Service will expand to business centers worldwide, offering customers more opportunities to hold dynamic and productive meetings.

It is a big day for us at Marriott International as we unveiled our first GoThere Virtual Meetings studios at the New York Marriott East Side Hotel and Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center near Washington, DC.  GoThere Virtual Meetings are part of a roll-out of AT&T Telepresence Solution, using Cisco TelePresence?studios enabled by AT&T network and the AT&T Business Exchange at Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott Hotels and Renaissance Hotels around the world.

For those not familiar with telepresence, it 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 GoThere Virtual Meetings 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.

Marriott is the first major global hotel company to offer Cisco TelePresence meeting options with the AT&T network to its customers in locations worldwide.  We have plans to expand to 25 hotels around the world in the first phase. Next hotels to offer GoThere Virtual Meetings will be Grosvenor House, a JW Marriott Hotel; JW Marriott Hong Kong; Renaissance Sao Paulo; JW Marriott San Francisco,: JW Marriott Marquis Miami; Renaissance Washington, DC; Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway; and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott with more to follow.

Here's what David Marriott, chief operations officer, Americas Eastern Region, Marriott International, had to say, "Marriott continues to lead the lodging industry in delivering the latest meeting technology to its customers.  GoThere Virtual Meetings with AT&T and Cisco TelePresence will offer our customers a new way to hold more productive, collaborative meetings linking locations around the world, and open up new revenue opportunities for our company and our hotels. We are proud to work with AT&T and Cisco to enhance innovative communications technology at our hotels and offer it to our customers.?

Marriott's corporate customers told the company they would hold more meetings at our hotels if an appealing virtual meeting option was available. GoThere Virtual Meetings 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.  

GoThere Virtual Meetings will create new revenue streams for Marriott hotels, and we expect that most of this new business will be incremental. Customers will now have real time, high-definition meeting alternatives to less productive global telephone or video conference calls.

GoThere Virtual Meetings will expand the current private Cisco TelePresence network by making the technology more widely available worldwide. Customers will also be able to connect to other Cisco TelePresence rooms on the AT&T Business Exchange, AT&T's unique intercompany, multipoint, meet-me bridging capability.  There are nearly 700 existing private Cisco TelePresence locations throughout the world connected to the AT&T Business Exchange.