IMEX America is well underway at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and four Meetings Today reporters–Tyler Davidson, Rob Carey, Taylor Smith and Jeff Heilman–are on the ground covering the educational sessions, exhibit-hall happenings, social events and other elements of North America’s biggest meetings-industry show.
Each day, the team delivers useful insights based on what they’re seeing and hearing around the show.
Here’s a sampling of what our editors took away from the first day of IMEX America:
Tyler Davidson, Vice President & Chief Content Director
- Palm Springs Adds Major Air Routes: The Greater Palm Springs area is benefitting from adding direct air service from major U.S. hubs, as well as the San Francisco Bay Area’s Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa. The major airports initiating direct service are Newark, N.J. (United); Charlotte, N.C. (American); Austin (Delta) and Washington, D.C. (United).
- Major Orlando Updates: The most popular meetings destination in the country, and the most popular travel destination in the U.S. (75 million visitors and 5.6 million business travelers in 2024), detailed a number of happenings. Highlights include an expansion of Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center that will commence next year and bring an additional 44,000 square feet of meeting space and a 100,000-square-foot ballroom to its North-South Building, with completion expected in 2029; Orlando was named the top meeting destination in North America by Cvent for the 10th time, with 20 of its convention hotels and resorts named as a Top Meeting Hotel in North America; the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin completed a renovation of its guest rooms and suites as part of a larger, $275 renovation and expansion project; and Orlando welcomed its first major theme park in 25 years with the unveiling of Universal Epic Universe May 22.
- EIC Reports High RFP Activity: The Events Industry Council enlisted top hospitality research company Oxford Economics to once again produce the Global Economic Significance of Business Events study, which will be released May 5 in conjunction with Global Meetings Industry Day. EIC also said its Q2 2025 study revealed the highest amount of RFP activity since it began tracking it in 2019, with group room nights at 94% of 2019. EIC President & CEO Amy Calvert said that international arrivals to the U.S. are down year-over-year but “not as much as we expected.”
- Top Meetings Industry Legal Concerns: In a podcast taping with Meetings Today, Maritz Deputy General Counsel Jill Blood listed the following four areas as the top legal concerns in the meetings and events industry: speed to completion for contracting; AI; sustainability; and general uncertainty in the world due to global geopolitical issues.
[Related: How to Combat the Most-Critical Meetings Industry Legal Issues]
Rob Carey, Content Manager, News & Features
Planners Have Negotiation Opportunities: Steve O’Malley, chief operating officer, business events, for Maritz, noted that the lull in event bookings that happened in the middle of this year due to uncertainty in federal spending and tariffs has made hotels especially receptive to groups who can sign event contracts before the end of this year. “If a planner wants to work with a big brand to book multiple events over the next two years in different destinations, there is real opportunity right now to gain operational efficiency and cost control,” he said.
Dale Parmenter of communications firm DRPG spoke from London to planners at the Maritz exhibit stand. Credit: Rob Carey. - Selling the C-Suite on Events: “We [planners] get a lot of leadership resistance on different things around events. Don’t take no for an answer,” said Dale Parmenter, managing director of creative communications firm DRPG. Appearing on screen from London, he spoke to IMEX America attendees at the Maritz exhibit stand. His first key point: Planners can get executives to support events for employees and customers alike by helping those leaders demonstrate their personalities during the gathering, which builds trust and engagement with the audience. Parmenter’s second key point: To sell executives on investing in external events, planners must demonstrate how clients and prospects acted differently after such an event. For internal meetings, planners must demonstrate how employees acted differently in the aftermath.
- Treating Attendees as Whole People: Kelly Saling, senior vice president and chief sales officer for Visit Seattle, noted that the two-year-old Summit building at the Seattle Convention Center is seeing a lot of corporate business, especially from technology firms throughout North America and even those right in and around Seattle. One reason: The Summit building was designed with 30 percent more prefunction and public space than the convention center’s original building, the Arch. “The design reflects the desire of many companies to treat those attending a meeting as whole people,” Saling said. “Attendees need spaces where they can connect with home between meeting sessions without going back to their hotel room.” Meanwhile, the convention center’s Arch building continues to draw a significant amount of association business plus an increasing number of sports tournaments and other youth-focused groups.
T-shirt printing station at the Meetings Today booth. Credit: Rob Carey. Swag With Personality: At the Meetings Today exhibit stand, planners were lined up to get their hands on t-shirts with fun job-related sayings, which were printed on the spot. Some of the options planners could choose from: “Good Vibes & Meeting Deadlines”; “If It’s Not in my Planner, It Didn’t Happen”; “Running on Coffee and Deadlines”; and even a Taylor Swift reference: “In My Planning Era.”
Taylor Smith, Content Manager, Destinations
Iowa in the House: The Meetings Today booth (#D2300) was alive Tuesday morning, and some friends from the University of Iowa stopped by to say hello! We welcomed a group of students in the university’s event management certificate program to visit our booth at the show, learn more about the industry, what we do at Meetings Today and how they can kickstart their careers in meetings and events. The opportunity goes hand in hand with our Meetings Today mentorship program, in which we bring one student from the University of Iowa’s event management certificate program to each of our four live events every year.
The Mouse Delivers: Exciting things are happening in the world of Disney Meetings & Events! Following a months-long refurbishment, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Convention Center at Walt Disney World Resort has reopened, offering 40,000 square feet of newly enhanced meeting and event space. “This is part of a bigger transformation,” said Ramiro Vazquez, vice president, Disney Meetings & Events. “It's not just our Grand Floridian, it's about transforming our meetings and even business to create an even more impactful and better return on experience for all our clients.” In addition to Grand Floridian’s transformation, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World Resort will begin a new chapter in 2026 as its convention center will be transformed to incorporate key innovative design elements, leveraging the expertise of the Walt Disney Imagineering team. “The Coronado Springs Resort was a little behind, and so we are bringing it up with the same modern touches and design, using the same team of Imagineers to bring the new Coronado to life—not to replicate the Gran Destino Tower, because that’s it’s own storyline, but to elevate the whole campus, the entire resort, to include a lot of modern, contemporary details that still capture the essence of the Southwest, Mexico and Spain.”
- Universal’s New Epic Meeting Offerings: “Many hotel companies may have a hotel opening maybe every five to 10 years,” said Kathy Cattoor, VP of resort sales at Universal Orlando Resort. “We opened up three in a matter of 90 days.” Universal Orlando's three new resorts—Universal Stella Nova Resort (750 guest rooms), Universal Terra Luna Resort (750 guest rooms) and the flagship Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a Loews Hotel (500 guest rooms, 4,648 square feet of meeting space)—are built around Universal Epic Universe, the latest theme park addition to Universal Orlando’s campus. “Universal Helios Grand Hotel is the backdrop of Epic Universe,” Cattoor said. “It’s a spectacular property, not just for the leisure travelers that come in to experience the park, but also for groups. We’re finding the really great niche there is incentive groups.” The property also gives guests direct access to Epic Universe through a dedicated entrance. “You literally step out the hotel into the theme park,” Cattoor said. Groups have the opportunity to take advantage of Universal Orlando’s new properties as well as Epic Universe, especially via after-hour programming and experiences. “At Epic Universe, the Event Pavilion is a meeting space where anywhere from 201 to 500 guests can do a dining experience in this dedicated event space that is at Epic, and after their dining experience, they can leave the pavilion and go right into the park where they'll have exclusive access to a ride for themselves for that evening,” Cattoor said. “So, I think that's what really benefits a planner coming on property is that you have options.”
- Hyatt’s Here for Face-to-Face: “There’s no doubt at the end of the day you cannot beat a face-to-face interaction, and groups realize that, especially the C-suite,” said Trina Camacho-London, VP of group sales at Hyatt, when asked about the shift Hyatt has seen in group travel since the start of 2025 in comparison to now. “Whether the groups are traveling for conferences, conventions, large meetings or training sessions, the demand for in-person meetings is here. As we look at pace, we are definitely in the high single digits going into 2026. We’re kind of in that booking period now, looking into the remainder of the year and the first and second semester of 2026, and I think that momentum will continue.
Jeff Heilman, Senior Contributor
- Philadelphia Gears Up for Mega-Event Year in 2026: Excitement is building in Philadelphia as the historic city prepares for an unprecedented run of high-profile and global events next year.
- PCMA Convening Leaders: “We kick off in January with the 70th edition of PCMA Convening Leaders, which was originally launched here,” said Joe Heller, chief marketing officer at the Philadelphia CVB.
- Sports Centric Events in Philly: The following months see NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Championship action in March; PGA Championship action in May; six FIFA World Cup matches in June and July, including a knockout stage match on July 4th; the MLB All-Star Game in July; and U.S. Travel’s ESTO Conference in August.
Gearing up for America’s Birthday: “Plus, year-long events and activations for America’s 250th birthday, and 250th anniversary celebrations for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, which was founded in Philadelphia,” said Heller. “Our positioning message is that if we can handle all these mega-events, we can handle conventions of a similar nature and more sporting events in the future.”
