What would your day look like if you took the advice of all your nerdy friends and implemented the tech tools and apps they recommend to make your life easier? This fast-moving, laugh-filled session takes you hour-by-hour through a day in the life of a tech-savvy meeting professional.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how technology fits into every part of your day.
• Use technology systems to streamline projects and tasks.
• Discover dozens of free and bargain apps as well as online tools that put the ideas from the conference into action!

Are you making the most of your mobile device? This session helps you discover tech tools for work that you can use from your mobile device to make you more efficient, connected, and organized.

Learning Objectives:

• Stay connected to colleagues.
• Better manage your email.
• Keep your life organized.

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

Is what you say actually what you mean? Differences are the spice of life, but cultural differences can be the source of embarrassing blunders and miscommunication for business and social travelers alike! This presentation will increase your self-awareness and help you adapt your style in multicultural relationships.

Learning Objectives:

• Improve interpersonal skills with everyone – in any country or culture.
• Develop strategies to avoid miscommunication in person, on the phone, and by email or text.
• Use global etiquette tips that all cultures will appreciate.

Political and economic forces are driving an evolution in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. As a result we need more from our strategic meetings management programs than bottom line savings. This session will be valuable for any planner considering or engaged in SMMP.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the implications for meeting and event leaders of changes in the pharmaceutical, medical and other industries.
• Applying a simple "walk, don’t run", step-by-step implementation of an SMM program that is both compliant and effective.
• Analyzing your internal SMM stakeholders before beginning your SMM.

Upon identifying the six (6) key elements for a successful F&B event, you will be able to design Food & Beverage functions that will fulfill the expectations of your clients, attendees, and sponsors. Come to this session to share ideas with your colleagues on how you can work together with facilities to develop menus which optimize your meeting budget. Discover “what’s hot”, “what’s not” and the latest trends. Be a knockout with your event.

Learning Objectives:

• “Wow” your attendees with sensational food and beverage functions within your budget.
• Communicate effectively with the chef and banquet manager to encourage creativity and cost savings.
• Discover the latest trends in Food and Beverage.

Women still struggle for equity in pay and management positions. Solving this disparity starts with you. What if the secret to professional success is embracing and leveraging our natural strengths, instead of striving to be like our male counterparts? Find out how in this session.

Learning Objectives:

• Leverage your natural strengths to differentiate yourself in the workplace – Crystallize what "success" looks like and have the courage to pursue it.
• Create a more diverse approach to decision-making, resulting in more creative solutions.
• Apply a tool for healthy team communication and closure.

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

This session is a case study of an actual mobile app proposal process along with the key questions asked and their responses. It will take a look at the importance of each question and how the answers affect the functionality and attendee experience in your app.

Learning Objectives:

• Use the RFP process to choose a mobile app provider for your events.
• Ask all the key questions during the RFP process.
• Determine how the answers will affect the functionality and attendee experience in your app.

If you’ve been asking yourself, “Is this as good as it gets?” then it’s time to try something new. Join this session to learn practical tools, based on actual psychological principles that you can start using in your life right away.

Learning Objectives:

• Overcome stress and anxiety. Triumph over negative emotions and focus on the positive.
• Take back control of your life. Stop being the victim and instead become the owner, which leads to happier results.
• Find authentic and lasting happiness.

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

Convention centers are key partners in the execution of any successful event. But, like all of us, venues and CVBs are reinventing themselves. This session examines what keeps them up at night, what they are doing about it, and how that impacts your role as a meeting planner.

Learning Objectives:

• Create a better attendee experience by taking advantage of the latest convention center trends.
• Determine how your meeting is evaluated by centers and CVBs.
• Negotiate the best price by enhancing the value of your meeting to a venue or destination.

Organizations are taking a closer look at their marketing budgets, especially the significant portion that is allocated to meetings and events. This increased focus on “value and accountability” has placed a higher emphasis on tracking the right data, managing the meeting spend, and providing reports clearly showing the ROI.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize business intelligence that becomes available at each step of the planning process.
• Implement methods to assess data and leverage your spend to maximize meeting value, cost savings, risk reduction, and ROI.
• Automate workflow and streamline processes and procedures.