1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning 

Meetings will never go away. As businesses continue to tighten the bottom line, some meetings will get canceled, consolidated, reduced in size or executed virtually, but people will always need to meet face to face. The way meetins are conducted, however, is rapidly changing. And meeting planners need to stay on top of technological advances, corporate initiatives, budget restrictions, attendee expectations, meeting innovations and organizational goals or risk becoming obsolete. Don't just adapt; innovate. As a meeting professional, you have more power than you think. In this session, you'll learn three small ways you can make a big difference.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the importance of proving your worth and the value of your work
• Discover simple ways to plan more sustainable meetings
• Understand the connection between meeting design and audience behavior

1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting or Event Design 

Learn how Certified Event Designers apply event design thinking using the #EventCanvas, facilitate your team through the process and articulate the way your event creates value strategically, or just approach events in a different way. Analyzing stakes, design and prototype with like-minded peers using the #EventCanvas as a visual language for events.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover a practical visual language and innovation process to describe, challenge and design high-stakes events
• Find out how to claim event design time -- a core challenge of every organisation -- enabling teams to design and create compelling events that participants want to attend and that create valued behavior change for stakeholders
• Find out what it takes to become a Certified Event Designer and obtain your certification

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning 

As a planner for a major event, you're catering to an international audience. While this likely means your enrollment is high, it also means that you need the communications support to accommodate a multilingual event and deliver a rewarding experience to each of your attendees. This webinar will break down this seemingly daunting task. In considering a gamut of options, from hiring interpreters to ordering collateral translations, we'll walk you through how to decide what's a "must have" for your event, as well as how to book and promote these services effectively.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover how to seamlessly integrate multiple language and cultural services at your event
• Learn what to watch out for when having materials translated
• Reconsider how to market to international audiences to increase attendance

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning 

Meeting professionals are so over-taxed in the present, they often forget -- or don't have the time -- to look ahead. Take a moment to preview the future based on MPI's most recent Meetings Outlook research, published quarterly in The Meeting Professional magazine and then discus the trends that are most affecting you and your peers. Brainstorm ways to start planning for the uncertain future with case studies and best practices from around the globe.

Learning Objectives:

• Review the forecast for events in the coming year, including budget, attendance and business conditions
• Deep dive into trends that matter and discuss next steps with your peers
• Learn how these trends affect you and the future of your meetings

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning 

Did you know that the meetings industry is the second-most wasteful industry in America? There are a lot of things meeting professionals can do to eliminate the waste generated by meetings and events. In this session, we'll go beyond the three "Rs" associated with green meetings and explore the myriad ways you can create truly responsible and sustainable experiences for exhibitors and attendees.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify ways in which suppliers and planners can partner to create more sustainable meetings and events
• Explore what it means to create a "virtuous circle"
• Understand how to integrate measurement, implementation and communication plans into meeting/event design

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning 

You know that the meetings you plan are invaluable to the success of your business or organization, but your executives’ goals and objectives for your events are elusive. What questions should you ask so that you can understand the true aims of your business in holding events, and how can you set measurable goals that help your stakeholders determine whether or not their meetings were effective. Go beyond asking your attendees if they had a good time, and create value for your organization by asking the right questions and setting the right metrics. Position yourself not as a meeting planner, but as a true consultant with the business strategy of your meetings top-of-mind.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover the questions to ask your meeting owners to truly understand their business goals (and ensure your success)
• Learn how to set SMART objectives for your events
• See what measurements you can use to better understand the true reach of your events

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning 

As organizations develop Strategic Meetings Management Programs (SMMPs), there are new opportunities for planners who want to advance their careers. If you have established yourself as a top-ranked planner for managing individual meetings and events and would like to move to the next level within your organization, this session is for you. In order to be considered for an operations manager position, you will need to demonstrate your abilities and potential to meet the requirements of this new role.

Learning Objectives:

• Know and understand the necessary competencies for an operations manager
• Compare those to your current skill set, and pinpoint gaps and areas of development
• Create and execute a plan to upgrade your capabilities

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) is gaining traction at organizations of all shapes and sizes as a way to manage costs, mitigate risks and positively impact the attendee experience. Find insights and case studies from SMM practitioners who can guide you through the process, present its elements and key drivers, explore the reasons for its implementation, introduce the taxonomy created for MPI's research and take you step-by-step through the program development.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover best practices from SMM experts and practitioners around the globe on how and why to implement an SMM program
• Learn the steps you need to take to implement an SMM program at your organization
• Understand how to best use MPI's SMM library to get started

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Meeting professionals are so over-taxed in the present, they often forget -- or don't have the time -- to look ahead. Take a moment to preview the future based on MPI's most recent Meetings Outlook research, published quarterly in The Meeting Professional magazine and then discus the trends that are most affecting you and your peers. Brainstorm ways to start planning for the uncertain future with case studies and best practices from around the globe.

Learning Objectives:

• Review the forecast for events in the coming year, including budget, attendance and business conditions
• Deep dive into trends that matter and discuss next steps with your peers
• Learn how these trends affect you and the future of your meetings

1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting or Event Design 

For years, meeting professionals have used event signs for directional and informational purposes, helping participants navigate event spaces and the experiences therein. Increasingly, however, they're leveraging these signs to transform meeting spaces into brand experiences, to create a sense of place and to achieve education or networking objectives. Review best practices in sign design and production and identify trends that can create a real wow for attendees around the world. Consider traditional uses, sense of place, sign strategy, the science behind signs and a roadmap for sign success.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover best practices around leveraging signage at your events to benefit the attendee experience
• Learn the science behind color selection and sign placement
• Find examples of sign usage that will inspire your imagination