IMEX America 2026首日观察：洛杉矶斯、奥兰多、辛辛那提等目的地更新与行业趋势

IMEX America is well underway at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and the Meetings Today editors roamed the massive tradeshow floor to bring you the biggest and best destination updates from Cincinnati to Los Cabos, plus major upgrades in North America's best meetings destination. Their insights, destination updates and more industry news from the first day of IMEX are below. 

[Stay up to date on all of our IMEX coverage] 

Tyler Davidson, Vice President & Chief Content Director

• Engagement is king: Kelly Gleeson Smith, senior vice president of Caesars Entertainment Meetings and Events, said that 63% of meeting planners say that attendee engagement is their No. 1 success metric, with tactics that include networking “micro-dosing” (shorter keynotes and short bursts of information) and using technology to find commonalities between attendees in order to hone the networking experience. And while AI is proving to be a great tool in nearly every aspect of meeting and events, including finding commonalities to match attendees with similar interests, organizers should prioritize human interaction because that is the essence of why we meet in-person. Other trends include using games to break the ice during networking programs, which can also appeal to younger attendees who crave structure. In addition, in this age of inflation, Gleeson Smith stressed that Caesars prioritizes being able to accommodate budgets at virtually every level, and using its massive portfolio of properties to lock in multiyear bookings is a great hedge to secure F&B menu prices. The dispersal of Caesars’ sales team is also a boon, in that the reps live and work in the markets they sell.
• Los Cabos hotel news: According to Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board, the Baja California destination has welcomed, or is set to welcome, a few new interesting properties. The entrants include a Park Hyatt Cabo del Sol, a luxury beachfront resort that opened last December within the private Cabo Del Sol community in Cabo San Lucas. Located next to the Animas Village upscale retail area, the 170-room hotel is also next to the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Cabo San Lucas at Cabo Del Sol and boasts two oceanfront terraces for events. The St. Regis Los Cabos at Quivira is an ultra-luxury beachfront resort and residential development on a 33-acre site with 1,200 feet of Pacific oceanfront in Cabo San Lucas, scheduled to open next year. The 120-key property will offer an attached convention facility. About an hour north of Cabo San Lucas, the ultra-luxury Amanvari opened on Baja's undeveloped East Cape, near one of the world’s richest marine reserves and overlooking the Sea of Cortez. Owned by the Aman Group, one of the most exclusive hotel portfolios in the world, the 18-casita Amanvari, which also includes residences, provides a refined atmosphere for incentives and retreats. The Los Cabos Tourism Board also launched an AI-based Los Cabos Industry Events Concierge to help planners research and facilitate meetings in the destination.

• Orlando doing what Orlando does best: The biggest meetings destination in North America just keeps on growing, led by the $560 million Grand Concourse Expansion at the Orange County Convention Center and more than 100,000 square feet of new event space at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, bringing its total to a whopping 600,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space. At Universal Orlando Resort, the new Celestial Expo event space, a 17,500-square-foot indoor venue that can accommodate up to 700 in the Celestial Park area of Universal Epic Universe, is set for a 2027 debut. Loews Portofino Bay Hotel has embarked on a comprehensive renovation of its 42,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, including the Tuscan Ballroom, Venetian Ballroom and breakout rooms. Rosen Hotels & Resorts kicked off a $150 million renovation project at Rosen Plaza and Rosen Shingle Creek that includes redesigned guest rooms, suites and corridors at both properties, along with upgrades to Rosen Shingle Creek’s 524,000 square feet of event space. Completion is expected in fall 2026 for Rosen Plaza and in 2027 for Rosen Shingle Creek. Tyler Davidson caught up with Visit Orlando President & CEO Casandra Matej for a Meetings Today Podcast that detailed what’s new and improved in this Central Florida standout.  

  [Related: The Biggest Meetings Happenings in Orlando, From IMEX America 2026] 

• Cincy raises a glass to toast a host of projects: It’s been a big year for Cincinnati, resulting in a champagne toast during a press conference at IMEX America to celebrate more than $2 billion in major projects to bolster its meetings and conventions offering. Highlights include a more than $800 million investment to modernize the city’s biggest convention facility, First Financial Center, and improve the convention district surrounding it, completed in January. Other toast-worthy projects include the upcoming 700-room Cincinnati Marriott Downtown headquarters hotel, estimated to cost more than $500 million and scheduled for a late 2028 opening. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is also investing more than $1.2 billion in a multiyear improvement effort.

  

• Where the magic is made: Meetings Today was part of a fascinating tour of MGM Resorts Events Productions Studio, which for the past 25 years has fabricated all manner of event design items and floral displays for 10 MGM properties as well as non-MGM clients. The 100,000-square-foot facility is stuffed to the rafters with its creative output, resulting in its team of 102 designing innovative decor items for some 1,300 events annually, from bespoke dinners for two, to event activations for more than 5,000. Among its accolades is executing seven simultaneous New Years Eve galas by its team of designers, builders, painters, floral artisans and logistics crews. The

  

   team also conducts more than 125 luxury suite conversions for one of Las Vegas’ anchor events, CES, to reflect corporate branding for high-profile clients. Following the tour, tour attendees visited Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s hottest new venue, the rooftop Vinyl Room Las Vegas, festooned with classic album covers and boasting jaw-dropping views of the Strip and airport, complete with jets taking off. Its three rooms can accommodate a buyout for more than 550, with DJs spinning vinyl (naturally) and also live music in partnership with Live Nation.

Rob Carey, Content Manager, News & Features

• New quarterly event-price index unveiled: At the show, Maritz debuted an Event Price Index that shows costs from 2025, 2026 as well as forecasts 2027 estimates for F&B, meeting space with AV and coffee breaks, decor and entertainment, transportation, hospitality support staff and activities. Jim Russell, global head of business events solutions for Maritz, told Meetings Today that the company will update the index quarterly as it collects data in each of those categories from suppliers in tier-1 cities. Interestingly, "there are some folks in the industry saying that there's a somewhat positive aspect to event costs rising at the present rates," Russell noted. "Specifically, the costs have elevated the visibility of in-person events at the highest levels of the organization—executives are saying, 'Hey, these are getting to be big numbers - why is this happening?' This gives planners the opportunity to articulate the value of their events, and to show that while we must spend more, here are the benefits we gain from our events." Here is the link to the first edition of the Maritz index.

  [Related: Rethinking the Attendee Experience: Unpacking Maritz' NextGen-Proofing Your Events Report] 

• Insider perspective from an executive at a top events agency: Cindy D'Aoust, executive vice president of strategic growth for MGME, one of the biggest event agencies in the world, told Meetings Today that "the hardest thing I run up against in client organizations is there is still not a full appreciation at the stakeholder level of how important the design and the curation of a meeting is, along with the communications before, during and after the event, as these relate to achieving the stakeholder's objectives. With AI and other technology tools continuously advancing, though, two things are happening: Planners are getting freed up to some degree from the mundane tasks of event coordination, allowing them to be more strategic and creative with event design. Also, technology is helping us to help our clients manage costs and get the maximum return on investment and return on engagement for their events."

Taylor Smith, Content Manager, Destinations

• SITE Press Conference: In addition to providing a breakdown of key results from this year’s Incentive Travel Index (see our Smart Monday coverage for more on the study), the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence’s (SITE) press conference also gave Rebecca Wright, SITE’s recently announced interim CEO, the chance to share a few words: “I’m happy to be here and happy to support the association during this time. For those of you who don't know me, I have a long history with SITE as a member, as a volunteer at the chapter level, on the international board of directors. I served on staff for four years during the Covid timeline, and actually served in this interim role in 2021 and 2022. So, it feels good to be back with my family over this time. My goal is just to provide stability to the association, and also, it's a great time to just step back, take a look at where we're at right now, reflect on what's working, what maybe we want to do different to ensure that we're relevant now and in the future, and that will help inform what the next chapter of SITE will look like.”  
• EIC Press Conference: The Events Industry Council’s (EIC) new Pathways initiative will bring together and curate career-development resources to help incoming talent enter the industry, give all levels of professionals tools to develop their skills and grow access across the industry as a whole. “Pathways is how we knit all of that together in a really meaningful way to help make it more relevant and accessible to anyone in the field,” said Amy Calvert, president and CEO, EIC. EIC also announced a refresh to concepts under its APEX Commission, an initiative that creates and maintains industry-wide standards, guidelines and operational templates. “We've been working with Snapsight over the past year to look at some of the work that we have traditionally done under our APEX Commission umbrella and modernize it,” Calvert said. “APEX was built over 25 years ago. It was meant to be a place for subject matter experts from all disciplines to come together and share knowledge and resources to elevate professions with common standards and a common language…It was time to get to work to update it, and thanks to the great work at Snapsight, we have an opportunity to unveil a refreshed concept for APEX made available to the industry through the EIC website in five languages.”  

• Updates From Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas: There’s a lot going on in paradise, where more than $250 million has been invested into a resort-wide transformation of one of The Bahamas’ most loved properties. The latest news out of Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas is the reimagining of its luxury all-suite hotel, The Cove, which will include a redesign of all 600 suites and guest experiences, including a new adults-only beach club. Atlantis has also introduced a group all-inclusive option for shoulder-season programs at its original building, The Coral, alongside a tiered group dining plan with beverage packages, available year round (with blackout dates).  
• Updates From Disney Meetings & Events: Disney is giving its Coronado Springs Convention center a new look, updating finishes, furnishings and shared spaces to reflect a more modern look and refreshed, natural color palette that will create one cohesive experience across the property, complementing the design of its Gran Destino Tower and reflecting the cultures and natural landscapes of Spain, Mexico and the American Southwest. The convention center will remain open and fully operational throughout the refurbishment, with work phased and coordinated around event schedules. Disney is also already welcoming groups to refreshed space at the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Convention Center, where 40,000 square feet have been modernized in a  way that still preserves its Victorian charm and timeless atmosphere. “When I walked in the first time when I was allowed to see the whole project done, I felt like I was in an entirely different resort,” said Amy Pfieffer, director of meetings and events. “I literally almost cried.” 

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