social impact

Give Back, Help Out, Pitch In at Convening Leaders

PCMA offers more opportunities than ever to make a difference at Convening Leaders 2019. From volunteer activities to ways to donate and from educational sessions to charity parties, there are plenty of options for philanthropy and fun.

Main Stage | You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See

All business event strategists are marketers with the responsibility of creating connections, empathy, providing experiences and making a difference. Yet many organizations are stuck in outmoded approaches expecting different results. Marketing sage Seth Godin will reveal how to cut through the noise in our attention economy and initiate change that puts your brand back into the center of the conversation.

Lifting People Up: The Power of Recognition

People are the heart and soul of every organization. Discover how to get the most out of your teams and give them the most in return. You’ll walk away with game-changing ideas and tips that will motivate you to listen carefully, trust respectfully, and praise authentically. With these new skills, you will begin to foster a culture of innovation and shared leadership.

Leveraging Multi-generational Success: Best Practices for Your Team

For the first time in history, five generations are sharing the workplace. In this session, best-selling author Lindsey Pollak offers expert insights into these groups and their motivations, goals, and communication styles. You’ll learn how to turn their differences into a strategic advantage for you and your entire team.

Using Neuroscience to Enrich Storytelling

As creators of immersive experiences, business event strategists have the ability to change their attendees’ behaviors, driving them to action long after an event. Understanding how this happens empowers event organizers to incorporate stronger storytelling techniques within their events. This interactive session balances cognitive science with real-life examples to help you create persuasive, lasting memories that drive action.

Strategies for Building Accessible Events

During this session, you will find out how Microsoft’s cultural commitment to diversity and inclusion has affected marketing goals and best practices across the organization, and how to deploy tactical strategies that enable inclusive marketing experiences. Ron Hamlin, the Microsoft Events Team Inclusion Lead, will share his perspective on planning and delivering accessible experiences for all and media that consider under-represented partners, customers, and employees.

Design Experiential Activations that Energize Audiences & Sponsors

Being part of unique, share-worthy experiences is a major motivator for today’s consumers. Instead of investing marketing dollars in traditional logo-centric assets companies want to activate the senses by creating emotional, lasting connections between their brand and customers. You’ll explore how smart brands want to activate at events and the design process to create memorable experiences people brag about.

Chef’s Competition: Recipe for Energized Attendees

Whether 50 or 500,000 people attend an event, the one thing everyone is sure to remember is their food experience. Not only is it important to impress your attendees, but to have food that energizes them for the day. Our health-inspired chefs will compete to provide a snack option that you can imitate for your next meeting — and at home.

Negotiating Beyond the Typical Venue Contract

Negotiating a hotel or convention center contract with the most favorable terms for the organization is job one for a business event strategist. The property sales team, on the other hand, wants to get the best deal for the venue. In today’s climate of evolving market conditions and new risks, some negotiations can be intense. In this role-play session, individuals from both sides of the table negotiate sensitive clauses, and a panel of subject matter and legal experts offer their expertise.

How to Handle Falling International Attendance at U.S. Events

New roadblocks are making it much more difficult for international attendees to travel to U.S. events. For example, regulations in the medical device industry now prohibit physician reimbursement to offset travel expenses. More stringent visa requirements and a general feeling of uncertainty among foreign travelers also have created challenges for event marketers. Learn from the chief revenue officer & the sr. director of meetings from the Heart Rhythm Society about how to address a downward trend in international attendance and revenue.

Optimizing Your Event Content Strategy to Engage all Stakeholders

Content can be a powerful tool for attracting registrants, engaging attendees, maximizing speaker value, adding value for event sponsors, and extending the impact of an event well beyond on-site activations? Learn the best times, topics, and tactics for creating and distributing content that engages attendees, sponsors, speakers, and other key stakeholders.

PCMA and Marriott on the Future of Events

Meetings are not just about tables and chairs. They are about people. People have changed. How they work has changed. This session will explore what Marriott International, a global provider of business events, and PCMA, the world’s largest network of business events strategists, have identified as macro-trends that could change the face of the business events industry. Whether it be driven by generational differences in the workforce, technological advances, attitudes around food and wellness, or new forms of media and communication, these trends have the potential to disrupt the industry as we know it.

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