Marriott program shows corporations, event planners how to safely resume meetings, conferences
After a year that wiped out business travel and in-person events, the hospitality giant looks to coax corporate America back to its meeting rooms.
The hotel industry last year watched the pandemic wipe out business travel and corporate events that help fill its guest rooms and banquet halls, turning 2020 from a boom year to a historic bust.
Now, amid signs of an economic rebound as vaccines drive down COVID-19 infections and governments lift restrictions, hotels are eyeing a rebound of their own.
To help nurture the recovery, Marriott Hotels is rolling out "learning labs" to give corporations and event planners practical tips on ways to safely host meetings, conferences and trade shows again.
Some 400 event planners from Ameriprise Financial, 3M, Medtronic, Target, Ecolab, Boston Scientific, Mayo Clinic, Best Buy, and other Minnesota companies recently toured Marriott's massive Connect with Confidence Learning Lab in downtown Minneapolis.
It was the learning lab's first stop in Minnesota and followed similar programs in Denver, Chicago, and several other U.S. cities. The hospitality giant plans a global launch of the program soon.
Groups of corporate and event planners recently spent two days visiting 17 staged rooms inside the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel. The rooms showcased technologies, touchless registration kiosks, rental equipment options and ways for companies to safely screen, separate, host and feed hundreds of conference guests during a waning pandemic.
Marriott and the hospitality industry in general saw business crumble in 2020. In Minneapolis alone, corporations cancelled 400 conventions and conferences last year, according to Meet Minneapolis. Now some are slowly trickling back.
