1 Clock Hour | Domain D: Financial Management 

Find out about current legal challenges and see if you can stump the lawyers!

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the key legal issues present in a variety of meetings-related situations
• Address and manage contract problems and liability issues

1 Clock Hour | Domain I: Marketing

Still unsure how to best utilize social media tools Facebook and Twitter to promote your events and facilities? Want to get more from these services, and understand how a little knowledge (and customization) can go a long way? This hands-on session will provide you the secrets of using these tools to help you in your communications, promotion and marketing, while showcasing best practices in the use of these tools.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify over 6 Facebook and Twitter tools customization tools
• Explore and use little known services that lie within Facebook and Twitter
• Create your own daily customized digital newspapers from your Facebook wall and Twitter feeds

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Negotiation is essential but the key is to ensure your contracts are legally clear, inclusive and enforceable, and the parties don’t end up in court. This advanced level workshop will discuss critical clauses and their hidden risks. Learn how to prepare or revise your current agreements to be fair and effective. The session will be hands-on, interactive with participants discussing clauses for: attrition (guest rooms and catering F&B), cancellation, force majeure and several more.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and understand the practical and legal principles applicable to all contracts.
• Explain the hidden problems in attrition, cancellation and force majeure clauses and how to amend them to avoid potential problems and expense.
• Explain the hidden problems in attrition, cancellation and force majeure clauses and how to amend them to avoid potential problems and expense.

1 Clock Hour | Domain I: Marketing

One of the most important characteristics of successful sales professionals is emotional intelligence. They have the ability to understand and control their emotions and respect the part they play in client relationships. We are in the people business and therefore must understand people and the power their emotions have when choosing business partners.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain an increased awareness of your behavior "style" and how it impacts your sales effectiveness
• Learn to read the "style" of your clients
• Develop an approach to adapt your style to maximize influence and sales results

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

This session will provide access to several members of the team responsible for the development of the new industry standards and will answer any questions you have about the application of the standards to job descriptions, curriculum development, skills analysis, and professional development. The project team and advisory committee members are excited to share their vision of what the standards mean to the industry and what the future holds for further development. The session will show how the standards developed and how they will inform courses of study and career development. You will also see how and why they will make measurement easier and inform content and certifications. This is the future and this is your career roadmap – come and find out why there is so much buzz around these new standards!

Learning Objectives:

• Obtain a more thorough understanding of the basis of the standards and how they developed.
• Understand the use of the standards as they apply to skills gap analysis for your career, your curriculum, your content or your staff.
• Gain insight into the next steps for the standards, and how they will inform industry certifications, training programs, and college curriculum for the industry.

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Get the behind-the-scenes story of organizing and managing the 2010 World Olympics in Vancouver.

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Join Michael Dominguez as he takes an in depth look at the "Hotel Business Model Today" in our economic environment. This session will help you gain an understanding of negotiating in these uncertain times. This session looks at the economic meltdown, the recovery, RevPAR (revenue per available room) projections and an ever changing consumer. Also, take an in-depth 'behind the scenes' look at the hotel industry and their revenue through a candid discussion between hoteliers adn meeting planners on the future of meetings. While discussing unique needs, hoteliers and meeting planners will work together to develop strategies for win-win partnerships by going over: • A hotel’s profit/loss statement, cost pressures and restrictions • How many years it takes hotel rates to recover from an economic downturn, and • How to work with the hotel to create a new "21st century meeting" that meets the needs of a diversifying membership.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the driving issues in the hotel industry and how that impacts to your meetings.
• Discuss the economic conditions to expect for 2011 from industry research.
• Understand how the demographics of associations & corporations are changing.

1 Clock Hour | Domain I: Marketing

Discover the one word that you must understand in the world of sales.

Learning Objectives:

• Accentuate your sales skills by saying NO.
• Recognize the three mindset aspects to selling.
• Ace the “new” sales presentation process.

1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting or Event Design 

Find out what the latest and greatest industry technologies are and see if you can stump the geeks!

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

In this session, you'll take a look at a successful example of a structured event discipline evolution and hear stories of the journey direct from the event professionals at Microsoft.