WHEN: Wednesday, March 8, 2023
VENUE: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland

NEW REGISTRATION EXPERIENCE FOR POP: BUSINESS EVENTS INDUSTRY WEEK

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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.

Please note the Gaylord National Resort’s valet parking is $49.00+ tax, and self-parking is $30.00+ tax.

Keynote: Roy Spence

Co-founder and Chairman, GSD&M
Co-founder and CEO, The Purpose Institute

Roy Spence

Roy and his partners, right out of The University of Texas at Austin, built GSD&M from scratch into a purpose‐based marketing, advertising, and idea machine building iconic brands like Southwest Airlines, Don’t Mess with Texas, The PGA Tour, Walmart, The United States Airforce, Goodyear, American Institute of Architects and DreamWorks.

Roy has always held a deep belief that purpose‐inspired marketing can be a force for good. He and his partners are always the first to donate time and talent, creating powerful PSAs when disasters hit America like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina as well as creating a historic moment by getting all the former US Presidents to create a 30 second PSA when Hurricane Harvey and Irma hit in 2017.

He is now on a mission to use the power of purpose‐based marketing to bring America together on higher ground and begin putting the US back into the USA. Roy’s most passionate endeavor is the Make It Movement of which he is the founder and CEO.

Keynote sponsored by New Orleans & Company & Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

Destination Showcase 2022 Education Program

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

Main Stage: Roy Spence

1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.

The Power of Purpose in Business & Life

SPEAKER: Roy Spence
Co-founder and Chairman, GSD&M
Co-founder and CEO, The Purpose Institute

ROOM: Potomac Ballroom C/D

Few know how to sum up why purpose deeply enriches your personal and professional life better than Entrepreneur and CEO Roy Spence. He has spent decades of advising some of the world’s most successful brands and will share his remarkable journey and key insights from legendary purpose-driven leaders. This session will reveal how finding meaning in everything you do can put you, and your organization, on the path to success.

Stage: Your Business

Make Your Events More Profitable: Learn agile business modeling practices to implement in a disruptive marketplace to drive sustainable value creation and growth for your events, and organizations and audiences, including ways to monetize event experiences, new sales and marketing strategies, how to overcome challenges and better work with event partners and team members, and more. Ultimately, you’ll gain the tips and insights needed to become adaptable and lead innovation as a business driver.

10:15 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Contracts, Rebooking Events and Moving Business Forward

SPEAKERS: Marcus Eng, Associate Director, Meetings, American Public Transportation Association, Alex Zapple, Director of Meetings and Member Experience, American Society of Nephrology, Brad Dean, CEO, Discover Puerto Rico

ROOM: Prince George’s Hall D/E

Brought to you by Eventsforce

Whether it’s a global pandemic or other disruptive forces on the horizon, business risk will continue to be top of mind for event strategists and suppliers alike. The event leaders in this session will share their stories of how recent cancellations, attrition and rebooking circumstances have impacted their business relationships and financial performance. They will also share how the pandemic has changed how they’ll approach contracts, negotiations and business relationships going forward.

Learning Objectives:

Confidently approach business conversations and negotiations contracts to build a shared risk relationship.
Consider and discuss scenario planning timelines with your suppliers to be in lock step on major contractual changes.
Incorporating crucial details within future contracts, including force majeure clauses and other legal stipulations.

11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

Defining the Unpredictable: New Success Measures in Event Scenario Planning

SPEAKERS: Kirsten Olean, Director of Meetings, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Anna Kosova, Principal, Capital Management, LLC

ROOM: Prince George’s Hall D/E

Brought to you by Eventsforce

Basing your upcoming event attendance and revenue projections using pre pandemic data is like hitting a target blindfolded with your hands tied. These event leaders will share how they forecasted fluctuating event models amidst ongoing uncertainty and where they’ll go from here to determine how success will be defined and measured.

Learning Objectives:

Determine what data you need to forecast financial and attendance goals in multiple event models.
Explore how to proactively involve your supplier partners in budgeting and forecasting conversations.
Examine ways to be more effective in your event attendance and revenue scenario planning.

Stage: Your Purpose

Make a Difference for Yourself and Your World: Explore the impact we make as individuals, organizations, and as a global industry when we align our efforts with purpose. Learn important takeaways about incorporating meaningful equity, inclusion, diversity and belonging efforts, ways to make your event more sustainable, how to turn allyship and support into activism through taking a stand, and how you can drive social change and economic opportunities. Walk away knowing how to create both meaning and money as you make a difference in your community and the world at large.

10:15 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

A Vision of Progress: LGBTQ+ Activism through Business Events

SPEAKERS: Crystal Sparks, Emcee and Host, To the Top Media, David Johns, Executive Director, National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), Jonathan Lovitz, Special Advisor, National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), Donna Hubley, Vice President Field Sales, Encore

ROOM: Prince George’s Hall D/E

Business events have always been a conduit for social change. Our panelists are at the forefront of the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and are ready to bring their expertise and experience to the discussion. Learn how you can use your position as a business events professional to create meaningful and significant social progress. Let’s work together to create the future we wish to see.

Learning Objectives:

Learn the impact business events can have on LGBTQ+ rights and social progress.
Integrate LGBTQ+ inclusive practices into your event strategy and implementation.

11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

The Strategy of Purpose: A Holistic CSR Approach

SPEAKER: Courtney Lohmann, Senior Director, Corporate Social Responsibility, PRA Inc.

ROOM: Prince George’s Hall D/E

If you want to maximize the potential for your events to make a lasting impact, take both a strategic and holistic approach to CSR. Identifying your purpose and business objectives then applying the design thinking model will help you seamlessly integrate CSR to increase attendee engagement and elevate the experience. This session will show how using this blended strategy will help you achieve more for the community with your destination partners.

Learning Objectives:

Learn the importance of understanding your purpose and how to apply it to a CSR strategy.
Blend the design thinking process into your event and CSR strategies for better attendee and stakeholder engagement.
Take steps to effectively align with destination partners to engage deeper on your CSR initiatives.

Conversation Starters

Conversation Starters are an opportunity for attendees to come together with other business events industry leaders for topic-based 45-minute discussions. Participants will have a chance to share ideas, challenges and collaborate to find innovative solutions.
Maximum capacity 20, first come first served.

9:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

The Great Exhaustion: Strategies for Resiliency in Times of Change

ROOM: Prince George’s Hall D/E

12:45 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Exploring Planner/Supplier Shared Risk Relationships & Negotiations

ROOM: Prince George’s Hall D/E

Health & Safety

Your well-being is our #1 priority. We have partnered with Safe Expo to oversee the onsite Health & Safety Plan and adhere to Marriott’s Connect with Confidence plan. We require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for all Destination Showcase participants.

Please upload your vaccination card to Safe Expo’s secure portal before your arrival to prevent congestion on site. You can print, screenshot, or download the confirmation to show onsite at Safe Expo registration.

Worksite Labs will be onsite to provide both PCR and antigen testing if needed for your travels. Results are available in 60-90 minutes. Must pay applicable fees. Preregister now.

REGISTER NOW

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Highlights from Destination Showcase 2020

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.