Visitors Bureau Attendees buzzing about the Austin Meeting Experience
When it comes to Austin, what you hear is true. Best known as The Live Music Capital of the World, the Texas capital also boasts a friendly vibe, a creative culture, and a health- conscious community. Nearly everyone who visits Austin vows to come back. Meeting and young professionals alike are sharing enthusiastic comments about their experi- ences — so much so that nonstop flights and new hotels are being added to accommodate them. With 30,000 guest rooms citywide, and
6,000 in downtown alone (soon to be more than 8,000), Austin has the capacity to host any size event — from intimate corporate
gatherings to large association conferences. And when the JW Marriott Austin opens in February 2015, a whole new realm of meeting possibilities will open with it. The 1,012-room, convention-style hotel will break ground this year in the heart of downtown Austin. It will offer more than 114,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and easy access to the Austin Convention Center — one of the most technologically advanced centers in the nation. The Manchester Texas Financial Group
has also announced plans to open a $350-mil- lion “uniquely Austin” convention-style hotel in 2015. Situated along Waller Creek, adjacent
Ascend Integrated Media Bringing custom content to the tablet
Ascend Integrated Media is known for pro- viding premier custom-content products to meeting and events professionals — helping them drive attendance and provide timely event news, information, and recaps to cur- rent and prospective attendees. The com- pany recently rolled out a customized tablet offering, expanding Ascend’s ability to serve meeting professionals and publications. Cus- tomized tablet applications are currently available for iPads and iPhones, and soon will be available for Kindle Fire and Android devices. By broadening the reach of its portfolio of
products from print, online media, and smart- phone applications to a tablet option, Ascend continues to be its clients’ one-stop shop for custom content. With the rising number of people using tablets at events and meetings, the company knows that its clients must be
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able to distribute content in the fashion that suits the needs and desires of their member- ship base. Ascend now has the ability either to lever-
age existing content (such as pre-meeting lit- erature or on-site programs) so it is accessible on tablet devices, or to create a custom app for clients, taking advantage of the many interac- tive elements and user-interface options that tablets provide. And because the idea of an iPad app may be daunting to some, Ascend has created a simple process for clients to ease into using a tablet application — presenting their existing content in tablet form, for exam- ple. Additionally, Ascend released its own tab- let application as a sample project, illustrating to clients the different functions and capabili- ties they could use with their own applications. The app is called Ascend Capabilities and can be found in the Apple iTunes store.
to the Austin Convention Center, the hotel will feature 1,025 rooms with 100,000 square feet of meeting space, premier restaurants, and a signature sky-bar lounge on the 34th floor. Both new hotels will be close to hundreds of restaurants and multiple entertainment districts. With 200 live music venues, world-
renowned restaurants, and world-class golf and spas, the word is getting out about Aus- tin — and meeting professionals can’t stop buzzing about it.