
Join us for Showcase, an annual one-day event to connect with 100+ destination organizations that can help you elevate your meetings and events experiences.
Showcase offers you – and your teams – the opportunity to reconnect with your best business partners. To maximize engagement and relationship-building, you’ll find Conversation Starters, networking lounges, mimosa and bloody mary bars, and a networking lunch, among other activities.
As you work the room, you can glean powerful insights on creating inclusive events and how to improve business and event experiences courtesy of our content stage.
Showcase is the ultimate team retreat to renew your professional purpose and celebrate reconnecting!
COST: FREE for business event organizers. Food and drinks included. Registration is required.
Keynote: Phil Simon
Workplace-Technology Guru &
Award-Winning Author
Brought to you by New Orleans & Company and New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
Phil Simon sits squarely at the intersection of business, technology, data, and people. He is a dynamic keynote speaker and one of the world’s most renowned recognized authorities on collaboration, technology, and analytics. He is the award-winning author of 13 books, most recently Low-Code/No-Code: Citizen Developers and the Surprising Future of Business Applications.
Over the course of his career, he has spoken at more than 35,000 people in 350 in-person and virtual events in eight countries on three continents. Netflix, Harvard Business School, eBay, Cisco, IBM, Carnegie Mellon, SAS, and AutoDesk are among the hundreds of companies to have hosted Phil.
Showcase 2023 Education Program
Welcome to Showcase 2023
Showcase is bringing back the nostalgia of the cross-country road trip and invites Business Event Strategists to “hit the road”. So mark these experiences in your March 8th itinerary –
- Reconnect with supplier partners at experiential activations throughout your journey.
- Make meaningful connections at the Rest Stop – Drink and Think lounge.
- Glean powerful insights from the sessions at the Visitor Center and planner storytelling at the Campfires.
- Fuel up at the Gas Station with tasty refreshments, including a networking lunch.
7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Showcase Registration
Location: Prince George’s Hall A Pre-Function
7:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Showcase Registration
Location: Prince George’s Hall A Pre-Function
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Keynote – Reimagining Collaboration: Ending the Chaos of Workplace Technology
Location: Visitor’s Center
Speaker: Phil Simon, Workplace-Technology Guru & Award-Winning Author
Brought to you by New Orleans & Company and New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
If so, then at least you can take solace in the fact that you’re not alone. In March 2021, the identity-management company Okta found that its average customer used 88 different business apps. Ouch.
Event professionals routinely encounter the following situation: We use tool X, but our partner uses tool Y.
Phil Simon has seen this movie throughout his 25-year career. The technology, collaboration, and communication authority addresses this topic in his 2021 award-winning book, Reimagining Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and the Post-COVID World of Work.
Workplace tech is a mess, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Simon will share the barriers that hinder effective remote and hybrid work. Specifically, you’ll walk away from this session with a deeper understanding of:
- Why old collaboration methods like e-mail don’t fly anymore.
- How to connect internal collaboration hubs to spokes and create an organizational corpus of knowledge.
- How to circumvent the tech tool tug of war when starting projects with external event stakeholders, suppliers, and customers.
- The tools and different approaches to collaborate for better project outcomes and make everyone’s life easier.
10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Refreshments
Location: Rest Stop
Coffee brought to you by IMEX Group
Bloody Mary & Mimosa Bar brought to you by Visit California
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Showcase
Location: Prince George’s Hall A & Pre-Function
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Campfire Session: Deciding Between in-Person Only or Hybrid Event Models
Location: Visitor’s Center
Facilitator: Sarina Nathan, Events and Meeting Planner, NASA SEWP
Brought to you by MINT+
Gather around the campfire to swap stories with event profs and leverage different perspectives. Sarina Nathan, Events and Meetings Planner with the NASA SEWP (Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement) Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), will share the decisions behind and outcomes of their most recent hybrid events. Spark new ideas by discussing how to maximize audience impact when producing events in a digital world.
Seating is limited to 20 participants so arrive early to claim your spot!
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Campfire Session: Reduce, Reuse and Rescue – What to Do With Food Waste
Location: Visitor’s Center
Facilitator: Tracy Stuckrath, founder and chief food officer of thrive! meetings & events
Brought to you by MINT+
Gather around the campfire to swap stories with event profs and leverage different perspectives. Tracy Stuckrath, founder and chief food officer of thrive! meetings & events, will share her latest examples of reducing food waste and donation practices. Spark new ideas by swapping tips on what you do to decrease, reuse and donate food at your events.
Seating is limited to 20 participants so arrive early to claim your spot!
10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Campfire Session: How Data – Not Your Gut – is Essential to Your Event Pricing Strategy
Location: Visitor’s Center
Facilitator: Vinnu Deshetty, Founder & CEO, EVA
Brought to you by MINT+
Gather around the campfire to swap stories with event profs and leverage different perspectives. Independent planner Vinnu DeShetty will talk about how she’s using data to change a registration pricing structure to match a new event format. Spark new ideas by discussing your pricing strategy for different event models.
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Breakout Session: Contracting with Clarity & Equity: Understanding the Booking Agreement (DBA)
Location: Visitor’s Center
Speakers: Emily Scheiderer, Director of Education, Sales and Services, Destinations International, Dustin Arnheim, Senior Vice President, Sales & Services, Choose Chicago. Jamie Simpson, Senior Director, Meetings, AACC
For years now, destination organizations have been working to create client agreements that will allow them to be a good steward of the product they represent and serve as an advocate for both the event organizer and the destination. With the launch of the Destination Booking Agreement toolkit, it is more imperative than ever for the Business Events Strategist to have a comprehensive understanding of the direction the industry is going. Join this informative session to hear industry experts share context that will help you avoid the unexpected, advocate the business decisions internally, and best negotiate favorable terms for future years.
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Campfire Session: From a Traditional Trade Show to a Completely Reimagined Experience
Location: Visitor’s Center
Facilitator: Colleen Phalen, Chief Creative Officer, American Association for Justice
Brought to you by MINT+
Gather around the campfire to swap stories with event profs and leverage different perspectives to spark new ideas. Colleen Phalen, Chief Creative Officer of the American Association for Justice, will share how they threw out their old trade show playbook and the impact it had on their attendees, exhibitors and their internal event team.
Seating is limited to 20 participants so arrive early to claim your spot!
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.
Afternoon Break
Location: Rest Stop
2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Campfire Session: How Business Model Thinking Led to New Revenue and Audience Growth
Location: Visitor’s Center
Facilitator: Kristie Chang, Principal & Owner, Mazu Events, LLC
Brought to you by MINT+
Gather around the campfire to swap stories with event profs and leverage different perspectives to spark ideas. Event strategist Kristie Chang will share how the business model canvas helped her identify an opportunity for a medical society to tailor new products to different types of sponsoring companies, grow the audience and revenue for a series of exhibitor presentations.
Seating is limited to 20 participants so arrive early to claim your spot!
2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Breakout Session: Gender’s Impact on the Business Events Industry
Location: Visitor’s Center
Panelists: Ned Blair, National Sales Director, Visit Charlotte, Ashley T. Brundage, Founder & President, Empowering Differences, Kyle Jordan, Ed.M, MS, CAE, CEM-AP, CMP, DES, CMM, Director of Meetings, The Institue for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), Tiffany Elum, National Account Director, Destination DC, Dan Rios, Director, LGBTQ+ Marketing, Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Leslie Zeck, Director of Meetings, International Association for Dental Research (IADR) and AADOCR
In collaboration with the LGBT Meeting Professionals Association
During this conversation, a gender-diverse panel of business event strategists will share their stories and insights into their professional experiences. The panelists will also discuss the range of current challenges and barriers that members of the transgender community have and continue to face when booking and attending events.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the experiences of gender-diverse populations as they relate to the business events industry.
- Gain awareness of existing and future implications regarding transgender issues and business events.
- Identify opportunities and methods to make events safer and more inclusive for transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive participants.
Health & Safety
Are you joining us for POWER OF PURPOSE: Business Events Industry Week? Share it with your network!
PART OF
POWER OF PURPOSE: Business Events Industry Week is committed to helping event stakeholders and their business partners advance the role that gatherings of people with purpose play in the economic, social and intellectual enrichment of people and communities everywhere. We are in the pursuit of this opportunity for everyone, because it matters everywhere.
POP will use locations and venues throughout the Washington, DC region as an inspirational canvas for a weeklong series of experiences that features professional development, a commercial marketplace, idea incubators, community social transformation activities, and networking experiences.
Stay in the loop with Showcase updates.
Our program will feature microlearning stage sessions that highlight the themes of Your Business & Your Purpose. Topics will cover developing a corporate social responsibility strategy, leveraging business events to drive social change for the LGBTQ+ community, and how to effectively measure and report on your event’s value.
Thursday, March 24
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Exhibitor Registration / Setup
Friday, March 25
7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Exhibitor Registration / Setup
9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Destination Showcase
9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Education & Networking Programming
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Bites & Beverages Networking Lunch
1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Keynote
Connect with Top Destinations and CVBs
- Visit Albuquerque
- Amelia Island Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Visit Anchorage
- Destination Ann Arbor
- Explore Asheville
- ATL Airport District Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Meet AC
- Visit Aurora Inc.
- Visit Austin
- Visit Baltimore
- Visit Bellevue Washington
- Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Bloomington Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Boise Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau Incorporated
- Branson/Lakes Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority
- Chicago Sports Commission/Choose Chicago
- Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Destination Cleveland
- Visit Colorado Springs
- Experience Columbia SC
- Experience Columbus
- VisitDallas
- Dayton Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Halifax Area Advertising Authority dba Daytona Beach Area CVB
- Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Destination El Paso
- Eugene, Cascades & Coast – Travel Lane County
- Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Visit Fort Worth
- Experience Grand Rapids
- Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Greensboro Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Visit Indy
- Visit Jacksonville
- Visit KC
- Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority
- VisitLEX
- Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Discover Long Island
- Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board
- Louisville Tourism
- Destination Madison
- Memphis Tourism
- Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Visit Milwaukee
- Meet Minneapolis
- Coastal Mississippi
- Visit Myrtle Beach
- Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp
- New Orleans & Company
- NYC & Company
- Discover Newport
- Visit Newport Beach Inc
- VisitNorfolk
- Visit Oakland
- Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Visit Omaha
- Visit Orlando
- Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Visit Phoenix
- Visit Pittsburgh
- Travel Portland
- Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Discover Puerto Rico
- Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority
- Richmond Region Tourism
- Visit Sacramento
- Explore St. Louis
- Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Visit Salt Lake
- Visit San Antonio
- San Diego Tourism Authority
- San Francisco Travel Association
- San Mateo County/Silicon Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Santa Fe’ Meet Different
- Visit Savannah
- Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority
- Visit Seattle
- Visit Spokane
- Visit Tampa Bay
- Tourism Toronto
- Visit Tucson
- Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau
- Destination DC
- U.S. Travel Association
- Discover The Palm Beaches
- Visit Winston-Salem