Meeting planners from across the U.S., together with staff members from Caesars Entertainment Corporation, spent a day helping to clean up the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City facilities as part of the Caesars Entertainment Educational Experience.
From June 6 to 8, more than 100 meeting planners from across the U.S. gathered in
Atlantic City, NJ, for the Caesars Entertainment Educational Experience, a three-day combined fam and educational session hosted by Las Vegas-based
Caesars Entertainment Corporation.
The event was an opportunity to draw planners’ attention to Atlantic City, a destination where Caesars Entertainment has four different properties, and is investing heavily to attract meetings — to the tune of millions. “We’re opening a $134-million conference center here at
Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City that will be the largest convention facility from Boston to Baltimore,” Michael Massari, senior vice president of Caesars Entertainment Corporation said. The convention center, which is expected to add more than 125,000 square feet of meeting space to the property, is slated to open in fall 2015.
The event kicked off on Wednesday with a combined evening reception that included meeting planner attendees from
SPINCon at The Pool at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City. SPINCon is the annual conference hosted by the
Senior Planners Industry Network (SPIN) for SPIN members, all of whom are meeting planners with at least 10 years of meeting planning experience.
The next morning, invited planners gathered at
Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino for a day of education, led by meetings advocacy expert Roger Rickard, founder of Voices in Advocacy, and meetings industry veteran Terri Breining, founder and president of the Breining Group.
Rickard spoke strongly about the importance of advocacy, and the need for planners to speak up about the relevance of what the meetings industry contributes to society at large. “Every meeting somehow creates a better society,” Rickard said during his presentation. “As meeting professionals, you help organizations drive profit and deliver strategic objectives … we need to grow our own influence,” he urged attendees. “We help drive profits, and we communicate strategic objectives through meetings,” he said. Rickard also announced the debut of the
Meetings Industry Advocacy Hub, an online portal meant to connect and inform the meetings industry.
Breining spoke about the
future of meetings and urged planners to “rethink the even experience” and to examine 10 of the biggest challenges facing the meetings industry in the next decade.
The next day, planners and sales team members from Caesars Entertainment traveled to two locations of the
Boys & Girls Club in Atlantic City where they helped to clean up both facilities in time for the busy summer camp season. At the Chelsea Unit location of the Boys & Girls Club, planners worked tirelessly to help clean up the facility, which suffered a large amount of damage following last fall’s
Hurricane Sandy. At the main facility on Pennsylvania Avenue, planners spent the day reupholstering chairs, painting, gardening, and cleaning the entire location.
Later that Saturday evening, the event concluded with a gala held at
Caesars Atlantic City. Caesars Entertainment Corporation is planning similar events to be held in Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas later this year. This was the first year that Caesars held its educational meetings fam in Atlantic City.