Cowboys Stadium: Host of Super Bowl XLV, 2010 NBA All-Star Game, & National Training Workshop 2012?

Y’all looking for a unique way to invigorate and motivate your company’s key playmakers?  Look no further than Cowboys Stadium.  It’s no longer only the home of the Dallas football team, their famous cheerleaders, or Super Bowl XLV; it is the ideal venue to host corporate meetings, team-building activities, and receptions.

This iconic backdrop has more than 22 flexible event spaces, as well as the option for an indoor or outdoor meeting at the push of a button.  The stadium boasts the record for largest domed building in the world and the retractable roof permits for an open air event with piece of mind. 

The event space includes the field itself, two 30,000 square-foot Main Concourse clubs, two Silver Level clubs that each accommodates up to 225 guests, and two Field Level clubs.  The Cowboys locker room, six end-zone platforms, and a post-game interview room are other unparalleled spaces for private functions available throughout the year.  Each club features a variety of high-definition video displays, and many of them feature complete audio capabilities. 

Cowboys Stadium also houses the award-winning food and beverage service, Legends Hospitality Management.  The team is dedicated to using fresh and locally grown ingredients for a distinguishing and inventive culinary experience.   Any event at Cowboys stadium can be kicked up a notch with a visit by the beautiful Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders or Rowdy, the Cowboys’ cheerful Mascot.  The events staff can also arrange a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium and the stadium’s museum-quality art collection.

Cowboys Stadium is located in Arlington, Texas, just 20 miles west of Dallas, making it the perfect location for nationwide companies. 

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The Social Media Policy Tightrope

As the social media scene changes policy becomes more important. Some companies will fall behind and some will become the cutting edge of social media policy. But almost everyone will try to over control their employees or members when walking the policy tightrope.

This is the age of smart phones and tablets and you will see more and more people interacting with social media to talk about their company, association or events that they attend. It is no longer considered forbidden to have your cell phone out during a lecture or to tweet from a networking event. But how do we control everything people say about our companies or events? We can’t.

Trying to over control the output of employees, members and attendees can create disgruntled social media gurus who will in turn post negative things about you. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t restrict posting at all, it just means your policy should be realistic. If your employees want to tweet about a long day at work you can’t stop them. But you can make it a policy not to disclose client information or confidential company information.

Trying to stop all conversations from people that interact with you can actually be a detriment. This stops the genuine conversations that now happen predominantly online. These conversations actually help to give your brand credibility and bring a human aspect when needed. Starting the conversation can be as easy as interacting with employees you already have via social media.

When walking the tightrope of policy, make sure to think about all the consequences of your restrictions and rethink any that don’t align with your company values or your goals for social media. A policy is necessary but it’s up to you how to use it.

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A New Horizon for a Small Island

Hyatt Hotels Corporation recently has announced the opening of Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas. This will be the first resort style property on the island of Saadiyat the UAE.

This Park Hyatt will boast 306 guest rooms and villas and has been designed as an “urban resort” concept by New York-based architect Perkins Eastman and Singapore-based designer Wilson Associates. This resort style hotel also boasts a 18 hole golf course and top of the line spa. Located on the Arabian ocean front the views from any part of the hotel are spectacular.

Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi also has enough meeting space to host anything from a banquet of 500 to an intimate board meeting. With plenty of outdoor areas for receptions and special events the Park Hyatt really has it all.

The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority expects to receive 2.7 million visitors by 2012 and has plans to open many new attractions including museums to become a hotspot for the culturally curious.

For more information visit www.hyatt.com

Do It Yourself…..Dinner?

New catering trends now boast thing like “interactive” and “customizable.” The days of being stuck at a table for several hours at a banquet or other meal function are over. Caterers across the country are putting their own twist on bringing the kitchen to you like Creative Edge Parties in New York who offers a cut-your-own pasta station with hanging sheets of handmade pasta.

Not only does this trend lead to make it yourself buffets like devil-your-own egg bar, it also brings chefs out of the kitchen so that you can see them hard at work. A new device called the “anti-griddle” is being used in these up close chef interactions for freezing things instead of cooking them.

Chefs are not the only ones that get to come out of the kitchen and have some fun with these new trends. More and more catering companies are also offering carts of different food and drink items that can be prepared on the spot or served up to mingling guests. These carts can carry anything from ice cream cones with toppings to a full carving station that comes to you.

Guests will also benefit from this move towards more interactive food. Long meal functions can tend to drag in a large room setting where the only people you talk to are those seated to your right and left. Being able to get up and mingle with people while you create something together can help to bring your guests together or to break them out of long business sessions at the end of the day.

Moving Your Meetings Into the Techno-age

Most delegates and meeting attendees are now glued to their smart phones and tablets. According to One+ tablet and smartphone sales surpassed desktop and laptop computers in 2011.

Event-goers more often than not want to connect their audience with the event they are attending in real time they like to share their experiences as they happen and not after the fact. This creates new demands for events.

Wi-Fi connections are now standard in contract terms. Depending on the size of your meeting you may need a tech expert from your venue to help you establish things like the number of connections needed and the bandwidth and whether or not you will need extra power. These things can now significantly affect how long your attendees stay in their sessions. Though cell phones now often have 3G coverage service can be spotty and attendees are likely to walk out in order to send important emails or respond to messages if you don’t have the internet connection available to allow them a solid connection.

When the room is full of smart phones and tablets you should use that to your advantage. No doubt these folks engage in social media so why not ask them to follow you on twitter or join in a discussion on your Facebook community? Your resources for more web traffic and word of mouth marketing are sitting right in front of you.

There are many more roads we can go down with technology such as apps for you conference, video interviews in the hallways, and ways to take the conference with you on the go however groups and companies should be careful of jumping into the tecno-world too fast. If you are not prepared to build your own app then don’t do it but we should all be moving forward with all the fully executable options available to us.

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