Photos: Smart Event at Park Hyatt Aviara

For our first three-day Smart Event of 2013, planners and representatives of hotels and destinations gathered at the fabulous Park Hyatt Aviara, a AAA Five Diamond resort outside San Diego in Carlsbad, Calif. In addition to the posh setting, attendees were able to experience such expert speakers as Jeffrey Magee, who explained what sets “super achievers” apart, and Steve Sisgold, who gave strategies for staying on-task and engaged. They even got a chance to pound out some rhythms as part of a team-building exercise led by Drum Cafe, drawing parallels between what it takes to makes music and what it takes to work together to achieve a unified goal. Of course, the real focus of all our smart events is fostering connections and making it easier to do business through our signature one-on-one appointments, and there were plenty of RFPs exchanged over the course of three days.

Lessons from Sessions at the Smart Event

“By the end of 2013 there will be more mobile devices on earth than people.”

“I believe we were put on this planet not to be takers but to be contributors.”

“We have 60,000 thoughts a day on average—but most of them are fiction.”

“When a heart is transplanted, recipients’ recovery of memories indicates they are tapping into the life energy of the donor.”

Photos: Smart Event Seattle

The Smart Event had an elegant setting, mouth-watering cuisine and even its own theme song. Our third Smart Event of 2013 started in The Fairmont Olympic Hotel foyer outside the historic Spanish Ballroom, where more than 60 corporate planners met with premier properties and destinations. Business was booked, connections were made and attendees got to exercise their creativity with some help from songwriter and team-building facilitator Billy Kirsch. The following slideshow is just a sampling of the photos from the event on March 21; you can find even more on our Facebook page, where attendees can tag themselves.

A Song for the Meetings Industry

Keynote presenter Billy Kirsch’s session on creativity at the Smart Event Seattle last week culminated with the Grammy-nominated songwriter leading attendees through the process of composing a little ditty about the meetings industry. The result is an anthem for planners and suppliers that celebrates everything from innovation to ROI. “What’s a song without ROI?” Kirsch asked the participants.

The hook, “I’ll give you all that I have,” highlights the passion and commitment that event professionals bring to their jobs.

Let it Out!

Songwriter and speaker Billy Kirsch with Smart Meetings founder and CEO Marin Bright at the
Smart Event Seattle.

Let’s face it—it’s not easy to be creative. And in the meetings industry, where fresh ideas and new approaches are the keys to organizing successful event s, this can be a major problem. To help stir those hidden creative juices found in all of us, Billy Kirsch—a Grammy and Emmy-nominated, Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music award-winning songwriter—offered a few words of wisdom at today’s Smart Event Seattle at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel.

After briefly serenading the audience and describing his struggles with creativity as a teenager, Kirsch posed a question: Why should the meeting planners and suppliers in attendance care whether or not they have an outlet for creativity? After a brief moment of silence, he continued: “Because creativity is a very important part of problem solving, and problem solving is central to business, which is why we’re all here.”

Photos: The Smart Event San Francisco

Smart Meetings’ 2013 Smart Events kicked off on Jan. 30 with a one-day event for meeting professionals at the JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square. The AAA Four Diamond hotel was the setting for a busy day of planners meeting with representatives of premier properties and destinations in one-on-one appointments. Everyone in attendance also got a chance to hear Roger Rickard, founder of Voices in Advocacy, speak on issues facing the meetings industry and how event professionals can communicate their worth to employers, politicians and others.

Industry Trends at the Smart Event

One-on-one appointments at the Smart Event San Francisco.

In honor of our January cover story, we asked a few of the planners who attended the Smart Event last week at the JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square about what trends they expect to see in 2013. Here’s what they had to say:

–“A lot of people are booking internationally,” said Lyana Blokhina, a manager of global accounts for HelmsBriscoe, based in San Mateo, Calif. “I see a lot of my clients…going overseas. It’s cool to meet in Malaysia and Asia in general.”

The Answer to the Dreaded Question

Roger Rickard making the keynote address at the Smart Event San Francisco

It’s the question no meeting planner wants to be asked: “What value do you bring to this organization?”

Roger Rickard posed that question this morning during the first Smart Event of 2013, held today at the JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square. Rickard, founder of Voices in Advocacy, has been a strong proponent of prodding the meeting industry into sharing its story and making itself understood to outsiders, from political leaders to CEOs.

Photos: The Smart Mart Dallas

It was a festive setting for the final Smart Event of 2012. The halls of The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas were decked in holiday decorations, providing a joyful backdrop for all the networking and business-booking that took place during the one-day event. In addition to checking out a AAA Five Diamond hotel, attendees got a chance to hear about Hollywood style from featured speaker Hillary Harris, executive director of Warner Bros. Special Events, and meet in one-on-one appointments with other event professionals.

Photos: The Smart Mart San Diego

From the guitarist that greeted attendees at registration to the Bono impersonator whojoined them at the poolside networking dinner, The Smart Mart San Diego followed its own beat. Inspired by the location, the Four Diamond Hard Rock Hotel San Diego, music was a theme throughout the single-day event. So was humor, courtesy of featured speaker Karyn Buxman, who told attendees why “funny means money.” But most of all, the event was all about making connections and booking business during Smart Meetings‘ signature one-on-one appointments.