1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

When people feel welcome at your event, hotel or facility, they want to return. But there are a thousand tiny ways to make people feel unwanted. Being accommodating is more than being ADA compliant, addressing dietary restrictions and accommodating faith and gender. Explore what it means to be truly welcoming to your participants.

Learner Outcomes:

• Evaluate whether or not current meeting/event practices are alienating attendees.
• Analyze potential ways to make their meetings and events more welcoming places.
• Create a strategy for transforming upcoming meetings and events into radically welcoming spaces for all participants.

1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting or Event Design 

What type of conversational cocktails do you serve in your conference experiences? Are they experiences during which participants hear and speak words that reach into their deepest beings, releasing dopamine, serotine and oxytocin—brain-bonding neurochemicals? Conversational cocktail experiences can spark a soul-talk revolution and create deep connections.

Learner Outcomes:

• Identify the three types of conversations and the alchemy each has on our brains.
• Discuss the chemistry of conversation cocktails and how to create experiences that lead to deep connections.
• Explore four tips to co-creating engaging conversations resulting in deep connections.

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Come to this EduLab session prepared with a burning topic that you want to discuss, and then we’ll vote on what issues we want to problem-solve in our Great Dotmocracy. Brainstorm with your peers about shared challenges, and leave with solutions to our industry top dilemmas.

Learner Outcomes:

• Come up with solutions to some of the industry’s top challenges.
• Consider how you might utilize these solutions within your own organization or meetings structure.
• Participate in a Dotmocracy, and think about how you might utilize it to similar effect at your meetings and events.

Not for Clock Hour Credit

Lunch and learn: The reality of meeting planning today – real-life case study on what happened behind the scenes when MPI’s WEC17 featured luncheon keynote cancelled.

You have everything prepared and ready to go for the next day. All rehearsals for the first show of the day are done and everything is prepared to quickly turn the room, conduct rehearsals and be ready for the highly anticipated lunch with the famous Earvin “Magic Johnson”, who is going to deliver a passionate message about his life story and how we can all make a difference in engaging our audiences as well as our community. You just had dinner and are on your way to your hotel room when you receive the e-mail that puts your meeting planning world upside down… Magic Johnson has cancelled and will not be there tomorrow to deliver his keynote…

In this session, you will get a peek behind the curtain about what happened when Earvin “Magic” Johnson had to cancel his keynote delivery and how MPI collaborated with their partners at MGM Resorts International to re-design the session, bring you headline enterntainment and turn this into a learning opportunity for all, as this could happen to you too…

1 Clock Hour | Domain C: Risk Management

You need to find a home for your meetings where the design, operation and services provided compliment your goals and help ensure you meet required outcomes. Consider 20 global innovations that you can experience today in meetings-focused venues that will help you reach your goals and objectives.

Learner Outcomes:

• Understand what lies beyond typical function rooms and how easy it is to provide a real wow experience at your meetings.
• Consider the importance of providing the right spaces outside of the meeting room, as well as in.
• Build your understanding of alternative meeting room styles and how delegates of different generations behave in these environments.

1 Clock Hour | Domain C: Risk Management 

The Bataclan Paris. Pulse Nightclub Orlando. Nice Bastille Day. Fort Hood Army Base. Inland Regional Center San Bernardino. The Boston Marathon. Terrorism and active shooters. Is it just a matter of time before a Meetings and Event Industry Conference appears in similar horrific headlines? What about civil unrest, controversial legislation and weather-related catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, the Nashville flood, Atlanta tornado? These, and other equally disruptive forces may be beyond our control but defining the role of the meeting owner or event organizer in assuring that their participants are informed and as safe as possible is not. We can't prevent every risk scenario, but shouldn't we prepare for threats even as we hope they never occur?

Learner Outcomes:

• Comprehend the magnitude of attendee safety issues - it is not just about terrorism or active shooters.
• Collaborate with suppliers and partners to customize safety tips for your event.
• Acquire resources to aid in creating plans for multiple events.

1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting or Event Design 

Our impulse to play is ancient. Its origins mean we have the freedom to take a risk or try something new. Deep play surrounds us through a form of abandon, surrender and engagement. So how does deep play help us become more creative and innovative and what’s its role in events?

Learner Outcomes:

• Discuss the critical elements of play and how to use them in your event.
• Practice the deep play process of Einstein’s combinatory play that creates genius.
• Explore how to use play as an effective programming element that stimulates creativity, innovation, inspiration and problem solving.

1 Clock Hour | Domain G: Meeting or Event Design 

This panel discussion will examine how technology can increase attendee engagement, making meetings more memorable, energizing, and even inspiring. Explore session interactivity, hybrid live/online events, projection mapping, and more. Learn what makes these technologies powerful, and how to achieve the highest possible return on objective from your event technology.

Learner Outcomes:

• Describe emerging event technologies in terms of their potential impact for meetings and events
• Select technological event enhancements that will deliver the desired attendee outcome
• Adhere to best practices with respect to new event technology adoption

1 Clock Hours | Domain E: Human Resources 

One of the greatest challenges meeting planners face is getting everyone both internally and externally aligned and working together in a way that is effective. Unfortunately, you can’t just tell people to work together better and expect them to be able to do it. In this session, CEO/Founder of Banding People Together, the world’s leading collaborative strategy organization, will expand your thinking around how to amplify your voice as a trusted advisor so you can help meeting owners co-create a meeting experience that measurably impacts the business.

Learner Outcomes:

• A framework for collaborating more strategically.
• The importance of the discovery process.
• How to leverage your assets and liabilities based on how your brain is wired.

1 Clock Hour | Domain A: Strategic Planning

Discover best practices in meeting design, food and beverage and negotiations from experts in the room! We’ll use a human spectrogram to find thought leaders among our peers, and then drill down into your burning questions, must-know trends and next practices that will help you excel in today’s meeting marketplace.

Learner Outcomes:

• Discover best practices and leading trends in meeting design, food and beverage and negotiations.
• Find key takeaways you can use tomorrow to enhance your events.
• Participate in a Spectrogram, and think about how you might utilize it to similar effect at your meetings and events.