From Ponce de León to Dr. Martin Luther King to Andrew Young, there are more than 600+ years of multicultural history to explore in St. Augustine, Florida, America’s oldest city.
Continue readingDance Travel News Goes to New Orleans
If you’re “in the mood” for swing era big band music, “I’ll be seeing you” at the Dine and Dance to the Victory Swing Orchestra in BB’s Stage Door Canteen at the World War II Museum in New Orleans. A three-course dinner with wine and 90 minutes of dancing to a full orchestra with 3 singer soloists made for a wonderful evening during our trip this past October. Dancing was the reason we headed to NOLA and we’ll be back again in 2024 for one of these delightful tributes to the 1940’s Big Bands at the museum. A Valentine’s Day dance will be held on February 17th (not to compete with Mardi Gras parades) and another evening will be on June 1. (See schedule/buy tickets at https://www.nationalww2museum.org/programs/dine-dance-victory-swing-orchestra). Before the end of this year there are also luncheons and teas in 2023 and a New Year’s Eve Dine and Dance (https://www.nationalww2museum.org/events-programs/bbs-stage-door-canteen).
Continue readingDiversity Is an Important Part of Event Planners’ Destination Choices
This article was published in Skift on August 23, 2022 https://meetings.skift.com/diversity/
Skift Take
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are strategic business imperatives event planners look at when choosing the site of their next gathering. Demographics and the political climate are also important facets of a destination being considered for an event.
– Lisa Skriloff
Continue readingWhat the Rushdie Attack Can Teach Events About Better Stage Protection
This article was published in Skift on August 16, 2022 https://meetings.skift.com/what-the-rushdie-attack-can-teach-events-about-better-stage-protection/
Skift Take
When Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage in full view of the audience at a speaking engagement at the Chautauqua Institution, it was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks during public events. What can event planners do to ensure this doesn’t happen at their gatherings?
– Lisa Skriloff
Continue readingWhat Event Planners Need to Know About Monkeypox
This article was published in Skift on August 9, 2022 https://meetings.skift.com/what-event-planners-need-to-know-about-monkeypox/
Skift Take
The monkeypox outbreak is now a national health emergency. What does this mean to event planners?
– Lisa Skriloff
Continue readingHidden Event Fees Piling Up
This article was published in Skift on August 8, 2022 https://meetings.skift.com/hidden-event-fees-piling-up/
Skift Take
With a surge of pent-up demand and the need for hotels and other venues to bring in revenue, hidden fees are finding their way onto many meeting ledgers and planners are furious.
– Lisa Skriloff
Continue readingEvent Lines Being Blurred
This article was published in Skift on August 1, 2022 https://meetings.skift.com/event-lines-being-blurred/
Skift Take
A revenue crunch is driving B2B trade shows to open up to consumers. This may be another way distributed workforces are forcing a blending of our professional and personal lives.
– Lisa Skriloff
Continue readingGilded Age, Modern Day and Colonial America Newport in 5 Days
By Lisa Skriloff, Editor, Multicultural Travel News
On the weekend that Juneteenth National Independence Day, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, was officially recognized as a Federal Holiday, we were touring Newport RI, with its own paradoxical history of the “co-existence of religious freedom with the poison of racism.” So quoted our guide at Touro Synagogue, (the oldest synagogue in the country,) whose informative talk started with the history of how the Newport Jews came to settle in the seaport, starting from Spain to Recife, Brazil, to New Amsterdam (New York City) where they “received no warm welcome from Peter Stuyvesant.” The descendants of these Conversos, who fled the inquisitions in Spain and Portugal, founded the Congregation in Newport in the late 1600s. Following his visit here, George Washington, in his 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, pledged that the new nation would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” Yet at the same time, the “trade and export activities…that were the main engines of economic growth during the 18th century, (were) inexorably linked to Newport’s participation in the slave trade and widespread ownership of slaves by families throughout the city” as we learned at our visit to the Museum of Newport History. Today’s Newport is more human rights forward. During this same visit, Newport was celebrating June is LGBTQ Pride Month, and, with organizations such as Newport Out welcomes the community all year long. We also learned about Newport’s “Sail To Prevail – The National Disabled Sailing Program,” the first sailing program for individuals with disabilities in the United States.
Continue readingMadeira: History and Culture, Nature, The Climate, Wine, Gastronomy
Celebrating its 600th anniversary this coming year in 2019, Madeira is a vacation destination both unspoiled and up-to date. Contradictions in co-existence! An off-road open-air jeep tour takes you to areas of the island untouched by time, where farming on steep slopes continues as it has through the ages. Ride the modern cable car up the mountain to visit the Monte Palace Botanical Gardens, then have a seat on a man-powered old-fashioned wicker basket taboggan sled built for two for a ride down along stone streets. Choose lodging in the style of the traditional 16th century “quintas” (farmhouse inn) such as the Quinta do Furão on a cliff top in Santana on the northeast coast or stay at the 5-star Pestana Carlton Madeira, a luxurious and charming hotel in the city of Funchal, with a Ballroom for meetings and a cocktail lounge for live music listening and dancing.
Continue readingTrip Report: Dublin-Tullamore-Galway #NoRentalCar Sept/October 2017
A trip report with day by day itinerary, recommendations and links, useful for others visiting these cities and traveling between them by train and bus.If I were to choose keywords to characterize our trip I would highlight #no rental car and our themes of #dancing, #dining and #distilleries.
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Lisa Skriloff 