Marriott Hotels is rolling out a “learning lab” it hopes will give corporations and event planners practical tips on ways to safely host meetings, conferences and trade shows again as COVID-19d infections ebb.
Some 400 event planners from Ameriprise Financial, 3M, Medtronic, Target, Ecolab, Boston Scientific, Mayo Clinic, Best Buy, and other companies last week toured the massive Connect with Confidence meeting safety event in downtown Minneapolis.
It was the learning lab’s first stop in Minnesota and followed similar programs in Denver, Chicago, and several other U.S. cities. The hospitality giant plans a global launch of the program soon.
Groups of corporate and event planners took turns visiting 17 staged rooms showcasing technologies, touchless registration kiosks, rental equipment options and ways for companies to safely screen, separate, host and feed hundreds of conference guests during a waning pandemic.
Marriott and the hospitality industry in general saw business crumble in 2020 as the pandemic slammed the brakes on business as usual. In Minneapolis alone, corporations cancelled 400 conventions and conferences last year, according to Meet Minneapolis. Now some are slowly trickling back.
“There is such pent up demand for everyone to reconnect physically. Through the Learning Lab, we are able to show companies how those connections can happen again safely,” said Michael Clarke, the director of Marriott International B2B Marketing and Events.
Matthew Trettel, president of Minneapolis-based Chrom Expo Services, said Minnesota corporations are just beginning to reschedule postponed conventions and trade shows. Covid disrupted the meeting industry so badly, two of three large Twin Cities’ conference planning firms folded.
“Covid put a big dent in the market just because of the fact there were no trade shows going on,” Trettel said. But with vaccines on the rise, “We are swamped going into the fall,” he added.
Chrom installs its first major trade show since the pandemic began – The Minneapolis Remodeling Expo – this weekend at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Trettel plans to use similar washable table clothes, anti-microbial coatings and the touchless check-in stations he displayed at last week’s Learning Lab.
Down the hall from his lab exhibit last week, event planners visited the Food and Beverage lab to see options for well-distanced seating and touchless buffet, bar and coffee stations. Cocktail tables were covered with cloths made with 3M anti-microbial coatings. Large tables had chairs for just three guests instead of 10.
Nearby, a convention hall showed six different seating options, including “sanctuary seating” in which each well-spaced cocktail table was paired with a single chair.
Joe Korte, from Fridley-based Avex Audio-Visual, demonstrated equipment for hosting “hybrid” meetings. His large video screens showed the in-person presenter along with remote attendees.
Hybrid meetings will become standard for companies, so event planners must navigate the technology, Korte said.
They also need to reduce the awkwardness that comes with covid-era meetings, said Clarke.
To do that, Marriott is giving its meeting guests hygiene kits and a bag of colored wrist bands.
Red signals the wearer wants to stay clear of other conference goers. Green indicates that elbow bumping is okay. Yellow means “I’m being cautious. Please respect my space,” Clarke said. “The wrist band system gives a visual cue of how to approach them and reduces that awkwardness.”
One of the best ways to signal safety to guests, however, may involve wellness checks. It’s why last week’s learning lab started with Marriott’s rapid on-site covid testing lab.
Using a partner like Eurofins, event planners can screen registrants on site and only allow people into their conference after they’ve tested negative for covid, Renaissance Hotel Marketing Director Robert Payne said.
In an adjacent conference hall, stanchions, signs and dividers split up the visitors into zones, funneling them into separate wellness check stations outfitted with touchless thermometers, hand sanitizers, wipes, extra masks and a billboard reminding them to wear a mask, keep their distance, wash hands, and walk in the direction shown by floor stickers.
Cort Events Accounts Manager Adrienne Fitzgerald offered event planners covid-inspired furniture rental options for their meetings. Sturdy plexiglass walls, room dividers, banker and bar screens, 7-foot tall hedges and even stanchions with customized signage joined Cort’s offerings when covid forced it to “quickly pivot” beyond its usual furniture rental offerings, Fitzgerald said.
The new options are popular in Phoenix, Dallas and Florida which have been a “crazy hot market for us because they have been open” longer. With covid vaccines on the rise and more businesses reopening, Let’s hope “the Twin Cities are next,” she said.