We’re happy to announce some programming notes for GuestX, Feb. 21-23, 2016, in Dallas, Texas.

One of the most popular and informative sessions last year was led by Jennifer Blackmon, corporate director of culture transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, and we’re pleased that she will be rejoining us for a new session focused on service excellence culture.

“Customer service re-energized is really the starting point on your journey to exceptional customer service,” Blackmon said in the video below. “One of the biggest points of that course is our motto, which is we’re ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. But throughout the class, we rework that to say we’re ladies and gentlemen working with ladies and gentlemen.”

Other speakers and sessions lined up for GuestX include our keynote speaker T. Scott Gross, an author and hospitality industry veteran, who will speak on how to sell, serve, and stand out in a digital age; Carmen Day, director of guest experience for the Toronto Blue Jays, who will focus on front line supervisors; Jeff Cockrell from Dale Carnegie Training, who will educate attendees on how to have richer and more meaningful conversations with strangers; and Steve A. Klein, who will help attendees unleash their potential. There will also be a panel of experts from several major league sports leagues discussing how to create a great guest experience and an interactive session led by Gensler on how to design environments for optimal experiences.

Registration is open. Please visit the GuestX website to learn more about the conference and to stay up-to-date on additional speakers and sessions. See you in February!

The STAPLES Center in downtown Los Angeles recently unveiled new upgrades, which includes energy efficient LED lighting, a new retractable seating system, and transformation of the TEAM LA Store. An upcoming $8 million investment will go toward a new DraftKings Fantasy Sports Bar & Lounge, upgrades to several concession stands, and upgrades on the newly named Delta Suite Levels private suites.

“We could not be more excited about the upgrades that we made over the past few months and we cannot wait for all of the fans to experience them in the coming NBA and NHL seasons,” said Lee Zeidman, president of the STAPLES Center, in a statement. “Every year, it is our goal and we strive to keep STAPLES Center looking fresh, to have industry leading guest amenities, and provide state-of-the-art technology to our guests, tenants, promoters, and special events.”

Concerning the DraftKings lounge area, the arena said in a statement that, “Guests providing their DraftKings ID will receive discounts on food, beverages and other exclusive opportunities, and throughout each event, lucky fans will be randomly chosen to receive prizes, special offers and even the opportunity to go inside STAPLES Center to watch the action from VIP seats provided by DraftKings.”

Please visit the STAPLES Center press room for a full rundown on all the upgrades and more news about the arena.

(Image: Facebook)

If you’re an iPhone user (as most of you are according to our analytics), you might want to check out a new app called Indoor Survey. Its purpose is to map venues so they can be included in Apple Maps.

“By dropping ‘points’ on a map within the Survey App, you indicate your position within the venue as you walk through,” reads the app’s description. “As you do so, the Indoor Survey App measures the radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone’s sensor data. The end result is indoor positioning without the need to install special hardware.”

Indoor Survey is only available via a direct link and doesn’t appear (yet) in the App Store’s search tool. It’s also compatible with iPad and iPod touch devices running iOS 9 or later. English, Chinese, and Japanese languages are supported.

(Image: Slash Gear via the App Store)

An online company, Event Marketer, supplies information and a network of needs in branding and marketing for event marketers and public relation agency executives. In a recent episode of “EM All Access,” Oracle VP of Marketing Paul Salinger talks about how his company views the value of sustainable events — and how they are seeing the savings in millions of dollars.

Congratulations to the SMG-manage Cox Business Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for winning its fifth consecutive Readers’ Choice Award from ConventionSouth magazine.

“We are honored to receive the Readers’ Choice Award again,” said Cox Business Center Assistant General Manager Kerry Painter, CFE, CMP, CEM, in a statement. “Our team takes a lot of pride in providing exceptional service to all of our guests. To have those efforts recognized by our peers in the industry is a great achievement.”

The Readers’ Choice Award is given to meeting venues that provide excellent service for group events. Recipients are chosen through online voting by meeting professionals.

“ConventionSouth readers and fans have voted to decide the best meeting sites in the South, and it is no surprise to us that Cox Business Center has been selected to receive our annual Readers’ Choice Award,” said ConventionSouth Publisher J. Talty O’Connor in a statement. “The value in receiving this prestigious recognition is that it comes from the United States’ top meeting professionals who hold events in the South. These planners demand the highest level of customer service and quality facilities, and they have contributed in determining that Cox Business Center indeed displays the commitment to professionalism, creativity and service that they require.”

Readers’ Choice Award recipients will be featured in the December issue of ConventionSouth magazine.

(Image: Facebook)