Stamford-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. now has a referral partnership featuring event manager Cvent and PSAV, a 78-year-old special-events planning company, to provide mobile apps for planners who are booking meetings and events at its properties worldwide.
Starwood owns or manages 1,200 properties in 100 countries and employs 180,000.
“We are always looking for new ways to enhance the meetings and event experience at our properties,” said Jonathan Kaplan, Starwood”™s director of sales, new business and digital programming, in a statement. “With the option of having a customizable app with CrowdCompass by Cvent, attendees can go paperless and view real-time content like event agendas, speaker bios, presentations and property information right from their mobile device.
“Meeting attendees also may be able to use the app to create personalized schedules, share contact information with other attendees, connect with others via social media and receive push message communications instantly from on-site meeting planners,” Kaplan said.
Cvent and PSAV have partnered to bring CrowdCompass mobile apps to corporate meeting and event planners and hoteliers since 2013, Starwood said.
Said Matthew Donegan-Ryan, director of mobile strategy at CrowdCompass by Cvent, “Providing CrowdCompass mobile apps is one more way for Starwood to transform the experience and engagement level of meeting attendees at Starwood hotels and resorts across the globe.”
“Mobile apps for events have become an essential tool for bringing content and attendee engagement directly to an individual’s personal device,” said Stewart Young, vice president for strategic accounts at PSAV Presentation Services.
