Change is in the air.

Many people start out a new year by setting personal and professional resolutions. Lots of organizations set annual goals or conduct employee evaluations this time of year. For some companies and clients, a new presidential administration may present challenges or opportunities, depending on their business model.

Many people start out a new year by setting personal and professional resolutions. Lots of organizations set annual goals or conduct employee evaluations this time of year. For some companies and clients, a new presidential administration may present challenges or opportunities, depending on their business model.

Whether a New Year's Resolution, a new presidential administration or just simple ambition is motivating your current or potential clients, the only certainty in our business is change.

So it would be wise for hotels to know what customers are looking for in 2017, which is shaping up to be a year unlike any other. Here are four trends in event hosting that hotels should watch in 2017.

Locally Sourced Events and Experiences Attract Attendees

It's hard to open a restaurant menu without seeing the mention of locally sourced ingredients. Some even feature lists of local farms that supply the food or set a boundary of only serving food that was grown within a one-hundred-mile radius of the restaurant.

This obsession with all things local has influenced meetings as well. In 2017, clients will request that their meetings have a local flare, so work with kitchen staff to guarantee your region's dishes appear on the menu, line up local bands for live entertainment or soundtrack and serve drinks from local vineyards and breweries. If there are tourist destinations every one associates with your region, be ready to provide transportation and dynamic tour guides to satisfy the "locavores."

Personalization: No Meeting Too Small

Many hotels are reporting niche events that cater to a particular subgroup of a typical client. Perhaps a customer who usually has a large banquet also wants to provide a wine tasting for major donors (of local wines, naturally). Or your regular Fortune 500 client is coming to you with a sub-event for new leads who have 50 employees or less, a get-together they used to hold at their own offices but want to move off site this year. From a business perspective, these micro-meetings are very wise, and they are an approach you should encourage with clients.

Why? Because offsite meetings and events are more productive. They allow you to identify very specific objectives, hand pick attendees and follow up after the meeting in a tailored, personalized way. Encouraging these offsite meetings for niche groups can turn a one-event client into a five-event client very easily.

More Focus on Experience than Speakers

Traditionally, hotel events focus on a keynote speaker or breakout sessions led by hand-picked facilitators. Hospitality teams could set up a speaker podium or breakout roundtables in their sleep, and leave the meeting to run on autopilot.

But experiences are gaining traction over one-directional speeches. Expect clients who would like their conferences to feature virtual reality, gamification or other experiential offerings instead. These activities engage attendees in new and personalized ways and will set the event apart from meetings of the past.

If these experiences depend on a connection to the internet, make sure your IT team knows of the client needs and can meet the demands of the day. There would be nothing worse for business than promising a state-of-the-art experience and failing to deliver because of technical problems.

Event Sponsors Will Take Center Stage

In the past, an event sponsor might expect to have an advertisement appear in the program or a banner placed behind the stage. Today, expect the sponsors of events at your hotel to require a higher level of attention and personalization.

In the age of social media, many of these new accommodations occur with Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook in mind. For example, the old banner behind the podium is replaced with a step and repeat backdrop or a photo booth backdrop with fun accessories. The photos taken in front of these will be shared all over social media, with the hashtag from the event. You can encourage attendees to tag the location of the hotel as well, boosting your own online profile.

Ask your clients for their Twitter handles as well as those of important attendees so that you can tag them when you tweet your welcome message or other updates throughout the day. When they retweet your message to their audience, you'll be reaching a whole new segment of potential clients.

The only thing we know for sure is that 2017 is going to be a year of change for everyone. Rising up to meet the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities will set your venue apart from the competition. So, when hosting events this year, be read to provide localized experiences and foods, personalize for niche audiences, focus on experiential technologies and cater to event sponsors in new ways. By providing this level of assistance to your clients, 2017 will be the most successful year yet.