IMEX America 2026 第二天观察：凯撒娱乐 CSR 实践与洛杉矶会展中心扩建进展

As we near the end of IMEX America, it's our readers last chance to learn all about what's happening across the tradeshow floor. From Caesars' CSR updates to live entertainment and group deals in Puerto Rico, we are bringing you all the best news from North America’s biggest meetings-industry show.

Plus, if you haven't already, check out our live interviews with Visit Orlando, Cvent's brand-new The Cvent Center for Event Insights and a new episode of Eventualists dropped this morning. More on that below.

Dive into all our insights and industry news from the second day of IMEX America and read all of our event coverage here.

Tyler Davidson, Vice President & Chief Content Director

(Palm) Springs Forward

Palm Springs, California, shared a few hotel/venue news items including the progress of the major down-to-the-studs renovation of the Palm Springs Riviera Hotel, which will emerge as the Intercontinental Resort & Spa Palm Springs in spring 2027. The 406-room hotel, which offers 31,000 square feet of meeting space, will have an understated, elegant, desert-inspired design.

The Palm Springs Convention Center will embark on a three-year renovation and remodeling in 2027, with completion scheduled for 2030. The project will renovate its meeting and exhibit space as well as create a new foyer and exterior corridor that will connect the facility to downtown.

A new surfing venue, DSRT Surf, opened across from the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa in Palm Desert. Up to 70 surfers at one time can ride the manufactured waves in the large facility. On the sports front, Palm Springs is gearing up to welcome the inaugural season of the Coachella Valley Lakers minor league basketball team in November. The women’s tennis 2026 WTA Finals is set for November 8-15 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

Caesars Knows CSR

Kiersten Flint, senior vice president of corporate social responsibility and internal communications at Caesars Entertainment, said meeting planners are placing a much higher priority on CSR. “CSR is embedded in everything that we do at Caesars, and from the meetings and event side, we're seeing more and more that meeting planners are building CSR and social impact and community impact into their event [foundation] rather than being an optional add-on,” she said. “Rather than meeting planners coming to us and asking for it, we've been really purposeful about putting together packages and bringing it to them.”

CSR highlights include, from a corporate perspective, Caesars having a very large philanthropy and community impact program, such as its hero volunteer program. In 2025 alone, she said, company employees dedicated 78,000 hero volunteer hours, which also translates into brokering local relationships with nonprofit partners to set up volunteering events, food waste mitigation programs, recycling and composting where available and also setting up direct volunteer programs that can be embedded into meeting and event programs.

Caesars Entertainment’s Just One Project, launched in May, has already rescued more than 9,000 pounds of food that has translated into more than 7,000 meals in the Las Vegas community. The CSR efforts are embodied in the company’s People Planet Play program, which supports employees, guests and the communities that it operates in, supporting environmental impact, responsible gaming, responsible business ethics, safety and well-being for its guests and team members.

“It's embedded in everything that we do from a business operation standpoint,” she said. “It’s not just a code of commitment on paper. It's how we operate our business.”

Caesars’ CSR Guide, for instance, focuses on its key meetings and events areas and provides information on the impact that meeting and event planners can embed into their programs. The guide is currently available in major markets such as Las Vegas, Reno-Tahoe and Atlantic City. Examples include the impact in those specific markets of environmental efficiencies in its meeting and events spaces, such as HVAC technology and low-flow water fixtures, allowing for social impact tracking.

L.A. Leading the Way

Los Angeles is on a serious winning streak when it comes to major global events and the improved infrastructure the city has invested in hosting them, which pays dividends to its meetings and conventions industry. The ongoing modernization and expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center is “on time and on budget,” according to Mario Thompson, chief sales officer for Discover Los Angeles. Thompson said 18 events representing $400 million are already booked for after the expected completion in spring 2029. The project will connect its two buildings and add 200,000 square feet of space, bringing its total to 750,000 continuous square feet of exhibit space that will allow the destination to pursue some of the largest conventions in the U.S. The convention center’s ballroom will measure 100,000 square feet and boast floor-to-ceiling views of the iconic Hollywood sign.

Los Angeles has invested major infrastructure dollars in the city due to the global events it hosted or will host, including the FIFA World Cup, NBA All-Star Game, Super Bowl LXI in 2027 and the Summer Olympics in 2028. Thompson said the destination has invested some $40 billion in infrastructure improvements since 2023, which has resulted in a spike in corporate meetings in segments such as technology, financial and medical, representing a double-digit growth in demand. Other major additions include the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opened in September, and ongoing improvements at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to the tune of $16 billion dollars, which are set to be completed in January, with the people mover already in the testing phase. Thompson said an ongoing effort at the DMO is to try to “shrink” L.A. by promoting the expertise of Discover Los Angeles to communicate how easy it is the navigate the destination’s many attractions for their meetings.

*Ed Carey, chief sales officer, Discover Puerto Rico. Credit: Tyler Davidson.*

An Entertaining Offer

Discover Puerto Rico is riding the Bad Bunny wave, and other major entertainment offerings, to spark tourism and meetings. Ed Carey, chief sales officer for Discover Puerto Rico, said the next big entertainment offering—“Puerto Rico’s Next Act”—will debut in February 2027 at the Coca-Cola Music Hall in San Juan’s Distrito T-Mobile, which is located immediately adjacent to the Puerto Rico Convention Center. The all-new Cirque du Soleil creation, Le Lo Lai, will showcase the island’s unique music, culture and traditions.

To further help drive meetings and conventions, Discover Puerto Rico is offering a $20 per room, per night incentive that can be used for services on-island such as transportation, banquets and other program elements. The incentive is available as long as the money is spent on-island. New hotel renovations include the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar, which emerged from a $60 million renovation last December, and new openings that include the 139-room Four Seasons Resort and Residences Puerto Rico in Bahia Beach; the boutique 50-room Nobu Hotel and Restaurant San Juan, which is set to open in 2028; and the under-construction Hard Rock Hotel & Casino San Juan, with a 2029 target opening date in Old San Juan.

[Save the Date: Meetings Today LIVE! Corporate/Incentive Puerto Rico October 17-20]

Rob Carey, Content Manager, News & Features

Taylor Smith, Content Manager, Destinations

IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum (FLF)

Two years ago, Meetings Today’s Taylor Smith and the Event Leaders Exchange’s (ELX) Hannah Elston, co-hosts of the Eventualists podcast, met at the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum, an opportunity for college and post-grad students in hospitality, event or tourism management to gain expert insight into the meetings industry, learning from and connecting with inspirational industry experts and fellow students.

In 2024, they participated in the FLF as mentors during the roundtables discussions at the end of the program. This year, they returned as moderators of the whole thing, leading the industry’s through a day of education that’s been reimagined over the past year to deliver the best, most timely and relevant education for the industry’s next generation. From realistic, firsthand accounts of experts’ experiences entering and establishing their careers in the industry to how to format and structure resumes to working as a team to fill in the gaps of an event brief with major holes, this year’s FLF was a modern masterclass in preparing for the future of the meetings and events industry.

*Taylor and Hannah co-moderate the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum. Credit: Taylor Smith*

Tune In to The Eventualists

The latest episode of Meetings Today’s next-gen focused podcast, co-hosted by Taylor Smith and Hannah Elston, launched this morning. Having met at IMEX America, and with both co-hosts in town for this year’s tradeshow, the pair had the rare opportunity to record together in person once again. Tune in to—or watch—the latest episode of Eventualists, in which Taylor and Hannah reflect on when they met for the first time, what that FLF meant to and made possible for them and how it ultimately led to the creation of Eventualists. Plus, memories from their first IMEX experiences, tips for first-timers tackling the show floor and what they wish they knew about IMEX compared to what they know now.