Shaping Trends at Skift Forum Europe and SXSW — Meetings Innovation Report

The Future of Meetings & Events The inaugural Skift Forum Europe kicks off on April 4 in London's Docklands district with a full day of travel industry disruptors discussing the social, political, and economic factors driving their technology and marketing strategy decisions. The various industry thought leaders range from InterContinental Hotels CEO Richard Solomons to London & Partners acting CEO Andrew Cooke. According to Skift founder Rafat Ali in his post this week, "The Forum isn’t a just a line of business for us. It is the distillation of everything we work for." Meanwhile in Austin, the annual South by Southwest Conference (SXSW) is swarming the city — the entire city — with an estimated 80,000-plus registered attendees. More than 25,000 of those are using Airbnb this week in Austin, which has 35,000 hotel rooms. We paid $100 per night for an apartment near South Congress, booked one week ahead. For the first time around we also used the RideAustin ride