SOURCE: Marriott
Virtual Meetings by Marriott With AT&T and Cisco TelePresence Solution Service Is Expanding to Business Centres Worldwide
HONG KONG–(Marketwire – October 22, 2010) – The JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong celebrated the opening of its Virtual Meetings by Marriott studio with a four-city TelePresence event today along with AT&T and Cisco. The public TelePresence facility at the JW Marriott is the first to open at a hotel in Hong Kong and enables people to hold small, virtual meetings with customers and colleagues around the world. The JW Marriott San Francisco, that installed a studio earlier this year, connected live to the event together with Cisco Shanghai and AT&T Malaysia to congratulate the first Marriott Hotel in Asia to the network.
Virtual Meetings by Marriott is part of a roll-out of AT&T TelePresence Solution(SM) — using Cisco TelePresence™ studios enabled by the AT&T network and the AT&T Business Exchange(SM) — at Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott Hotels and Renaissance Hotels around the world. The Hong Kong luxury hotel is the sixth TelePresence studio to open in a Marriott branded hotel.
“Marriott continues to lead the lodging industry in delivering the latest meeting technology to its customers,” says Mark Conklin, General Manager of the 5 star Hong Kong hotel. “Virtual Meetings by Marriott will offer our clients a new way to hold more productive, collaborative meetings linking locations around the globe within seconds.”
“With the opening of Virtual Meetings by Marriott with AT&T and Cisco, Marriott customers are able to easily collaborate ‘in-person’ with partners around the world. We look forward to working with Marriott to further expand intercompany connectivity and accelerate global innovation and collaboration,” said Bernard Yee, vice president, AT&T Asia Pacific.
“This collaboration with industry leaders Marriott and AT&T in the deployment of Cisco TelePresence underscores our commitment to bringing leading technologies to Hong Kong’s lodging industry and to discerning business travellers. We are very pleased to be part of the team delivering innovative and differentiating premium services to the valuable guests of the hotel and making the vision of a global Cisco TelePresence network a reality,” said Barbara Chiu, general manager, Cisco Hong Kong and Macau.
The exclusive Cisco TelePresence Studio in JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, is located on the 30th floor of the hotel and boasts 65 square metres of meeting space. The Studio offers a connecting Executive Boardroom which not only offers breathtaking views of Victoria Har bour, but is fully equipped with an LCD television. The self-contained suite is available for hire by the hour at the rate of US$500 per hour.
Cisco TelePresence is a rapidly growing and increasingly popular technology that enables groups to meet and collaborate in multiple locations worldwide in real time. By combining high-definition video, real time audio and interior design for Virtual Meetings by Marriott studios, groups feel as if they are actually gathered together in the same room across a virtual table, even if they are thousands of miles apart.
To learn more about Virtual Meetings by Marriott, please visit www.Marriott.com/VirtualMeetings
To book a meeting room online, customers can go to www.VirtualMeetingsbyMarriott.com
Marriott is the first major global hotel company to offer Cisco TelePresence meeting options with AT&T to its customers in locations worldwide. Plans call for expansion to 25 hotels around the world in the first phase. Hotels to offer Virtual Meetings by Marriott currently include the JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square; New York Marriott East Side; Bethesda North Marriott Hotel; Renaissance Washington, DC; Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott; Grosvenor House, a JW Marriott Hotel, London; and JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai. Future studios are planned for Renaissance Sao Paulo; JW Marriott Hotel Chicago; JW Marriott Marquis/ Beaux Arts, Miami; and Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway with more to follow.
“Marriott’s corporate customers told the company they would hold more meetings at our hotels if an appealing virtual meeting option was available,” said Dave Townshend, senior vice president, market accounts for Marriott International. “Virtual Meetings by Marriott will give Marriott customers additional opportunities to hold more small meetings, typically of 20 or fewer people in multiple locations built around a whole new meeting experience.”
Virtual Meetings by Marriott studios will be able to connect to each other, as well as public Cisco TelePresence Suites and other companies on the AT&T Business Exchange(SM), AT&T’s unique intercompany, multipoint, meet-me bridging capability. There are more than 1,000 existing endpoints worldwide connected to the AT&T Business Exchange(SM).
Visit jwmarriotthongkong.com for hotel information.
MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. (
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