Accelerate Stage

Visit the Accelerate Stage, a learning hub brought to you by Travel Portland, in the center of it all.

Here you can participate in:

• Four presentations that examine trends in adjacent industries and explore how to prepare for and adapt them to your business events.
• A social impact project for ECPAT-USA. Write supportive messages in notebooks given to middle- and high school-aged youth that they’ll use during facilitated ECPAT Y-ACT workshops on child sexual exploitation awareness.
• Raffle drawings to win FREE registration to either EduCon 2020 in Montreal or Convening Leaders 2021 in Houston, tickets to the PCMA Foundation’s Visionary Awards in April 2020, gift cards and more.

12:30 p.m. “The Big Payback: Strategies for Executing Successful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Events”
Speaker: Chandra Champion, business events strategist

Business events can foster community engagement with your destinations. Explore ways to develop meaningful experiences for you participants while supporting local community outreach programs. Hear strategies to identify and implement CSR projects and other social impact opportunities at your next event.

CE credit: 0.5

1:30 p.m. “Focus Group of One: Your Brand, Your Voice”
Speaker: Karen Baker, marketing strategist

Discover the words, personality and language you should be using to market your event, organization or brand to attract a wider audience. Hear how to communicate your value, build trust and remain recognizable with marketing messages that resonate with a variety of lifestyles, ethnicities and altering markets.

CE credit: 0.5

2:30 p.m. “Emotionally Intelligent Experiences: Designing with the End User in Mind”
Speaker: Amy Blackman, Fruition Co. Founder

Take a deep dive on how to apply emotional intelligence to your business events planning and experience design process. Discover how to adopt a proactive approach to personalize experiences tailored to individual needs so your business events participants feel connected and understood.

CE credit: 0.5

3:30 p.m. “Game On: What Event Strategists Can Learn from eSports”
Speaker: Gary Gonzalez, director of strategy at Convoke

Get an insider’s look at how eSports is driving cultural transformation and what the billion-dollar industry means for business events planners and destinations. Hear how advancing technology is reshaping interests and media consumption habits of an entire generation and how you can leverage it to your advantage.

CE credit: 0.5