1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting & Event Design

Virtual meetings have been a fundamental anchor in corporate communications and assembly. Not just in times of crisis. Now is a better time than ever to explore how virtual meeting elements can BE your meeting or enhance your meeting.

For most of human history, communication was direct and in-person. We have evolved to place our innate trust in human voices and immediate contact; therefore, for building a team or aligning your organization there is only one approach that leverages all those human factors: a face-to-face meeting. While live events and personal contact remain the gold standard for compelling and impactful experiences, the circumstances of modern business and budget concerns may prompt alternative choices.

Advances in telecommunications and technology bring new options for collaboration, and we have the opportunity to think differently about how, and where, we bring people together to realize your business objectives.

During this session we explore the fundamentals of planning and delivering a live virtual meeting. We provide specific tools to help planners and event professionals assess their current needs, determine the best technology, and explore the most effective creative and production.

By attending this session you will ... 

1. Gain practical hands-on tools that can be used right away
2. Explore the basics, and beyond, of Virtual Meetings to bring everyone up to speed
3. Deliver content that will appeal to the entire membership (meeting planners, venue partners, production partners)

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Join us for a MPI-moderated conversation with senior levels professionals from industry associations, corporations, and small business owners to see how they are creating new strategies for success given the business repercussions of covid-19. Now more than ever it’s important to reimagine your personal and business strategy to stay relevant in the marketplace. You will also have the ability to ask your questions regarding what strategies, technologies, and design methods these professionals will be implementing to lead during this time of uncertainty.

By attending this webinar you will ...

1. Learn new ways to evolve your business strategy
2. Learn how these professionals are offering new options to increase value to stakeholders
3. Leverage technology and design methods to deliver impactful events in new way

1 Clock Hour | Domain C: Risk Management

Waiting till a crisis such as COVID-19 to determine the risk management plan is too late. It needs to be written ahead of time, with robust mitigation and contingency plans, as well as contain proper insurance cover. All contracts should cover Force Majeure, cancellation/postponement options, attrition and third party vendor protection. This keeps the organization’s reputation and everyone's safety at a forefront whilst being adequately prepared. Heather has dealt with every unimaginable situation from volcano eruptions, to a hotel on fire, a hotel wanting to walk her client’s conference, speakers not showing. In the wake of COVID-19 cancellations, Heather has saved her clients over 1.5 million dollars and even negotiated a client's conference to have an open postponement clause for two years.

Learner Outcomes:

1. To identify key contract clauses, such as Force Majeure, cancellation/postponement options, attrition and how to leverage and maximize them in the era of Covid-19, including creative MOUs

2. Understand how to create a matrix to weight risks and ensure right resources to right size risk, as well as buy-in from stakeholders

3. Be prepared to create contingency plans and secure proper insurance cover for risk

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

The global Covid-19 pandemic turned us to work remotely overnight, even if some of us were not prepared for that. Using his research and experience, Dr. Yoram Solomon, the author of The Book of Trust, Culture starts with YOU, not your Boss, and 11 other books will give you specific ideas and tips that will increase your leadership effectiveness and teamwork productivity, when working remotely. He managed international teams and conducted research on the effectiveness and productivity of teamwork in all environments. In this session, he will first set the foundation to the understanding of the link between trust and effective and productive leadership and teamwork. The bulk of the session will focus on tangible and measurable actions you could take immediately in the areas of communications, information sharing, interactions, empathy, dealing with customers, and more. Those tips are easy to implement, and will measurably increase your leadership effectiveness, team productivity, and customer and vendor retention.

As a result of this session you will be able to ...

1. Understand the relationship between trust and effective and productive teamwork

2. Understand the impact of virtual team leadership on trust

3. Apply the 7 laws and 6 components of trust to virtual teamwork

4. Create a checklist of actions that will measurably increase your leadership effectiveness, team productivity, and customer and vendor retention.

1 Clock Hour | Domain C: Risk Management 

While COVID-19 has not been proven to be transferable through food, can it theoretically be possible? Think about all the touch points there is with the food and beverage we serve at events. Food safety is something planners often overlook, relying on caterers to handle. In the new normal, what do we need to consider about our attendees safety as it relates to the food and beverage we serve them. Buffets vs plated vs boxed? Single-serve prepackaged food? How many people do we sit at table = social distancing? Do we need to add sneeze guards? F&B costs are already high, what if we need to have more servers so to serve the buffets? Do we need to add hand washing stations to the rooms? Do we go back to using bottled water vs. water jugs.

Learner Outcomes:
1. Learn the what questions you should ask food service providers about their food safety practices.

2. Familiarize yourself with food safety policies and practices required of food service providers

3. Discover ways to provide safe food and beverage experiences easily.

1 Clock Hour | Domain C: Risk Management 

As the world recovers from the current crisis, and clients start to hold events again, identifying and reducing risk in the post-Coronavirus period will be vital to ensure safety, reputation, financial viability. This session discusses the importance of an integrated and formalized risk management process in event planning, as well as some of the new risks and associated contingencies that are likely to be the new norm for events in the near future.

Learner Outcomes:

1. Understand the importance of integrating formalized risk management processes into event planning teams.

2. Identify potential high-risk issues related to post-Coronavirus programs in order to inform event design.

3. Develop simple event contingency plans to facilitate a coordinated response to emergencies and lower overall risk levels.

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning 

Join Positive Impact Events, a not for profit which provides engagement, education and collaboration opportunities to create a sustainable event industry, for their Global Meetings Industry Day 2020 webinar with UNFCCC, Northstar Meetings Group and Cvent. 

Learning Objectives: 

• Listen in as they discuss the post COVID 19 future of the global meetings and events industry.
• Hear about a campaign to upskill 100,000 event profs.
• Gain insight into factors which could impact the event industry as COVID 19 has and learn what event professionals can do to address that.

1 Clock Hour | Domain C: Risk Management 

Coronavirus has captured the attention of the entire world, but the meetings and travel industry have been hit harder than most others. This session will discuss the Coronavirus and the decisions meeting sponsors are having to make whether the Event is a go or no-go and whether the Force Majeure Clause is applicable. We will also cover the legal standards that apply to all Force Majeure Clauses in contracts and what they need to say to protect meeting sponsors in the future. What about insurance? Do any policies cover this risk?

This session is a must-attend for all meeting/convention/event planners who are making decisions on both their current meeting plans and future contracts. This session will have important information for suppliers as well.

Learner Outcomes:

1. Define when Coronavirus, or any other calamity, is a Force majeure;

2. Understand how Force Majeure clauses are interpreted and the role of “foreseeability” when preparing the clauses;

3. Define the meaning of Impossibility, Illegality, Commercial Impracticability, and Frustration of Purpose and how contract law applies these terms

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

This is a workshop designed to help you think outside the box about what you can do to help your business through the Corona Virus. This is a virtual, interactive workshop where I will walk you through exercises to help you see where the opportunities are that will help get you ahead in the next few weeks and be ready for The Recovery. Now is the time to prepare and focus on that. How you react to this is within your control.

Learner Outcomes:

1. Ideas on where to focus to get back on track during and after COVID19

2. Time for YOU – how you react to this will determine how you bounce back

3. Hear from industry colleagues what they are doing to focus on revenue generation

1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting or Event Design

With in-person events canceling all around us, it is time for the events industry to evolve. What better way than to take the experience we have producing in-person events and create virtual events with the same strategy and execution of in-person events. Our events industry influencers, Dustin Westling of One West Events and Will Curran of Endless Events are going to walk you through what you need to be thinking of when producing a virtual event from the strategy to the content to the technology. You don't want to miss this webinar.

Learner Outcomes:

1. Learn about the strategy of virtual events

2. Learn about the technology available to produce a virtual event

3. Learn about audience engagement strategies for virtual events