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participate in the Forbes Travel guide training and specialized brand immersion to ensure our team members are prepared to anticipate challenges and create memorable experiences.
HOTELS: What sets Encore’ s in-house teams apart from outside event production providers when it comes to ensuring safety, protecting hotel assets and reducing liability? Stengel: Assurance of safety and operational compliance are enormous advantages of engaging an Encore in-house production team. Because we’ re fully integrated into a hotel’ s operations, our teams maintain strict protocols for rigging, power and equipment handling. We’ ve seen hotels place restrictions on outside providers’ access to permanent infrastructure for these exact reasons: to protect their assets and minimize liability. With
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Encore as a partner, hotels and planners all benefit from us knowing the venue inside and out. We can anticipate challenges before they arise and provide hospitality-first service that protects a hotel’ s reputation and bottom line.
HOTELS: Hotels are embracing AI to improve operational efficiency. How is Encore integrating AI solutions to enhance meetings and add value for hotel partners? Stengel: Encore is actively leveraging AI to transform meetings and events into smarter, more inclusive experiences while driving operational efficiency for hotels. We’ ve thoughtfully chosen AI-powered tools to improve guest experiences by enabling multilingual and hybrid accessibility with real-time transcription and translation services, reducing the need for
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costly interpretation systems. We also offer AI-generated session summaries that convert live, in-person content into actionable insights for event participants and planners. Innovative AI technology also allows us to elevate hybrid and in-person events with AI-directed multi-camera systems that provide broadcastquality video and the ability to automate edits. We’ re also using AI-driven tools that analyze real-time audience engagement data, giving hotels an edge in understanding how to optimize their programming and improve event ROI.
HOTELS: Looking ahead, what trends in event production and event technology should hotel executives be preparing for and how is Encore already investing to meet those needs? Stengel: As for technology that creates immersive
Mike Stengel, SVP of strategic partnerships and venue relations at Encore
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experiences, we’ ve been expanding our technology portfolio of LED walls and customizable panels, advanced lighting solutions and new scenic design options. We’ re creating personalized moments that engage event participants with a combination of hightouch moments and high-tech integrations, like our Welcome Wall, which shows event participants’ pictures on a large screen in a high-traffic area after they scan their badge on our app. And, as I previously mentioned, we’ ve found useful ways to integrate AI-powered tools into creating more personalized experiences that extend the life of events. The best thing hotel executives can do is to choose an event production partner they trust, one that offers extensive expertise, can adapt to meet evolving needs and is prepared to shape the future of events at their property. |
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