AEG Facilities and SMG owner Onex announced they will merge to create ASM Global. The new company will be headquartered in Los Angeles and will operate over 300 venues across five continents that include arenas, stadiums, convention centers and performing arts centers.

In late January 2019, the Events Industry Council (EIC) released four new sustainability principles that incorporate all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and define what a fully sustainable event is for the first time. The initiative, aimed at encouraging and helping planners and organizations implement sustainable practices, entailed months of collaboration among leading industry voices.

2019 brings a new wave of luxury international properties that can also accommodate meetings and events. Here are a some that made Forbes Travel Guide’s "Most Anticipated Hotel Openings of 2019."

Here’s an overview of newly opened hotel and event venues in Las Vegas for 2019, as well as a look at upcoming renovations and projects underway throughout this year and beyond.

Marriott International meetings and conventions veteran Alex Shotwell has sold, serviced and experienced his share of high-profile, massive meetings in his more than two-decade career. Shotwell, area director, sales, Orange County & San Diego, has vast experience working in the brand’s Convention & Resort Network Hotels. He shared three critical mistakes meeting planners must make strides to avoid for a successful event.

Caesars Entertainment is betting big on its first non-gaming hotel in the U.S., Caesars Republic Scottsdale. The hotel, slated to open in 2021, will be the first installment of a new lifestyle hotel brand designed to push creative boundaries and encourage collaboration with industry trendsetters.

Benchmark released its "Top 10 Meeting Trends for 2019.” The annual list is compiled from guest observation and feedback from the company’s portfolio of 80 hotels, resorts and conference centers.

SmithBucklin, an association management company, released its annual publication, Circuit. The report, now in its 16th year of publication, includes the company’s “20 for 2019,” a series of articles about key trends, issues and developments that will impact associations in the coming year and beyond.

On January 25, travel-related issues brought a temporary end to the partial government shutdown. How? The simple answer—the shutdown was affecting the performance of air travel.

The coldest weather in years will sweep the Midwest and Northeast United States in 2019 due to the impending polar vortex, resulting in windchills as cold as -50 degrees Fahrenheit. Here are five suggestions to help meeting planners and participants better handle the extreme cold and help ensure that big annual meeting can still go off without a hitch, even in subzero temperatures.