Hotel workers from Unite Here Local 2 in San Francisco announced a six-day strike on October 13 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. About 850 workers walked off the job. The hotel is the second-largest Hilton property in the country, with 1,908 guest rooms and 134,500 square feet of meeting space. At least one group, the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association, was scheduled to meet at the hotel during the action (October 16-19).

On October 14, 1,500 hotel workers at the Hilton Hawaiian Village went on a five-day strike. The hotel is the largest Hilton property in the U.S., with 3,600 rooms and 150,000 square feet of meeting space. Picket lines are up in front of both hotels and will continue, day and night, until the strike ends at 4 a.m. Tuesday.

And in Chicago, about 600 workers at the Hilton Chicago walked off the job Saturday morning, October 16, announcing a three-day strike. The Hilton Chicago has 1,544 guest rooms and 234,000 square feet of meeting space. The Chicago workers, all members of Unite Here Local 1, joined the strike to help their colleagues in San Francisco and Hawaii to make a louder statement about their contract situation, said Annemarie Strassel, Unite Here Local 1 spokeswoman.

Workers at the San Francisco and Honolulu properties have been working without contracts for several months. The unions charge Blackstone Group, a New York–based private equity company that wholly owns Hilton Hotels, with wanting to keep workers in “recessionary contracts,” despite projections that revenues and occupancy will continue to rise for the next few years. Also, the union is upset that Hilton received $180 million in federal bailout money to help its recovery but is not “sharing the recovery” with workers. The major sticking points are wages, health care, and pensions. Union officials cited a proposal that would require housekeepers to clean 40 percent more rooms per day. “Hotel workers are on strike to protect their jobs, and to ensure that they move forward out of the recession, just as their employer Blackstone does,” said Unite Here spokeswoman Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer.

“It is unfortunate that Local 2’s leadership has chosen to take this unnecessary step,” said hotel officials in a statement. “Union tactics such as work stoppages and demonstrations are harmful to employees, to the hospitality industry, and to the City of San Francisco. Instead of being committed to taking actions that attempt to drive business out of San Francisco, Local 2 should commit itself to return to the bargaining table to resolve our differences.”

Michael Dunne, general manager of the Union Square property, says the work stoppage has had little impact on operations or guests, and that the hotel is operating normally, with sufficient staffing in all departments. The hotel’s contingency plan includes hiring temporary workers and bringing in Hilton managers from other hotels in the city and from across the country. “Hyatt, Starwood, Marriott, and a lot of the independents sent managers in, so we are fully staffed,” says Dunne. “The goal for us is to maintain service, so we have a good plan in place.”

On October 15, the hotel was sold out, says Dunne. They held a Boy Scout luncheon for over 900 people and were ready to welcome the National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association on Saturday. “We just did the pre-con, and we also have the Nike Marathon this weekend. Then you have the Giants coming back to town to play the Phillies, so the city is busy for several different reasons,” he says.

On October 14, hotel industry leaders from San Francisco held a press conference at the Union Square hotel to denounce the strike and urge the union to get back to the bargaining table. Dunne was in attendance along with general managers from major convention hotels from across the city. The heads of the chamber of commerce and the Hotel Council of San Francisco were also on hand.

“The economic foundation of San Francisco’s economy is tourism and hospitality, which produced $7.8 billion in business in 2009 and is responsible for more than 20,000 direct jobs—and numerous indirect jobs—and provided $426 million in taxes to San Francisco just last year,” said Dunne at the meeting, according to a press release. “It’s time that Local 2 stopped picketing and boycotting and become a responsible member of our community. The first step they can take is to negotiate a new contract.”

For its activation at the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Fan-Fest in Anaheim, CA, the MLB Network took the iPad through its paces with a custom app that handled registration, releases, data collection and integrated with the network’s video activation to customize the experience for each attendee. As baseball fans approached the brand’s area, brand ambassadors directed them to one of three kiosks where they could get into the user-friendly fun of registering with just a few taps on the iPad’s touch-based interface. The app took some basic info from the guest and secured the permission release for recording and likeness rights, accomplishing a paper-elimination goal the MLB Network had established at the outset.

The coolest and most effective use of the device came next, however. Once registered, attendees stepped inside a mini recording studio to answer three questions as if he or she was the most recent nominee to one of the All-Star teams. Meanwhile, the video software, which was synced up with the iPad registration, automatically input the attendee’s name over the interview like it would be if they were on a real MLB Network show. After the experience, the clip was automatically emailed to the address the attendee provided, and posted on an MLB Network microsite where people could vote for their favorite “Breakout MLB Star.”

In Florida, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort has made Apple’s iPad an integral part of its sales meetings and presentations with a custom app that lets sales reps demonstrate the property’s scope and offerings from any location, on the road and within the grounds. In addition, the app is available in the app store so prospective event planners can download it and take virtual tours from home, saving travel for when it really counts. The tablet rides along with sales people during meeting planner site visits, and as an added bonus, planners who book 500 or more room nights can keep a free iPad after their site visit. On site, the sales rep and prospective customer complement their live tour of the grounds by viewing diagrams and dimensions of meeting spaces, photos and menus of the restaurants, a map of the property and lists of amenities via the iPad app.

Designed and developed by our amazing creative team over at X-Static Media Group…

A well-choreographed event can do wonders for a business’ image and can make or break a new product.

You see, branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your market to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

Our Brand Marketing Events are produced to achieve these objectives:

• Clearly identifies your brand;
• Delivers the  brand’s message definitively;
• Confirms your credibility;
• Connects your target prospects emotionally;
• Motivates the buyer;
• Creates User Loyalty

Anything from a small “meet the players” type of event to a large scale interactive event, we can help you make it successful while building new fans for your organization.