feet of meeting and event space in the past year and the Convention Center Loop, the innovative underground transportation system that will move attendees across the Las Vegas Convention Center’s 200-acre campus in just minutes. Both the West Hall and the Convention Center Loop will celebrate their official debut during this year’s World of Concrete, set for June 8-10.
Massari, co-chair of the Meetings Mean Business Coalition, discussed the “safe meetings” theme for GMID this year and all the panelists gave updates on safety protocols at their respective properties.
The panel also discussed the recently released results of an LVCVA quantitative research study of business travelers that showed 91 percent miss the face-to-face interaction of in-person conferences, conventions and trade shows, and 74 percent believe Las Vegas is best prepared to safely host in-person conferences, conventions and trade shows in the second half of 2021. – Rich Luna
All in all, from everything we learned throughout the day, it is clear that the events/travel industry is projecting a strong comeback! We are looking forward many more in-person events and we have all learned a lot from this experience.
