The new Milwaukee Bucks Arena - Fiserv Forum is scheduled to open tomorrow, August 26th.  What everyone may not be aware of, is the state-of-the art technology that was put into the building.   According to Robert Cordova, Milwaukee Bucks chief technology officer, "The Milwaukee Bucks have implemented some of the most cutting-edge technologies available into Fiserv Forum, from retina scanning technology to access the team's locker room to sensors that can pinpoint he location of people in the building if they're using the Buck's smartphone app, to allowing servers to deliver beer on demand."  
Visitors will find 840 digital screens in the arena, the screens in the luxury suites can be controlled by using a mobile deice.  You can also upgrade your seats in real time based on where you're sitting in the arena.  The Bucks have installed beacons throughout the building to locate people using the app.  You can read the entire article here:  
For everyone that has obtained free tickets to attend the open house on Sunday, August 26th, here is more information about the day's event

Destination Management Connection was recently featured in an article in the Summer 2018 issue of Wisconsin Meetings.  The article was:  Winning in a Sellers Market, seven tips to save you money on your next meeting.   Meeting Professionals are always challenged to get the most bang for their companies buck, especially when it comes to planning meetings.   This is especially hard when it's a sellers market.   One of the tips I suggested is to come in with strong, solid history and if you know you will be booking more than one meeting with a hotel,  use that to leverage deeper discounts on everything from the room rate, AV and Food & Beverage, etc.   
You can find the article which begins on page 30-33  here.   

Our wonderful city of Madison, Wisconsin was named in the Top 10 list of Best Small Cities in 2018 by Resonance.   You can view a copy of the entire report here.  
America’s Top 10 Small Cities, according to Resonance:
1 Honolulu 
2 Omaha
3 Albuquerque
4 Charleston
5 El Paso 
6 Reno
7 Tulsa
8 Madison
9 Myrtle Beach 
10 Asheville

A report from the Business Journal today states that JR Hospitality bought a development site from Johnson Controls, Inc with the intent to have 300 rooms in two separate buildings at this location.  They acquired the eastern half of the block southwest of North Jefferson and East Michigan streets in downtown Milwaukee.   The company would build the hotels in a joint venture with Hawkeye Hotels, Inc. of Burlington, Iowa according to Jay Bhatka, managing partner of JR Hospitality in Minneapolis.  The development would have a 213 room building with HIlton's Tru and Home2Suites brands and a neighboring Holiday Inn Express building with 115 rooms, The goal is to start constructions on the new buildings before the start of 2019.  

I attended a presentation by Alex Lasry, Senior VP of the Milwaukee Bucks and Chair of the Milwaukee 2020 DNC Convention Bid Committee at the MMAC headquarters today.   Milwaukee is one of three cities looking to host this prestigious convention, the other two cities still in the running  are:  Miami and Houston.  Fundraising is a large part of hosting the convention, it will take between $50-$70 million dollars once selected.   
The Convention would bring an economic impact of $200 million dollars directly to the city with 50,000 people spending 4-6 days in Milwaukee staying in 15,000 hotel rooms from July 13-16, 2020.  The media exposure for the city will also be phenomenal.  
 Alex is preparing for a site visit by the DNC selection committee this month and then the committee will narrow it down to two finalists in October/November time frame.  Another site visit would follow and then a final decision would be made in January/February 2019.   
Milwaukee has the ability and infrastructure to host a convention of this size and we certainly know how to put on a (big) party!  Keep talking about Milwaukee, what a wonderful city we have and that we're ready to show it off to the rest of the world!   
#DemocraticNationalConvention #MilwaukeeBucks  #VisitMilwaukee