Smart Start Radio: Fuel for the Purpose Generation of Meeting Planners
Smart Start Radio is Smart Meetings’ award-winning podcast for meeting planners, event professionals and hospitality leaders looking for practical ideas, fresh perspectives and the latest industry trends.
Hosted by Eming Piansay, the series explores attendee engagement, event technology, artificial intelligence, wellness, accessibility, entrepreneurship, empathy and the evolving expectations of today’s workforce. Through expert interviews and candid conversations, Smart Start Radio helps event professionals create more intentional, inclusive and engaging meeting experiences.
From Gen Z digital dreamers and millennial masters to boomer bosses, every generation has something to learn and something to teach.
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Smart Start Radio: Fuel for the Purpose Generation of Meeting Planners
Coffee Chat — The Activation Afterlife: Designing Event Moments That Last
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In this Smart Start Radio Coffee Chat, host Eming Piansay explores the “activation afterlife,” or the moments attendees keep talking about long after the event is over. Inspired by Kate Zaliznock’s Smart Meetings story, “Marriott International’s Luxury Group: Activations That Stick,” this episode looks at how planners can design experiences that move beyond agenda-fillers and become lasting memories.
From wine blending in Santa Barbara and Broadway-style performances in New York to Eming’s recent experiences in Puerto Rico and Central Oregon, this Coffee Chat breaks down the difference between an activity attendees do and an activation they feel. Eming shares how food, culture, landscape and local storytelling can turn a destination into more than a backdrop. They can make it part of the meeting’s emotional impact.
Planner takeaways include how to design for what attendees carry home, how to let the destination do more of the work and why every activation should be aligned with the event’s larger objective.
Read the full story, “Marriott International’s Luxury Group: Activations That Stick,” on SmartMeetings.com.