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 SPOTLIGHT: James M. Bullock, Regional Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Benchmark Hospitality International

CONFERENCE CENTERS: TOP 10 MEETING TRENDS 2007

Benchmark Hospitality International, which manages 31 award-winning conference centers, resorts and hotels throughout the United States, has issued its annual List—the "Top 10 Meeting Trends for the Year.” While this annual list comes with Benchmark’s usual qualification—as observed by its properties—with Benchmark such a dominant leader in the conference center segment, these observed trends are rich with implications for the small-to-mid-size meeting market and the venues that serve it.

 Rancho Palos Verdes, CA—With a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, ground breaking commenced for the Terranea Resort, an expansive 102-acre coastal resort and conference center in the Los Angeles area.  Terranea, which has already been in development for eight years, is owned by Lowe Enterprises, and is being developed by Lowe affiliate company Lowe Destination Development and will be managed by Destination Hotels & Resorts, also a Lowe affiliate company. The ambitious venue, designed to smoothly interface into the rolling  oceanfront topography of Southern California, is a 582-room, $450 million Mediterranean-style resort & conference center that also features 123,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor event space including 31 meeting rooms and an 18,000-square-foot main ballroom.

 Generation X & Y may not have taken over the meetings business, but they are certainly planning and attending meetings and events. Some boomers have noticed that some of the old ways of marketing, promoting and planning meetings and events may not be as effective with these younger professionals from the new generation. The International Association of Conference Centers recently announce it was creating a new position of Board Association to as "Board Advisor" who will identify and advise the association on emerging trends and the unique perspectives of Generation X & Y. Well, IACC has found its X/Yer.

 Scottsdale, AZ—James Bond would not feel out of place attending a meeting in the new Red Rock Boardroom at the Canyon Suites at the Phoenician. Click a remote and eight flat screen monitors emerge from a custom-designed mahogany conference table; click another button, three in-room cameras swivel into place, ready for video conferencing. Another click, the canvas painting rolls away revealing a plasma monitor. Since technology works best in a meeting environment with a human touch, the venue also has a dedicated "Event Technology Butler" to press the right the right buttons for the meeting presenter.