Technological advances are often crucial for event planners to have a marketing edge. Here are new and recently renovated Boston venues that have stayed on top of upgrades and improved offerings for tech-savvy guests. The hotels, conference centers, restaurants, private rooms, and other spaces can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
Located on the main floor of the Johnson Building that completed renovations in July, the 15,000-square-foot Boylston Hall at the Boston Public Library offers an open, modern event space inside the first public library in the United States. With unique technical components such as the library’s Interactive Welcome Center and Digital Stacks, guests can browse more than 100,000 items from a collection that has been digitized, while feasting on the Catered Affair's culinary creations. The 4,500-square-foot Newsfeed Cafe, which opened in September, prominently stands in the renovated Johnson Building. Overlooking the Boston Marathon finish line, the venue also serves as a satellite studio for Boston TV station WGBH, which has news tickers that keep guests updated. The cafe fits as many as 1,000 guests for receptions or 500 seated.
The upscale Boston Harbor Hotel completed its renovations in the summer of 2016, and rolled out an entirely new suite of technology components. Rooms are now equipped with in-room tablets, which allow guests to check out, control lights, TV, and temperature, as well as offer access to hotel and transportation information, digital wake-up calls, a variety of newspapers, and streaming international radio stations. The hotel's own mobile app is also available on each guest's mobile device, while guests can use new Smart TVs to stream from their own Hulu, Pandora, Crackle, and YouTube accounts. The hotel has 20,000 feet of meeting/event space. The Atlantic Room, the largest space at 5,531 square feet, has standing capacity for 500, theater-style seating for 400, banquet-style seating for 350, crescent-style seating for 200, classroom-style seating for 150, or conference and U-style seating for 50.
The crown jewel of the W Boston's recent renovations is the Extreme Wow Suite: a 1600-square-foot space ideal for entertaining. Unveiled in August, the room has the Extreme Wow Control Panel, which operates the lighting, automatic drapes, sound system, streaming radio, and iPod hookup. The room also has a 65-inch HDTV with premium sports packages, as well as a Bose SoundLink mini speaker, surround sound, and a One-Touch Electronic Control System. The EWow suite can fit 50 guests reception-style or six people for a seated meal. The hotel has eight additional meeting spaces that total 5,000 square feet. Each space comes with its own 42-inch TV and sound tech.
Located in Watertown, where Boston meets Cambridge, the Residence Inn by Marriott Boston Watertown opened in August. The hotel's East End meeting room measures 845 square feet and can accommodate as many as 60 people reception-style, 32 classroom-style, or 20 conference-style. Guests can check in before their stay with the hotel's mobile app, receive instant alerts when their room is ready, and enjoy express check-out.
Island Creek Oyster Bar Burlington, which plans to open in November, offers three distinct private dining spaces for a variety of different events. The Kelpa room, an intimate 315-square-foot space with its own boardroom table, can accommodate 16 seated guests or 25 reception-style. The Powder Point is a 420-square-foot larger private dining room that can seat as many as 30 guests or hold 50 reception-style. Finally, the Duxbury room is a spacious room where as many as 46 guests can enjoy a seated dinner, or 70 for a standing reception. The entire 2,962-square-foot dining room, bar, and lounge area are available for full buyouts for as many as 265 standing guests. Island Creek Oyster Bar Burlington also has a raw-bar boat and a professional oyster shucker. The venue’s technological features include a video-and-teleconferencing system, hardwired speakers, multiple microphones, and drop-down monitors. Motorized flat-screen TVs and tabletop HDMI video connections are available, as is streaming for services such as Netflix, iTunes, Airplay, Pandora, and Spotify. With one-touch control and automation, the venue is easy to set up and operate for any event. The seafood restaurant's menu includes lobster rolls and craft cocktails.
It's all about tacos, a raw bar, and tequila at this funky South Boston joint, which has been offering an on-demand ordering Taco Box since October. The menu items at Loco Taco & Oysteria Bar are available through the easily accessible online ordering platform, where users can customize their box based on the number of people, taco quantity per person, as well as the selection of tacos, salads, and complements. The team at Loco can accommodate dietary restrictions and allergies (the entire Taco Box menu is gluten-free), and can provide disposable chafing kits. For private events, Loco seats 91 guests in the main dining room. The bar area can fit as many as 30 seated guests or 56 for receptions.
AC Hotel Boston Cambridge, which opened in October, has seven different event spaces totaling more than 4,500 square feet. The largest space, the Alewife A & B room, measures 1,886 square feet, and can fit as many as 250 guests reception-style, 160 banquet-style, or 48 guests in a rectangular conference formation. A 1,036-square-foot outdoor terrace space holds as many as 70 guests for receptions. Meeting facilities have state-of-the-art, high-tech audiovisual equipment, including LCD panels and projectors and data panels in conference tables where guests can plug their computers directly into to projector on the TV. Groups also have access to a "call pod" that allows them to directly contact hotel staff, who receive the message via a smartwatch. As a Marriott brand hotel, the property has an app that allows guests to make special requests once they check in, as well as a chat feature so guests can interact directly with the hotel staff.
The 130-room Homewood Suites by Hilton Boston/Brookline, which opened in August in Brookline, offers a combination of one- and two-bedroom accommodations with fully equipped kitchens and separate living and sleeping areas. The 352-square-foot Olmsted Suite is the hotel's meeting space, which accommodates 30 guests for a theater-style event, 24 guests for a reception, or 12 guests for a classroom-style event. With the free Hilton HHonors mobile app, members can check in and choose their room, as well as access their room, fitness center, pool, and other hotel areas using the app's Digital Key feature.
Emblazoned with a Mexican-inspired mural on its grandiose exterior, Scorpion Bar Patriot Place in Foxborough is a 7,700-square-foot restaurant serving creative Mexican dishes and more than 125 premium tequilas in a lively environment. The venue, which opened in October, can hold 300 seated guests or 400 reception-style. The restaurant also has a 600-square-foot private dining room, which seats 36. There are outdoor patios in the front and back; each patio can fit as many as 65 guests. An expansive bar area is outfitted with a state-of-the-art Void Sound System, 11 HDTVs, and a custom 8- by 14-foot LED wall.
In August, Aloft Boston Seaport became one of two hotels in the United States to offer voice-activated hotel rooms. Known as "Project: Jetson," the experiment allows guests to interact just by saying "Hey, Siri." Each room is equipped with an iPad running a custom Aloft app that can control temperature, adjust lighting, set the music, and explore local attractions. It also allows guests to browse the Internet and check the weather. The new rooms range from 240 to 350 square feet, and are ideal for small meetings of two to four people. The hotel also has a total of 10,000 square feet of meeting space spread throughout seven different meeting spaces, each equipped with audiovisual hookups and technicians. The biggest is the Mann Ballroom, a 4,900-square-foot space that can accommodate as many as 500 guests for receptions or 250 for classroom-style seating.
