In April, Marriott announced a new division that will coordinate sales and service of communications technologies at its properties around the globe. EventCom Technologies by Marriott (www.marriott.com/eventcom) will serve as both a tech consultancy to Marriott clients and as a one-stop shop for multiproperty technical events. Services will include satellite broadcasting, ISDN videoconferencing, Web conferencing, Web streaming, and audioconferencing, and event management and production.

EventCom would start in a consulting role, determining the technologies best suited to the job and the Marriotts in each of the 12 cities suitable and available during the meeting dates. Once the planner decides which properties should receive requests for proposals, EventCom would bundle all the meeting elements (catering, rooms, audiovisual, etc.) and submit the package to the various hotels. Planners are able to work with a single contact all the way through the billing process.