THE CLIENT: Hilton Worldwide (formerly, Hilton Hotels Corporation) is an American global hospitality company. It is owned by the Blackstone Group, an American private equity firm. As of March 2014, Hilton brands encompass 4,112 hotels with over 680,117 rooms in 91 countries. The company owns, manages, and/ or franchises a portfolio of brands, which includes Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Canopy by Hilton, Curio – A Collection by Hilton, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Double Tree by Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Home wood Suites by Hilton,Home2 Suites by Hilton, Hilton Grand Vacations and Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts (The brand’s flagship–and first–Waldorf Astoria property in New York City was sold to Chinese investors in 2014). On December 12,2013, Hilton again became a public company.
THE CLIENT’S OBJECTIVES: Hilton Worldwide has several large scale sales, marketing, and general manager meetings each year. They hire a professional Emcee to handle a variety of duties – i.e., keeping the meetings on task and energized. The host must be able to contribute some relevant business knowledge as well as conduct panel discussions with senior executives on a variety of Hilton Worldwide go-to-market topics.
ROSS’S DELIVERABLES: Ross Shafer was hired as the Host/Emcee for three major Hilton Worldwide sales, marketing, and state-of-the-union meetings (Washington DC, Dallas, Texas, and Vienna, Austria). These multi-day events were attended by the CEO, C-Suite executives, and senior leaders from Sales, Marketing, Construction, and IT. Ross’s duties not only included managing the meeting components on stage (in a fun way)…but also attending key breakout sessions so that he could contribute “ad-libs” when the general sessions reconvened. Ross also gave keynote speeches at each event titled, “Are You Relevant?” and “Nobody Moved Your Cheese.” In his keynotes, Ross not only provided new ideas and case study examples for remaining relevant, but he kept the energy high, the tone fun, and was able to organically champion the initiatives of Hilton Worldwide.
