Hilton Meetings Debuts In America With New Tech

Small meetings program, long popular overseas, expands with focus on eco-friendly products and personalization.

By Adam Kirby, Associate Editor -- Hotels, 8/1/2008

Hilton Hotels is in the process of rolling out its successful Hilton Meetings program in North America, beginning earlier this year with a launch at Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport. The aptly named Hilton Meetings, which initially launched eight years ago in the UK, will be offered at most U.S. properties by the end of this year.

Hilton Meetings, designed specifically for groups of 50 or less, offers business travelers a choice between the formal boardroom setting and flexible multi-purpose rooms. The boardrooms are equipped with specially designed tables with built-in tabletop power strips, data portals and wired and wireless Internet access points.

All meeting rooms will include 3M Digital Easels, a nifty device that acts as a virtual whiteboard but which uses actual paper. Users can write on the flipchart easel and have the results in both ink-on-paper and digitized formats, which is also conducive to digital remote conferencing.

At the O’Hare property, a mammoth 65-in. (165-cm) Sharp plasma TV is mounted to a “media wall” featuring detachable wall panels for simple wiring. A Zvox 425 Surround Speaker System and Apple TV digital media receiver, along with power sun shades, can instantly turn the boardroom into a makeshift movie theater.

Dedicated meetings specialists are available to assist with individual service needs via a Service Connect System button in the room that links guests directly to their specialist. And like most other hotel programs nowadays, sustainability is a major focus of the enhanced Hilton Meetings. The use of chrome in meeting room furniture and fixtures is minimized, floors are made of bamboo, F&B menus offer mostly organic foods and all beverage containers are glass.

Artwork featured in meeting rooms is done by local artists and will be rotated about twice a year, giving the rooms both a distinctly local flavor and an ever-changing décor. “Every time you walk into the room, it’s a different room with a different feel,” says Norm Kahan, director of technology services for the O’Hare Hilton. “It’s continually fresh, and it’s fun for meetings attendees to see what’s new and what’s changed. We want the room to constantly evolve.”

The main boardroom at the O’Hare Hilton, which got most of the cool tech toys, posted sales growth of about 115% in the first three months of its transformation, Kahan says.