Blog
Smart Meetings Welcomes a New Intern
I recently joined the Smart Meetings team as an editorial intern, and am excited to work for a publication that focuses on one of my favorite pastimes: travel. I’ve been to 45 of the states in the union (I hear there’s a prize when you complete the set) and plan on doing more international travel in the future. My favorite place in the world is Assisi, Italy, a tiny medieval village in Umbria where I studied for a summer in college. Some of my other hobbies include cooking, video games, fencing, swing dancing and baseball (go Giants).
Super Bowl latest coup for Santa Clara
The city of Santa Clara jumped into the national spotlight on Tuesday when the NFL awarded the 2016 Super Bowl to the Silicon Valley community 50 miles south of San Francisco.
Santa Clara was already expecting a big boost to its meetings and events industry in 2014, when the 68,500-seat Levi’s Stadium opens as the new home of the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers, who will play one more season at antiquated Candlestick Park, are a fixture in Santa Clara, where their administrative headquarters and training facility are located. The new stadium will also host the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, one of 35 postseason college football games.
Planner Stories Video Contest
It’s your turn to humor us, inform us and reveal your favorite trends or tips on video to share with Smart Meetings readers. Creativity and imagination count!
Submit your video to us through June 30, 2013 and we will post them online for readers to view. The most viewed, Tweeted, tagged and liked submissions win!
First place – $1,000 Visa Gift card
Second place – $500 Visa Gift card
One Editor’s Pick winner will receive a two-night stay at a hotel in North America to be determined.
Videos should be less than three minutes in length using original content. For complete contest details, visit smartmeetings.com/videostories.
Winners will be announced in early July. Let the cameras roll!
A Gem in the Desert
Heading directly north from downtown Scottsdale, Ariz., luxury resorts, restaurants, businesses and homes suddenly disappear and are replaced by cacti, sagebrush and arid desert land. After about a half-hour, a structure comes into view that makes everyone wonder if the heat is causing them to have illusions.
Can’t-Miss NorCal Events
If you’re a meeting planner organizing an upcoming event in Northern California and want to add in a fun and splashy offsite—or if you’re looking to add a new destination to your site rotation—consider attending one of these stellar summertime events:
To keep the body in good health is a duty
To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.
–Buddha or possibly the Internet
Whether you’re a meeting planner flying out to set up an event, a sales manager visiting clients or a travel journalist setting off on your next journey through the spice-filled alleys of Morocco, you probably find it daunting to carve out time to work out.
As someone who has struggled with various health and weight issues, working out for 45 to 60 minutes every day is a necessity. But while it’s easy enough to find the time before or after a typical workday or on the weekend, it can be difficult when, while traveling, you can’t find the gym you’re accustomed to.
Sure, luxury hotels and resorts usually have extensive gyms, but what happens when you’re traveling on a budget or stuck on an extended layover and need to find an inexpensive place to crash for the night?
Trend of the Week: Fancy Dessert Tables
Our event coordinator, Cassie McNair, is sharing one of her favorite trends every week. See some trends in action by attending one of our Smart Events, and read more about trends here.
Dessert tables have moved far beyond traditional displays. Now corporate functions are shunned by attendees if they only have a cookie tray (how boring)! Dessert displays are all the rage for 2013 and present the opportunity to showcase sweet and beautiful concoctions to maximum effect. Each dessert table is unique and personalized based on the individual event, and let me tell you…the options are endless.
How to Reinvent Your Next Meeting Venue
“There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
– Bruce Lee
Being involved with the meetings and events industry for some years now, I’m always surprised at the limitations venues will self-impose upon their facilities. With some creative thinking, you can offer great new twists on non-meeting space.
Meet the Dolphins
For some reason, I had always assumed that dolphins were slimy, slippery critters with human-like traits. Of course, this assumption was based solely on a handful of fishing excursions, a few trips to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, or Marine World as it was called when I kid, and what I saw on TV. That’s enough to form a sold opinion, isn’t it? Well, as it turns out, not exactly.
Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend an event at the Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort in Cancun, Mexico, that finally put me face-to-face with a dolphin. At the crack of dawn, our group of roughly 30 journalists was taken to the resort’s new 37,000-square-foot dolphinarium operated by Dolphin Discovery, which handles 12 other locations throughout Mexico and the Caribbean. Simple in its design, the state-of-the-art facility is made up of a series of wooden walkways surrounding a number of recessed pens and a large central pool with underwater scaffolding to stand on.
Brush up on Art History at Williamsburg Museums
The Old Plantation, painted in the late 18th century by John Rose, courtesy of Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF) museums are often regarded as mere sideshows compared to all the historic buildings, shops and eateries that line Williamsburg, Va.’s Duke of Gloucester Street. But that may change thanks to two exhibits that are taking center stage this year.
The CWF’s DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum currently features Painters and Paintings in the Early American South. The collection includes 83 paintings and 70 portraits created by 31 artists from 1740-90. Although half of the pieces reside permanently at the DeWitt, 20 other museums and institutions have loaned artwork to the CWF for the largest exhibit ever of its kind.
“Included are several iconic works that are normally seen only in books,” says Ron Hurst, CWF vice president for collections, conservation and museums. “All were loaned for the full 18 months of the exhibition—unheard of, since most museums lend for relatively brief showings of about 12 weeks. The level of cooperation is deeply gratifying and reflects confidence in the borrowing institution.”
