Celebrating its centennial anniversary in 2024, Ace Hardware Corp. hosted its largest Fall Convention in history, attracting more than 18,000 retailers, employees, and vendors to McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, according to Ace. Held Aug.

New meetings hotel properties are continuing to pop up on the Kansas City hospitality scene, offering upscale accommodations, dining, amenities, and plentiful meeting space for event planners to choose from. Since October 2023, two new meetings hotels have opened in the destination, with two more set to open this fall—for a total of 652 new hotel rooms.  

Multi-year contracts with labor union UNITE HERE have expired at hotels across the country, and repercussions are starting to be felt. At least 10,000 unionized hotel employees—housekeepers, front-desk clerks, kitchen and restaurant staffers, bartenders, and bellhops—from 25 hotels in 10 cities stayed home from their jobs between August 29 and September 3.

At events, capturing memorable moments is more important than ever. In a recent interview for Tech Talk, CEN’s Danica Tormohlen sat down with Jonathan Jow, director of strategy for BoothEasy, to delve into how the company is elevating event experiences with its instant photo and video services. 

From LED dance floors and AI Ping Pong to branded bar carts and immersive floral walls, event activations are a powerful way to engage attendees and create memorable experiences that are also Instagram-worthy. 

Following a topping-out ceremony in mid-July, the newest hospitality addition to the Shreveport-Bossier City area is on track to debut in Q1 2025.

Live! Casino & Hotel Louisiana will be a 545-room hotel, meeting venue, and casino in Bossier City, on the eastern bank of the Red River. Less than two miles from downtown Shreveport, the property will bring the first land-based casino to a region known for having riverboat casinos set dockside near land-based hotels.

Following its initial announcement on November 7 of last year, premium live experiences company Legends has completed the acquisition of live events and venue management company ASM Global.

After 25 years of operating as a non-union hotel-resort and convention center, The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, which encompasses The Venetian and The Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip, has established a tentative agreement with Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 on a new four-year contract covering more than 4,000 employees in the resorts’ food, beverage, housekeeping, bar, lounge, and bell departments.

Corporate event planners are constantly challenged with going above and beyond their last event, especially when it comes to creating more immersive environments designed to deepen attendee engagement and foster brand recognition. In this never-ending quest to generate a more profound “wow” factor at face-to-face events, planners can look to their staging and production partners to create innovative experiential activations and environments via the latest technology.

Entrepreneur, speaker, and internet personality Gary Vaynerchuk, who you probably know as Gary Vee, welcomed 5,000 fans to his conference-meets-festival, VeeCon, for its 2024 iteration. This year, attendees descended on the sprawling, nearly 6 million-square-foot L.A. LIVE entertainment district for the three-day event, which last year took place in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium.