© søster
Musings from Miami
Industry Insights
L.E Miami is an invitation-only trade show for the high-end contemporary travel market. The main premise is connection; bringing together a curated list of buyers, suppliers and media across the global travel industry on Miami’s South Beach. 1:1 meetings, talks sharing exclusive industry insights, immersive networking experiences and some fun extra-curriculars such as beach yoga take place across four very busy days.
This year, L.E Miami was back after a 3-year pandemic hiatus, with a show that was better than ever – buzzing with creativity, inspiration, and a collective desire to innovate, evolve and adapt to the new world order. Our Strategic Account Director, Jemma, flew out to represent søster and after a week of sun and sensory overload, a few things of note stood out to her. Read on for Jemma’s 6 key takeaways…
1. Nothing beats face-to-face interaction – and what’s not to like about doing business on the sunny shores of South beach?! Getting back to business in human form is more important than ever (real body language and no zoom freeze faces!) and having real-time conversations has exponential value in forging new relationships.
2. Hospitality is an experience-driven economy – and the show did an outstanding job of surprising and delighting the delegates with micro-moments peppered throughout the week. From Joali’s beach swings to acrobatic dancers serving champagne, it was a welcome reminder that occupying space in this industry affords us magic at our fingertips to create real ‘wow’ moments in travel.
3. The elevator pitch is real – with 46 one-to-one meetings, it’s speed dating at its finest. With 20 minutes allocated for each meeting, it’s important to identify the facts early on, listen in equal amounts to speaking, and make the most of those milliseconds to qualify the opportunity ahead.
4. The Eco-economy is a mainstay in the future of our industry – you don’t need to be cool to be kind to the environment, and no-one is too cool to be sustainable. Make better choices – do better business. Jemma was hugely inspired by an Open House discussion led by Juliet Kinsman, Conde Nast Traveller’s first Sustainability Editor and Founder of Bouteco, which considered how we can all be doing better, and just starting is the first step.
5. Business is a competition of generosity – as travel races back to ‘normal’ post-pandemic, there’s a collective deep-rooted urge to build back better. Be kind, be generous, be creative.
6. Embrace the unexpected – something we all had in common, whether buyers, suppliers, media or hosts, was that we’d all experienced some form of instability and change over the past 2 years. With this in mind, there’s no shying away from a need to continue adapting and evolving. After all, we are an industry that thrives on innovation, so let’s keep pushing forwards.