Medical meeting professionals are faced with the most complex and confounding changes in industry practices. Plus, global compliance regulations and codes are changing faster than we can track. This session will review emerging trends and changes that may have operational implications to managing medical meetings.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how constant changes in healthcare compliance can affect internal processes.
• Share peer perspectives on change.
• Avoid pitfalls of poor resources and create accurate sources for current information.

This session will focus on how buyers and sellers can improve communications in order to develop a better buyer process for meetings and events. The proliferation of technology tools to help support the sourcing process have been both positive and negative. The electronic Requests for Proposal (eRFP) provides quick access to numerous options and the ability to easily compare data side by side. As an unintended consequence, hotelier in-boxes can end up being flooded with RFPs that they have little chance of winning, and planners are not getting the responses they had anticipated. The current record breaking demand for meeting space has exacerbated the situation because buyers are sending out even more RFPs in anticipation of lack of availability. Our conversation will examine how planners can effectively communicate their needs and how suppliers can respond with a compelling response in the digital age.

Learning Objectives:

• Buyers - learn the benefits of communicating the "Why" behind your requests.
• Sellers - learn how to differentiate your response from others.
• Everyone - learn communication tips that can shift a piece of potential business from a "decline" to a signed contract.

Every organization is trying to implement innovation, often through complex technology or highly paid experts. But, the answer is not outsourcing! Innovation is right here within your organization and this session will teach you how to become a Visual and Virtual Champion. Learn how visual thinking can power innovation.

Objectives:

• Implement innovation behaviors and draw event plans and business maps.
• Capture ideas visually and practice expansive thinking.
• Develop engaging proposals and share your strategic and tactical plans with your team.

This workshop will focus upon the impact of the new European transparency reporting regulations. Similar to Open Payments, the challenge in Europe is compliance with local country requirements and cross border implementation. Learn from real case study examples and discuss the different trends that are emerging.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the landscape of EFPIA and Eucomed transparency reporting criteria in order to apply this to your meetings.
• Learn how the regulations are not only impacting corporate organizations, agencies, and medical societies but also the HCPs themselves.
• Explore the impact that the new transparency reporting criteria will have beyond the first reporting deadline in Jan 2016.

LinkedIn is one of the greatest tools and social platforms for professional development and business growth. Yet most people are not using it to its full potential. This workshop covers the basics to get you started using LinkedIn and then dives deep into specific features.

Learning Objectives:

• Build a profile that will engage and interest the people you want to attract
• Use the best ways to meet influential people, and your next client
• Add to your credibility through the strategic use of LinkedIn

This session was not approved for CMP-IS clock hours, but may count towards other industry designations such as the CAE.

Meetings and events have lots of moving parts that are often bloated with redundancy and missed communications resulting in a tremendous waste of time. This session walks through the typical lifecycle of an event and looks at simple steps that can be applied to create a LEAN event planning process.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine the LEAN philosophy.
• Identify the waste in processes used to manage meetings and events in your organization.
• Apply LEAN to improve your processes and efficiencies for your meetings and events.

MPI has recently launched the MPI MD, a special interest community for the healthcare and life sciences community. In this session, you'll learn what this special community can do for you and see what educational opportunities exist for healthcare meeting professionals.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover what this special community can do for you and realize what educational opportunities exist for healthcare meeting professionals.
• Meet the MPI MD esteemed Advisory Council.
• Learn how to apply, or if you are already a member, find out how to join this group.

This session was not approved for CMP-IS clock hours, but may count towards other industry designations such as the CAE.

Whether you are a seasoned MPI veteran or a brand new member to our association, you likely face challenges that affect your business and career and want to make the most of your MPI network and experience. Attend this fast-paced interactive meeting to converse with MPI leaders to discuss the future of MPI and hear their viewpoints on industry developments and trends. Bring your questions for a lively Q&A with Paul Van Deventer, MPI President & CEO; Fiona Pelham, Chair of the MPI International Board of Directors and Stephen Revetria, Chair of the MPI Foundation Global Board of Trustees. Don’t miss your conversation with MPI.

Publicity can be powerful and valuable. Master the tricks to attracting the media and generate thousands of dollars of free exposure for your business, gain recognition for your organization, drive traffic to your booth, promote an event or position yourself as an expert – all this and more in this session.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to use preparation, planning, polish, pitch, persistence and patience to get your share of free publicity.
• Develop newsworthy angles that attract media attention.
• Discover the fundamentals of a good media release.
• Understand how to avoid common interview mistakes.

Led by Terri Breining, you'll share best practices and problem solve beyond the basics on current issues relevant to senior meeting planners. Conversations will be focused around more advanced challenges and applications. Participants will choose from a variety of topics and engage with those most relevant to them.

Learning Objectives:

• Share best practices and solve problems currently challenging your efforts.
• Implement ideas generated in sessions focused on your challenges.
• Make a difference in your organization with insight provided during this session.