PARIS — Accor is collaborating with Microsoft to launch ALL Connect, a new hybrid-meetings concept supported by Microsoft Teams.
The new concept is designed to enable guests around the world to adapt to the new ways of working that are expected to be an enduring legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, 55 per cent of Accor hotels with meeting rooms are already providing hybrid-meetings solutions to their clients. Launching in April 2021, ALL Connect will ensure Accor hotels can provide an enriched full experience, which re-sets the bar on the hybrid-meeting experience. Accor’s target is for 100 per cent of its hotels with meeting rooms to comply with the new hybrid-meetings standard by 2022, across all brands, worldwide.
By combining the brands and service culture of Accor with the meetings and collaboration technology of Teams, this new offering will enable corporate customers and meeting planners to combine physical in-hotel meetings with virtual interactions across multiple locations simultaneously. Meetings will take place on the Microsoft Teams platform, where attendees can connect and engage virtually. In Accor meeting spaces, Microsoft Teams Rooms and Surface Hub 2S will connect people on-site to those joining remotely with industry-leading audio and video-device experiences, allowing people to easily present content and see virtual participants as if they were in the same room.
The concept will focus primarily on small meetings (eight to 50 physical participants) and customers will benefit from the expertise of dedicated teams, Accor’s meetings-and-events experience and a seamless digital-booking platform. Distinctive and bespoke meeting programs and experiences will be available to attendees who can also expect the highest sanitary and safety measures as part of the ALLSAFE expert-vetted protocol co-developed with Bureau Veritas.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has caused business travellers and meeting planners to review the way they work,” says Patrick Mendes, Group Chief Commercial Officer in charge of Sales, Marketing, Distribution and Loyalty at Accor. “Virtual and hybrid formats have become an essential part of daily business life. Accor’s new concept ALL Connect, created in collaboration with Microsoft Teams, will be an important tool for our guests, offering them the opportunity to organize safe, qualitative and seamless hybrid meetings as they continue to focus on health and safety and sustainability.”
