Sunday, 30 April

All Day

Arrivals

 

6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Opening Reception

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Monday, 1 May

9 - 10:45 a.m.

Morning Welcome

Welcome to the Neighborhood: Living in the Value Economy

As our audiences continue to grow globally, culturally, and generationally, event strategies must evolve to meet the next phase of attendee needs; incorporating values into elements of event environments. In this session, we will analyse how human values drive decisions, including engaging with our events and brands, and how to use them to drive the desired behavior to meet business goals and objectives. 

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Speaker:

• David Allison, Founder, The Valuegraphics Research Company

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Keynote

A Mindful Future of Work: Creating a Culture of Appreciation

Pandit Dasa spent 15 years living as a monk in New York City. Now he shares the “why” of deciding to live as a monk and the “why” of leaving the monastery, with a goal of creating a more mindful workplace culture. By appreciating and celebrating the success and contributions of co-workers, we build a culture that fosters trust, enhances teamwork and greatly impacts individual performance. 

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In this keynote, Pandit will share practical tools and takeaways to create a mindful future of work, encourage and support mental, emotional and physical well-being in the workplace, increase retention and engagement, and create a culture of appreciation and mindful communication.

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Speaker: Pandit Dasa, Founder, Work Mindful Corp.

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10:45 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.

Networking Break

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11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Designing Inclusive Environments

​DEI is an issue that continuously requires examination, influence, and active participation. While efforts are active in principle, they are lacking in practice. Join members of the EIC Equity Task Force as they discuss findings and observations of the 2022 Equity benchmarking study, as well as what we know, what we learned and what's next for DEI. 

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Speakers:

• Jason Dunn, Executive Director, National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals

• Danny Guerrero, CEO & Founder, The Culturist Group

• Lakshmee Lachhman-Persad, Founder, Accessible Travel NYC 

• Naomi Clare, CEO & Founder, Storycraft Lab

• Moderator: Melissa Cherry, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Miles Partnership

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11:15 a.m - 12:15 p.m.

What’s New? What’s Next? Understanding Data-Driven Insights That Influence the Industry

As events and exhibitions continue to collect, analyse and crunch data, it's easy to be overwhelmed with the amount of data and no clear path forward. Join strategy and data leader, Ken Holsinger, for this information-rich session that will provide critical data compiled from surveys and interviews with organisers, attendees, and exhibitors to help you navigate budgeting, planning, and production trends impacting events and exhibitions.  

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Speaker:

• Ken Holsinger, Vice President, Strategy, Freeman Company

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12:30 - 1:30 p.m.

Lunch

 

1:45 - 2:45 p.m.

Sustainable Event Practices: Turning Our Vision into Action

Reusable water bottles, little to no plastic utensils, digital downloads and QR codes…these are examples of how sustainability has played a role in events. During this session, we will hear from our panel of experts across various organisations and venues about the sustainable event practices they have implemented in an effort to make an impact on their carbon footprint and reduce emissions. In addition, they’ll help us envision what future planning methods of sustainability could look like with all the organisations collaborating.

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Speakers: 

• Meghan Green, Global Events, SAP

• Nancy Prowda, Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility B2B, Hilton

• Courtney Swander, General Manager, Global Sales Consulting, Delta Airlines

• Stephanie Jones, CAE, CMP-Fellow, Managing Director, Professional Development and Event Strategy, Water Environment Federation

• Mariela Mcllwraith, President, Meeting Change

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1:45 - 2:45 p.m.

Fully Immersing Your Audience with Intelligent Experience Design

In an increasingly distracted society, events, hospitality and tourism professionals are creating immersive experiences to gain attendance, inspire, and engage audiences. Research shows that connecting with human emotions in memorable ways is a powerful tool to educate and create positive behavior change for event owners and participants. Applying a human-centric approach when designing immersive experiences can be challenging. No two humans interact with or experience the world in the same way. This creates complexity for event planners. A basic knowledge of neurological triggers and an engaged design team can simplify the creative process, while at the same time, help event planners and event owners innovate and experiment with immersive experiences safely and with more confidence.

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In this session we will utilise real-world case studies to explore the science, design process and implementation of immersive experience design and dissect the forms and depths of engagement. We will learn to optimise the creative process from an event strategy perspective and what key performance indicators event teams should consider for their immersive activations.

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Speaker:

• Anthony Vade, Event Experience Strategy Director, Encore Global

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3 - 4:15 p.m.

Innovation Case Study Stage

We all crave a great story and more importantly, one that can be easily replicated and applied to our unique situations.  In these case studies, we’ll hear from strategic partners and sponsors who utlised research, attendee feedback (statistics and anecdotes), and internal teams to create and continue success for their events and overall businesses.

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3:30 - 4 p.m.

Networking Break

 

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4:15 - 5:30 p.m.

Solution Serving Roundtable Sessions

Challenges and opportunities extend beyond our current roles while affecting both our professional and personal lives. In these sessions, we will discuss a variety of topics that are critical to your overall health and well-being, career advancement, specifically for CMPs; and industry challenges, such as continuing budget restraints, sustainability in event design, staff shortages and retaining top talent.

 

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6 - 7:30 p.m.

Networking Reception

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Tuesday, 2 May

9 - 10 a.m.

Negotiating Contracts Begins with a Partnership

Coming to the table with the right mindset and understanding of what a contract negotiation starts with is simple; it’s a partnership. In this session, we will examine how forming and cultivating partnerships at both the institutional level and personal level can be central to a mutually beneficial negotiation. 

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Speaker:

• Stephanie Glanzer, SVP & Chief Sales Officer, MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL

• Joyce Paschall, CAE, CMP-HC, CMM, Associate Executive Director, Education and Engagement, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine

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10:15  - 11:15 a.m.

Forming a More Perfect Union: Event Professionals and Project Management

How is it you’ve been planning events for years but never refer to yourself as a project manager? What are you doing right and how can you fine tune this discipline to highlight it in your career? This session will focus on traditional project management as an identification and explanation for the building blocks of an event from start to finish, showcasing the reality of a highly transferable skill in the business marketplace.

 

We will examine the life cycle of an event within the context of standard project management. Attendees will participate in exercises showcasing these stages and the event components completed in each. Lastly, we will discuss custom skills that are acquired and activated with many roles now requiring digital event production and how those skills should be included in your project management arsenal. 

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Speaker:

• Andrea Peterson, MTA, CMP Fellow, Events & Meetings Strategist, ASAP Meetings & Events

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10:15  - 11:15 a.m.

Every Little Thing We Do is Magic: Scenario Planning for EVERYTHING

Recently, a well-known trade show canceled their event because of decreased exhibitor need and interest for participation, leaving the event host to deal with the ramifications of this unforeseen circumstance.  As planners, we anticipate that with progress and setbacks come new risks to assess and prevent. Join us for this in-depth session on reconsidering current scenario planning and how to alter your plan efficiently and productively, per event.

 

Speaker:

• Donna Johnson, Vice President, Operations, MCI USA

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11:15 - 11:30 a.m.

Networking Break

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11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Looking for Help in All the Right Places; How Digital Strategy Supports Events and Drives Growth 

The role of the digital strategy has become more prominent as a factor in achieving goals and enhancing opportunities for the overall event experience. In this session, we’ll focus on how a digital event strategy can be a stimulant to growing content, audience, and revenue. We’ll be led by two experts that will provide examples of technology platforms, while explaining how specific tools and features are considered, implemented and combined with your overall event strategies.

 

Speaker:​

• Dahlia El-Gazzar, Idea Igniteur + Tech Evangelist, Dahlia+ Agency

• Miguel Neves, Editor-in-Chief, Skift 

 

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11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

The Four Questions You Need to Ask (and answer!) to Improve the Impact of Your Audience Acquisition and Retention Campaigns

Amid the uncertainty, changes in registration trends, evolution of marketing platforms and better ways to attract and retain audiences have emerged. - In addition, attendees have different priorities, different needs, expectations and often, different budgets. So, what do you need to do to make your event a “must-attend” and keep attendees coming back for more?  

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Using recent case studies and success stories, this session will address four questions every planner must ask before activating their next campaign. Only after you know the answers are you able to develop an effective marketing and messaging strategy to drive awareness, conversion and deliver the experience participants want and need.

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Speakers:

• Paige Cardwell, President, CSG Creative

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11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

The Breaking Point: An Honest Conversation about Wellbeing in the Events Industry

The concept of wellbeing seems easier for some organisations than others to apply to teams, company culture and even, events.  In this session, we will facilitate a transparent conversation about the state of wellbeing and engagement, the responsibilities of ensuring wellbeing of employees and extending these findings to event design for participants.

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Speakers:

• Tahira Endean, Head of Programme, IMEX

• Danielle Posa, Founder, Workplace Wellbeing Advisors

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12:30 - 1:30 p.m.

Lunch 

 

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1:45 - 2:45 p.m.

Here Comes the Sun: Forecasting the Future of the Events Economy

The COVID-19 Pandemic forced all of us to experience many twists, turns, and forks in the road.  As we start to emerge into a clear blue sky, there has never been a greater need to look past the clouds.

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“Affective Forecasting”, the psychological study of how one feels into the future, is front and center after 2020.  We now face a world, country, economy, and industry navigating a new route as we begin to restart our global commerce engine and hospitality industry with geo-political and economic challenges.

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Mike will help us identify the questions we should be asking as the next 18 months will set the course on where we land with permanent behavioral changes to the meetings & events Industry. Referencing the Events Industry Council 2022 ESS study, a panel will join Mike to discuss the catalytic impact of events, what it means for both organisations and audiences and how events really do transform communities.

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Speakers:. 

• Michael Dominguez, President & CEO, Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI)

• Aran Ryan, Director of Industry Studies, Tourism Economics

• Amy Calvert, CEO, Events Industry Council (EIC)

 

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2:45 - 3:15 p.m.

Keynote

How to Build a Culture Rooted in Purpose

Today, 87% of employees are disengaged in their work resulting in wasted talent and resources. What  if we could turn that around, igniting the passion in our teams, and unleashing their true potential? In this energising session, Bobby Jones shows us how to activate purpose in our teams so organisations can experience a quantum leap in engagement, motivation, and productivity.

 

Speaker: Bobby Jones, Founding Partner, Conspiracy of Love

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Afternoon Departures

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All times and events subject to change. 

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Earn up to 10 CEs at CMP Advance!

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