Carlson Rezidor in the coming months will roll out a new
global meetings program with revamped meeting space and technology offerings at
its properties.
The program, planned for official launch in October, is "designed
to put us at the forefront of the meetings and group world globally," said
Javier Rosenberg, Carlson Rezidor's executive vice president of owned and
managed hotels in the Americas and COO of Radisson in the Americas.
As a part of the program, Carlson is developing an app for meeting planners to
manage schedules, communicate with food and beverage teams and post changes to
the event, he said.
Participating hotels also will provide free Internet access
in their meeting spaces, Rosenberg said, and some are rearranging those spaces to
foster a more "creative, free-flowing setting" than traditional classroom-
or theater-type settings. Additionally, the program includes new optional
menus, according to Rosenberg.
"We work with a lot of fish and whole-grain products,
fruits and vegetables, things that are fresh and locally sourced," he
said. "They'll keep fat to less than 10 percent of the content and ensure
no more than 10 percent added sugar is in the recipes, and they'll limit
industrial processing."
The program in particular will be a fit with Carlson's upper
upscale Radisson Blu brand properties, of which about 90 percent have
substantial meetings space, Rosenberg said. Although there are 293 Radisson Blu
hotels around the world, the brand only recently has begun to expand in North America. Besides the Radisson Blu Chicago, which opened in late 2011 as the
brand's first North American property, and the Radisson Blu Mall of America,
Carlson Rezidor also is converting current Radisson properties in Philadelphia
and Minneapolis to the Radisson Blu brand. Philadelphia's Radisson
Plaza-Warwick is undergoing $18 million in renovations and will convert to the
Blu brand on Oct. 31, and renovations on the Minneapolis property will begin
later this year for an early 2014 conversion, Rosenberg said. The brand also is
eyeing opportunities in "key gateway cities" on both coasts, he said.
The Radisson brand, meanwhile, is on track to have about 75
percent of its portfolio in North America complete renovations by the year-end,
according to Rosenberg. Beginning next year, the brand will be supplementing
those renovations with revamped amenities: mobile check-in capabilities, a new
bathroom amenity line and a concierge app through which guests can order room
service or make special requests, he said. Radisson currently is piloting such
items at select properties.
"We're adding a number of components to support the
refreshed physical product," Rosenberg said. "We're adding some
technology and soft touches that will keep the brand relevant, trendy and on
the forefront."