When temperatures rise in the Midwest, excitement spikes as well. Chicago’s Riverwalk is buzzy day and night with guided tours from Chicago Architecture Center aboard the First Lady riverboat, festivals and shopping, lots of shopping. For Marriott Convention & Resort Network’s Meet with Momentum Summer in the City customer event based at Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, the brand played to the strengths of the destination with creative immersive activities.
Playful and Personalized Entertainment
As the home of world-famous Second City, improv comes naturally to Chicago. By prepping the troupe with the particular challenges meeting professionals face, the exclusive performance riffed on everything from the tedium of the contracting process to the frantic pace of event-life.
A surprising fact about improv actors is that while they are tasked with making the most of whatever is available to them in the moment, they actually prepare extensively before they take the stage.
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The Marriott team, working with Paul Tramonte Events, Hosts Global and elevoque designed an agenda that showed off the city’s hospitality side.
The performance was followed by an elevated reception upstairs at Utopian Tailgate, an indoor-outdoor venue that featured everything Chicago cuisine—hot dogs, barbecue and fajitas along with the one and only Professor Pizza. To brighten the mood, aura readers and color stylists offered analyses to take home and start conversations.
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Also leveraged for an exclusive experience was the popular Windy City Smokeout country music festival. Attendees enjoyed Platinum Access on an elevated stage with barbecue and a hosted bar to watch the action in comfort—with or without bejeweled cowboy boots.
Celebration of the Citywide
Incorporating a massive event on the United Center campus that had the whole city seemingly humming Megan Moroney’s “Tennessee Orange” was fitting considering the meeting professionals in attendance plan large, citywide events when they aren’t yelling out prompts for improv actors.
Marriott Convention & Resort Hotels Vice President of Sales Adam Korchek counts Chicago as always being an important corporate and association conference city. Despite the hesitation some companies are exhibiting when committing for future years, he anticipates that trend continuing.
