Highlights from Prevue’s Incentive Evolution Summit

April 8, 2024

Prevue’s Incentive Evolution Summit April 3 to 5 took advantage of all that the new Evermore Resort and the destination of Orlando have to offer incentive groups.

There’s something about holding a meeting on a lagoon… Perhaps it’s the sunsets over the water, with its smooth, glass-like surface. Or maybe it’s the color—a deep, saturated blue, sometimes turquoise in bright light, other times more like sapphire as the sun sinks below the horizon. After all, this is not a lake, or the ocean, it’s a body of water that’s unlike anything in nature.

Prevue’s Summit kicked off with an opening evening at The Boathouse, Evermore Resort’s elegant waterfront event space, which even comes with its own private Chris-Craft docked below. A morning fitness walk took attendees on the paths that wind around the lagoon, anchored on one side by the Conrad Orlando and on the other by The Boathouse. All day, every day, attendees enjoyed the sights and sounds of the vacationers living it up on the lagoon, on stand-up paddleboards, in kayaks and, for the little ones, gliding down a huge baby blue slide, all giggles.

Though this unique resort, which just opened a couple of months ago on the site of the former Grand Cypress Resort, is sprawling in size, the space between the rooms and the meeting center is just a short distance. Accommodations are in elegant private houses and apartment flats, many set right on the lagoon, with private terraces that get a view of the nearby Disney fireworks show every evening as a bonus.

We were here to focus on incentive travel, and the resort set the stage for two days of excellent speakers, kicking off with a keynote on Transformational Travel: What the Incentive Industry Can Learn From This Emerging Movement by Tonya Fitzpatrick, Esq., CEO, World Footprints. The following day’s program was a series of research presentations followed by what turned into one big discussion among all the incentive planners and suppliers in the room. Andy Schwarz, VP Content and Communications, Incentive Research Foundation, presented on the IRF’s just-released Attendee Preferences Survey (we were the first to see the results); Dawn McClure, MBA, Enterprise Director, Sales Business Performance, Maritz, focused on Luxury Travel Trends and how they apply to incentive qualifiers; and Melissa Van Dyke, Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing and Innovation, Creative Group, finished off the day with research on how to engage younger generations of attendees.

The group also had a chance to take a peek at the Conrad Orlando, which shares the property with Evermore Resort, during a lovely luncheon. The final evening, the event wrapped up with a little free shopping time at Disney Springs and dinner at Art Smith’s Homecomin’, over an outstanding feast of Southern comfort food with some of the best fried chicken imaginable.

Many thanks to our sponsors, who had a chance to meet one-on-one with our 30 meeting planner attendees over the two-day event: The Biltmore, Crystal Cruises, Explora Journeys, Explore Asheville, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Guy Harvey Resort, Iberostar, Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, OPAL Collection, Royal Caribbean International, Sensira Resorts, Visit Orlando, Visit Park City Convention & Visitors Bureau and Westgate Resorts.

Last but not least, a huge thank you our host, Evermore Resort, and our partners: Box the City, which provided locally sourced gifting for the attendees; Conrad Orlando; Crow Practice, which showcased individual wellness sessions; ETHOS Event Collective; and R Stone Consulting, which offered attendees individual coaching sessions during the event.