Key Notes: 2014, Here We Come!

December 20, 2013

Tyler Davidson

Welcome to 2014—we’ve got a raft of educational content floating your way this year.

Let’s start with our popular Meetings Focus Webinars series. On tap for 2014 are our popular evergreen topics, such as contracts, negotiation, green meetings and F&B, as well as some new ones we think you’ll enjoy, like site selection fundamentals, social networking strategies and improving the attendee experience at your meetings and events.

As in years past, we’re going to combine educational content with FAM trips to produce informative video webinars, along with our Meetings Focus On Location broadcasts from major industry trade shows. Look for the first of these on Jan. 16, when we broadcast a roundtable discussion on contracts and negotiation taped with PSAV at PCMA’s Convening Leaders in Boston.

Check out the webinar page on our website at www.meetingstoday.com/webinars to learn more. We also have a number of previous episodes, covering international planning, technology, trends and the future of meetings, available to view at www.meetingstoday.com/OnLocation.

For that face-to-face feel, make sure to consider our lineup of Meetings Focus Live! educational hosted-buyer events, which will travel to hot spots such as New Orleans, Southern California and Florida next year, among other top-flight destinations.

More information on these events and application instructions can be accessed at www.meetingstoday.com/MFLive.

Also up and running in 2014—actually in late 2013—is our new mobile-friendly website, which should make your celly smile.

And before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we hope you enjoy this month’s issue.

We’ve gone out on a limb a bit with our cover story to interview some of the top minds in the industry to get their perspective on what the meeting of the future, namely in 2034, will look like.

We think it’s an entertaining read, and I must admit I enjoyed writer Fred Gebhart’s introduction. I think he has a future as a science fiction author!

Thanks for your support all yearlong, and maybe make a New Year’s resolution to drop us a line with some suggestions for what you want to see in our publications, on our website, in our e-newsletters and at our live events.

Oh, and Happy New Year! Onward...

About the author

Tyler Davidson is the vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today, which publishes the meetings industry trade magazine Meetings Today as well as MeetingsToday.com, various newsletters, webinars, the in-person Meetings Today LIVE! Hosted-buyer events and other meetings and events industry B2B channels.

Tyler has covered the travel trade for nearly 35 years. In his role with Meetings Today, which recently won the prestigious FOLIO: Eddies Award for best magazine issue, Tyler leads the editorial team on its mission to provide the most in-depth meetings content in the industry. Previously, he worked as the Asia, Canada, Pacific Northwest and Western U.S. editor at Travel Weekly magazine and TravelAge West. Before joining the dual editorial staff producing destination sections for Travel Weekly and TravelAge West, Tyler was the Africa, Israel, Middle East, Switzerland and Pacific Northwest editor at TravelAge West. He also undertook general news and feature assignments while working at the magazines.

Besides reporting on the travel trade, Tyler has covered the real estate industry, held various editorial positions at the San Francisco-based national satire magazine The Nose, wrote freelance technology industry pieces and covered the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders for a bilingual newspaper in San Francisco. He has a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University, where he worked in various editorial capacities on its award-winning student magazine, Prism.

Contact: tyler.davidson@meetingstoday.com