Key Notes: A Live-ly Time

May 20, 2014

Tyler Davidson

April marked the 2014 launch of our Meetings Focus Live! series of hosted-buyer educational programs, with entertainment mecca Las Vegas dealing out the glitz and glamour to the meeting planner attendees.

This year’s series includes a few improvements born from planner feedback collected in 2013, including more site inspections of meeting facilities in the host destination. In Vegas, the group shuttled off to see Palms Casino Resort/Palms Place Hotel & Spa; Tropicana Las Vegas; Wynn Las Vegas and Encore; and the architecturally stunning Keep Memory Alive Event Center.

The group also engaged in one-on-one sessions with area suppliers, to see if that perfect buyer-supplier match was in the air.

The educational portion of the three-day show featured Shawna Suckow, president of SPIN (Senior Planners Industry Network), who delivered a session on how to breathe life into stale meeting programs.

And, of course, the receptions and dinners were of typical top-shelf Vegas quality, including the Sugar Factory Bar & Grill at Paris Las Vegas and an evening twirl on the High Roller observation wheel that just opened up in the new LINQ entertainment district.

Our 2014 Meetings Focus Live! lineup features a wealth of impressive destinations, traveling to New Orleans; Newport Beach, Calif.; and a special golf-focused event at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Interested? Check out www.Meetings Focus.com/MFLive to learn more.

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