Our client, Hosts Global, a collection of the world’s leading global Destination Management Companies, has returned from San Antonio and their 8th annual Hosts Global Forum, where Hosts Global members and 70 clients from around the world came to connect and learn what’s new, what’s next, and what’s notable for the event industry. This invite-only event was held at Hotel Valencia Riverwalk San Antonio from September 7-10, 2022.
Hosts Texas shone a spotlight on one of their most vivacious cities. As local experts, they crafted and coordinated immersive events from start to finish. Hosts Global Forum chose San Antonio as its featured destination because of its vibrant and diverse culture and history. A city of constant transformation, bursting with new attractions, revitalized historic sites, and seasonal events, Hosts Texas took guests on a ride of culture, cuisine, and curated experiences that showed how San Antonio is thriving as a meeting & incentive destination. “San Antonio is a culturally rich city, full of charismatic people and places,” said Kurt Paben, CEO of Hosts Global. “We loved introducing our clients to both the city’s deep history along with the San Antonio of the future.”
“The design for Hosts Global Forum was centred around ferocious creativity, education, networking, and innovating and immersive experiences.” said Marty MacKay, DMCP, President, Alliance Events & Operations, Hosts Global. “We focused on intention-based education with tangible take-aways, scheduled connections with our Hosts Global Members, and events that showcased all that San Antonio has to offer.”
Out and About in San Antonio
Each evening guests enjoyed innovative events that were native to San Antonio. Night one featured an iconic and brightly coloured San Antonio Fiesta at the Henry B. González Convention Centre that included a starlight return to the hotel on a quintessential riverboat cruise. Night two took guests “down the rabbit hole” to the immersive Hopscotch, where guests got to play and be in the art installations. And for the final evening of the Hosts Global Forum, guests were greeted with a longhorn steer for a Texas-style round-up at Pedrotti’s Ranch where guests enjoyed local Texas BBQ, armadillo races, a colour guard on horseback, and their own private rodeo.
On Thursday guests got out to see San Antonio through local experiences such as a Taco Tasting, a Mission excursion by bike, a local Whiskey Tasting event, and a VIP Meeting Planner tour which showed the planners some of the venues and hotels that were new and notable in San Antonio.
Thought Leadership
Hosts Global thoughtfully and intentionally implemented multiple sustainability efforts for the Hosts Global Forum. By working with Trees4Travel and their inaugural event platform, Trees4Events, Hosts planted over 1,000 Trees & removed 164,100 kgs of carbon emissions through investments into renewable energy projects - making our event, planet, and people positive.
BeCreative sponsored water bottles from Fill it Forward, that tracked how guests impacted the environment through reuse by scanning a QR code every time they refilled their reusable water bottle. Each scan helped aid funding in developing clean water infrastructure, nutritious food programs, and reforestation projects that help communities in need.
Hosts Texas also gave thoughtful consideration to the local sustainability efforts by selecting multiple venues, tours, and experiences that were within walking distance of the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk, the electric barges for transportation, and bikes for a tour of the city. Hosts chose venues like Hopscotch, which has a sustainability commitment as well as supporting their community through partnerships with multiple local organizations that give back and support community sustainability and supporting community organizations including Desert Door, The Luminaria Working Artist Fund, and The Human Rights Campaign.
Intentional Education The education at the Hosts Global Forum focused on how strong partnerships are created. Kicking off with a global view of the world economy, guests heard from Dr. Chris Kuehl, Managing Director of Armada corporate, who helped frame up how the economy is affecting every one of us. We then moved into a panel of ‘super solvers’ who touched on a curated list of industry topics crowd sourced from our attendees – from attendee engagement, sustainability efforts, hybrid meetings, and contracting. There was a great discussion on how we can strengthen our partnerships to overcome pain points and emerging challenges.
Friday’s content was a deep dive in a few of those areas. A panel discussion gave the group direction on how we can create ideal outcomes through strategic conversations. By taking the time to have good discovery, it moves the partnership from transactional to strategic. Kurt Paben, CEO of Hosts Global, closed out the morning with sharing how we need to pave our path of working together, addressing many current realities in supply chain and labour shortages. The closing keynote by Courtney Clark left guests energized on how with revisionary thinking, we can all positively move forward together.
2023 Hosts Global Forum Destination Has Been Announced.
Hosts Global, together with Hosts Global Affiliate Colours of Malta, announced they will be heading to Malta in 2023 for the next Hosts Global Forum. Steeped in over 7,000 years of history, and having played host to the Romans, Phoenicians, the Knights of St John, Malta will also play host to the 9th annual Hosts Global Forum in this idyllic archipelago.
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