This text is part of the special Business Tourism section
Two technologies based on artificial intelligence have recently entered the events and hospitality sector in Quebec. The Palais des congrès de Montréal is now partnering with Swapcard to energize its clientele’s events, while Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu is integrating Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant into its rooms in La Malbaie.
Conferences, galas, congresses, trade shows… So many events with structured programming that place social interactions at the heart of their objectives. “When it takes place in a convention center that can accommodate 2000, 3000 or 4000 delegates, having a tool allowing stakeholders to plan their participation can be very productive,” says Élaine Legault, vice-president of events. and the customer experience at the Palais des congrès de Montréal.
Last May, the institution launched a partnership with the events and community platform Swapcard, of which Montreal is the first subsidiary created in North America. The objective: to allow promoters to “streamline” the planning of their event at the Palais while offering visitors improved experiences.
The tool, which notably allows organizers to facilitate the promotion, registration and access control stages of their event, also offers a networking experience using artificial intelligence. Participants can thus be suggested connections based on their profile, provided in advance of the event via a questionnaire that can be personalized by the organizers. “We make them aware of capturing relevant data to facilitate the participant experience, such as their objective of participation: is it to seek employment in the industry? To develop their business network? The more relevant questions we ask, the more data we are able to capture,” says Walid Bengeloune, general manager of Swapcard Canada.
Captured in real time and analyzed, this data feeds the machine learning at the heart of the platform. “It will learn from the behavior of participants in an event and will improve the recommendation algorithm based on their actions,” says Mr. Bengeloune. Within the same event, a guest will, for example, be suggested sessions or conferences related to those in which they have already participated.
This contextual data also benefits organizers who can adapt their event to user behavior. For example, if a conference within an event attracts a lot of registrations, the organizers can react by ensuring that they provide a room large enough to accommodate it. “These automated recommendations increase the productivity of small teams who organize conferences,” emphasizes Élaine Legault.
Swapcard, which subscribes to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), also offers monetization opportunities for promoters as well as the ability to create and engage communities between events. Services that meet the needs expressed by Palais customers. “We call on innovative companies to meet the needs of the customers who turn to us. We thus become a center of expertise and solutions to support them,” says the vice-president.
Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu equips itself with Alexa in Charlevoix
Amazon’s famous voice assistant, Alexa, has been equipping all the rooms at the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu since March in its version developed for the hotel industry, Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality.
This is the first Fairmont establishment — owned by the Accor Group — and the first hotel in Canada to be equipped with this technology, after responding to a call for partnership launched by the American giant.
Concretely, a fleet of smart Echo speakers, equipped with Alexa and equipped with cameras, is distributed in each of the 405 rooms of the hotel. These devices offer users, through a simple voice command, access to music, information relating to the weather, surrounding attractions, and of course hotel services: opening hours, menu of the hotel service. room or personalized orientations. “If the guest in room 132 wants to know how to get to the pool, Alexa will show them the direction to take from their room,” explains Caroline Ouellette, director of sales and marketing at Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu.
An asset for business customers? That remains to be seen. While she does not exclude that the device could integrate meeting rooms, Caroline Ouellette considers it unlikely that the hotel will configure Alexa to integrate the programming of seminars taking place over only a few days. “It’s more about knowing where the Richelieu room is, the business center, access to premium wifi or the closing time of the wellness center” which could prove useful for this clientele.
The gain brought by the system seems the same for customers and hotel staff: a saving of time. “There is less waiting and even frustration on the part of customers who are able to get a quick response. On the hotel side, it requires less telephony and concierge services,” says the manager, who also highlights the ecological advantage of using Alexa in the rooms. “It allowed us to replace a lot of paper and tactile documentation that we won’t have to renew. »
Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu is giving itself one year to evaluate the impact of its partnership with Amazon. In the meantime, customer feedback is encouraging, according to Caroline Ouellette: “When they arrive in the room and see Alexa, it’s still the fun. They really like interacting with her.”
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.