Hello! My name is Kelly Knowlen. I am the Executive Director of Sales Engagement and Special Events at Hilton. My team and I are the strategic meeting and event planners for Hilton and lead the planning efforts for internal conferences and large industry and customer events.
It should come as no surprise to say that 2020 rocked the meetings and events industry – and Hilton was no exception.
The global travel industry came to a complete standstill. It was hard to believe that just a few months earlier we had executed a conference for 3,000 of our internal Hilton team members at our All-Suites Conference in Anaheim.
At Hilton, we have always been in the business of people serving people and creating solutions for our guests. Since June of last year, we focused our efforts on developing programs and strategies to help our customers safely execute events, including Hilton CleanStay, Hilton EventReady, Hilton EventReady Hybrid Solutions. These programs helped customers confidently produce engaging events while remaining safe. We also executed a few of our own hybrid events and proactively shared our key learnings and insights with our industry partners.
And now, pushing past a year of uncertainty and adversity, we would like to invite you to join us on our journey as we continue planning our first, LIVE, in-person conference for 2021!
Visit us here, in the Event Planner Diary section of our Hilton EventReady Playbook, regularly for new posts, and follow us on Instagram @hiltonspecialevents for the latest updates. Posts will detail planning areas, such as:
- Executing site visits
- Incorporating digital experiences into your live events
- Maximizing your event ROI
- Building health and safety contingency plans
- Developing communication contingency strategies
- Avoiding technology redundancies and creating efficiencies
- Identifying creative F&B options
- incorporating creative networking and cross-function engagement
- Identifying and creating the right event sets
So much has changed since the beginning of 2020, but as travel returns and meetings and events continue to emerge even stronger, we are excited to be able to plan alongside you – and share our insights and key learnings.
We’d also love to hear from you! What content would you like to see? What questions would you like answered? Email SpecialEvents@Hilton.com.
