Meeting and event professionals around the world are eager to support the safe reopening of hotels, convention centers and other large-scale venues. Join us as we broadcast live from the Wynn Las Vegas, home of the 2020 Connect Marketplace for the first half of this webinar. Then listen to our interactive panel of meeting planners, all of whom have successfully conducted meetings within the last several weeks. They will discuss how they prepared for a safe meeting, how they managed attendee psychology, and what you can do to prepare for safe meetings and events in all venues.
Hotel in Las Vegas
Contact information
Contact Patrick Higgins for questions about this session: phiggins@connectmeetings.com
Extending your event to the online world can often seem like a daunting task. Despite concerns around technology platforms and on-site participation, hybrid events provide unique opportunities to extend your event reach across multiple geographies and time zones. By understanding the 10 key steps, you can set a good foundation for a successful hybrid event that extends your event’s audience reach.
Learning Objectives
Understanding the process for building your own hybrid event plan.
How to set a good foundation for a hybrid event that both complements and extends your live event.
How to set a framework for measuring success.
Mahoganey Jones is versatile, results-oriented certified meeting professional and digital event strategist with proven skills and track record in all aspects of meeting management. Specializing in associations and medical meetings, she produces exceptionally planned and revenue generating educational events.
As an entrepreneur herself with hundreds of events under her belt, Mahoganey is passionate about bringing event ideas to life and building a stage for others to showcase their brands and expertise. By taking care of the details and breathing personality and life into each event, Mahoganey is able to produce an experience that is a direct reflection of her clients.
Her event-planning career began with hospital fundraisers, university brand awareness campaigns and even weddings. She quickly learned that all events begin with a purpose and need more than a pretty logo to be successful. Events are opportunities to generate positive buzz about your brand and should be produced with that goal in mind. Mahoganey’s motto is do what you love and to love what you do. This motto can be seen in the attention to detail and drive she has to ensuring every event is a success.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
In today's connected world, it's hard to imagine a time when access to the internet wasn't within the palm of everyone’s hand. From registration through on-site interactivity, we are all connected to the cloud. From registration through on-site interactivity, we are all connected to the cloud. Is the hotel Wi‐Fi network in your room and meeting space secure? Are your registration and computer lab devices protected? Creating a cyber‐safe environment is crucial, not only because of attendees' expectations but also because every phone, tablet and laptop is an entry point for potential harm to planners, delegates and their events.
Learning Objectives
Identify the targets of attackers.
Understand the types of attacks that we currently face individually and at business events.
Explore approaches to reduce cyber risk.
With decades of experience as a provider of entertainment and event management services, Michael shares a wealth of knowledge gained through his career in the business events industry. His company, EventGenuity, LLC, produces business events throughout North America.
Michael is a frequent presenter at industry conferences and learning institutions, speaking on what’s now and what’s next in meetings and events. He has published articles in Meetings and Conventions, Convene, Meeting Mentor magazine, Connect magazine, Plan-It Tennessee, The Meeting Professional, Meetings Focus and Successful Meetings magazines and as a guest columnist for The Tennessean and Nashville Business Journal. Michael was recently awarded the MPI RISE Award for Meetings Industry Leadership and was recognized for Lifetime Achievement by MPI Tennessee. venues worldwide, negotiate rates and review contracts at no cost to her client.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
Are you the missing link to a successful meeting and event risk management plan? This program explores the role of meeting/event planners and venue operators in the risk management identification, response and recovery process. A thorough review of a complex meeting/event industry case study will act as a guide.
Learning Objectives
Recognition of role in the risk management process.
General understanding of hazard indicators.
Response process for major and catastrophic failures.
Brian D. Avery is a life safety speaker, professor, expert witness and author who specializes in protecting the people that comprise the events, tourism and attractions industries. Brian’s career spans 25 plus years and his background is comprised of three areas of expertise: risk and safety management, event design and execution and education.
Brian is an advocate for safety and communicating the importance of improving personal safety and organizational awareness. Direct from the pages of Brian’s reports, his experience, and research, Brian shares the lessons learned from tragic, yet avoidable incidents and hazards that he has investigated worldwide… all in an effort of prevention and progress.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
Discover strategic body language so you can uncover secrets hidden in plain view and hear “yes!” more easily and more often during interviews, networking events, sales meetings and negotiations. In this fast-paced, interactive program, Traci teaches lie, fraud and identity theft detection she’s used to get to the truth in billion-dollar business deals, crimes and politics. You will laugh, learn and win in this eye-opening game show-style keynote.
Learning Objectives
How to read body language.
How to get people to like you using only body language.
What message is hidden in a handshake?
How to uncover deep truths.
How to detect lies.
What do Lance Armstrong, Chris Christie and Vladimir Putin have in common? Traci Brown’s revealed their secrets to the world. She’s told the world what they’re not saying. NBC, CBS and Fox have asked this body language expert to reveal secrets hidden in plain sight. Traci is not only a master lie detector, but she’s a persuasion expert. Her persuasion system landed her a lucrative product deal with Kevin Harrington, a Shark from ABC’s hit TV show Shark Tank, and took her on a wild ride to the big-time consumer markets of TV shopping channels, infomercials and beyond.
She is the past president of the National Speaker’s Association Colorado chapter and the author of four books including her latest, “How to Detect Lies, Fraud and Identity Theft.” She is a three-time U.S. Collegiate Cycling Champion and former member of Team USA. She holds a business degree from the University of Colorado and is a certified master practitioner of neuro linguistics, hypnosis and Hawaiian Huna.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
Having great audiovisual is expected at events, but the prices can sometimes be unexpected. As more planners look for high-quality AV for their meetings, negotiating the right price is sometimes the deciding factor for them when it comes to booking a hotel or convention center. This webinar will show planners how to negotiate AV prices and prepare them with the best tips for successful and cost-effective events
Learning Objectives
Learn the AV lingo to get the right answers.
Understand pricing and quotes.
Learn the power to make the right decisions and be in more control.
As founder of Endless Events, Will Curran has been named one of the 40 under 40 event industry leaders, 35 entrepreneurs under the age of 35 and Inc Magazine’s Coolest College Start-Up all before graduating college. Will has been producing events since high school when he started his first company and has now worked in production of large event clients, such as Emerald City Comicon, Anheuser-Busch, Color Run, Morton Salt and Uber. His team’s mission is to simplify the event planning process by creating the equation for an event’s perfect solution. They also relentlessly seek to be the name in customer service in the events industry. From event logistics to business development to technical production, Curran has a diverse background in growing events and companies to the next level.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
Agile organizations and individuals who can adapt easily to a changing environment learn and perform better. Yet, only about 20 percent of organizations have a learning strategy— and less than 5 percent of those keep it up to date. This webinar makes the business case for developing your learning function for a competitive advantage and shows you how to implement it.
Learning Objectives
Explain the business case for learning as a competitive advantage.
Outline the critical steps in developing a comprehensive learning strategy.
Identify sustainable best practices.
John Nawn is the founder/CEO of The Perfect Meeting, which designs formal and informal learning and content strategies that help organizations grow revenues and increase market share. John has served as chief learning officer for several multinational corporations and associations across different industries. Unlike most learning professionals, John specializes in monetizing learning. His learning programs have generated over $200 million in revenues and cost savings.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
How are you keeping up with the technological advancements that impact the meetings industry? Do you find that you’re barely able to keep pace with the latest developments? This webinar reviews what’s new and way cool in technology in this fun, fast-paced look at what’s here for us to use now, and what’s coming in the near future, including the latest information about virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and other important tech trends.
Learning Objectives
Identify the five pillars of business disruption.
Understand how to evaluate which technologies you should be using today.
Recognize how new technologies such as mixed reality and artificial intelligence reality can impact the hospitality industry.
James Spellos is the president of Meeting U., a company specializing in helping people become more productive and comfortable with technology. Jim is certified as a Microsoft Office Specialist. He delivers over 150 seminars annually on how to use technology more efficiently. Jim is an adjunct faculty member at New York University, teaching in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies since 1990. He has been honored with both its Award for Teaching Excellence and its Outstanding Service Award. Jim was also named one of the hospitality industry’s trendsetters in 2015 for his technology education.
In 2014, Jim joined the Board of Directors for Rock and Wrap It Up, an anti-poverty, anti-hunger think tank, which supports over 43,000 agencies in North America. Jim co-created for them their Whole Earth Calculator app, which helps organizations identify the quantity of food donated and carbon footprint reduced by an organization helping to recover excess food from events.
Jim is also an accomplished musician and songwriter, playing guitar, keyboard and singing for the New York City rock band Contraband. They released their first CD, “Welcome to the Neighborhood” in late 2008 and is perpetually in the recording studio working on their next project.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
Difficult people are everywhere. Don’t believe it? Just look in the mirror. We all come from different backgrounds and possess different values, perspectives and opinions. This webinar explores how we can gain a mutually shared model with others. We will learn about communication styles and how best to listen and speak to those who appear to be critical and confrontational.
Learning Objectives
Learn to look at teams/difficult people/situations through a new lens.
Develop an awareness and sensitivity to varying opinions.
Gain perspectives, techniques and tools for effective communication.
*This webinar was rescheduled from February 2018.
Darrell Hammond completed a degree in business management after earning an athletic scholarship. After college, he continued playing basketball and traveled around the world, playing exhibition basketball, keynote speaking and providing custom training. A silver medalist for Team USA, he has experience on a variety of high-performing teams, on and off of the court.
Contact information
Please contact Camille Moore for questions about this session.
