BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//PCMA - ECPv5.14.2.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:PCMA
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.pcma.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for PCMA
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Los_Angeles
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0800
TZOFFSETTO:-0700
TZNAME:PDT
DTSTART:20260308T100000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0700
TZOFFSETTO:-0800
TZNAME:PST
DTSTART:20261101T090000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261013
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261017
DTSTAMP:20261006T073623
CREATED:20260922T142710Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261005T222549Z
UID:259059-1791849600-1792195199@www.pcma.org
SUMMARY:IMEX 2026
DESCRIPTION:IMEX America kicks off with a full day of education on Tuesday\, October 13\, 2026. PCMA will be at booth B4694. Check back regularly for education and networking updates! \n\n[vc_btn title=”Schedule an appointment with our team” style=”outline-custom” outline_custom_color=”#590044″ outline_custom_hover_background=”#85165a” outline_custom_hover_text=”#ffffff” shape=”round” align=”center” i_align=”right” i_icon_fontawesome=”” add_icon=”true” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Famerica.imexevents.com%2Fexhibitor%2F82076|target:_blank|rel:nofollow”]\n    \n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n        \n    \n\n\n    \n    \n\n    \n        \n            \n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Smart Monday Education by PCMA\n\n\n    Add our workshops and panels to your IMEX schedule!  \n\n\n    Spark AI Workshop 1: Event Planning & Logistics\nSmart Planning with Spark: Streamlining Event Logistics\n9:30am – 10:30am | Paula Rowntree   \nBehind every successful event is a mountain of planning\, coordination\, and detail. In this hands-on session\, you’ll learn how to use Spark and its more than 100 modules and tasks to simplify logistics and stay ahead of deadlines. From building supplier RFPs and managing run sheets to shaping venue briefs and balancing budgets\, Spark transforms time-consuming admin into quick\, accurate outputs. You’ll walk away with practical workflows designed for real event challenges—so you can focus less on manual tasks and more on delivering exceptional experiences.    \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Spark AI Workshop 2: Data Analysis & Marketing\nUnlocking Insights & Amplifying Impact with Spark\n10:45am-11:45am | Paula Rowntree \nEvent professionals know that data and marketing both demand time\, attention\, and clarity. In this session\, you’ll see how Spark’s Data Analysis tools cut through the noise—summarising surveys\, highlighting trends\, and evaluating feedback in seconds. We’ll then shift gears to explore Spark’s Marketing modules\, where you can instantly repurpose content into campaigns\, build audience-specific messaging\, and create posts\, press releases\, and sponsorship proposals at speed. Together\, these tools demonstrate how Spark’s more than 100 modules and tasks can give you sharper insights and stronger outreach without the manual workload. \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    From Event Execution to Strategic Leadership: Mastering Data-Driven Communication for Event Professionals\n12:00pm-1:00pm | Anthony Vade | Co-Founder\, Strategy Table Pathways Inc. & PCMA Institute Faculty  \nIn today’s competitive business landscape\, event professionals must evolve beyond logistical coordination to become strategic partners who drive measurable organizational impact. This comprehensive session is designed to transform how event professionals communicate their value\, align with business objectives\, and influence key stakeholders through compelling\, data-driven narratives.  \nLearning Outcomes\nBy the end of this session\, participants will be able to:  \n\nReframe Their Professional Identity: Transition from tactical event coordinators to strategic business partners who understand and contribute to organizational goals \nMaster Data-Driven Storytelling: Develop compelling narratives that translate event metrics into business impact stories that resonate with C-suite executives \nImplement Strategic Analytics: Leverage technology and analytics tools to track\, measure\, and report on event performance in ways that matter to senior leadership \nDeliver Executive-Ready Presentations: Craft and confidently present business-driven event proposals that secure buy-in and resources from executive stakeholders \n\n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    From Order-Taker to Strategic Partner: The C-Suite Mindset Every Event Professional Needs\n2:30pm-3:30pm | Tammy Moore\, CMM\, CMP | VP Learning & Professional Development | PCMA Institute  \nTired of being brought in at the last minute to execute someone else’s vision? Ready to earn your seat at the strategy table? This interactive session transforms how you approach your role by teaching you to think like the C-suite about the impact of events on business success.  \nUsing real business frameworks and practical exercises\, you’ll learn to decode what leadership truly cares about and translate your event expertise into executive-level conversations. Master the strategic thinking that separates order-takers from indispensable partners who drive measurable business results.  \nThis session is designed for ambitious event professionals who want to elevate their influence and become trusted advisors within their organizations.  \nLearning Outcomes\nBy the end of this session\, you will be able to:  \n\nApply business thinking frameworks to evaluate and communicate event ROI in terms of leadership values \nPosition events strategically as drivers of key business objectives rather than standalone activities \nIdentify value creation opportunities within your current role to increase organizational impact \nDevelop proactive partnership strategies that transform you from a reactive executor to a trusted business advisor \n\n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Bridging the Design Gap: Aligning Business Objectives with Human Experience\n3:45pm-4:30pm | Devon Montgomery Pasha | DMP Creative & PCMA Institute Faculty \nMany events fail because there’s a gap between what organizations want to achieve and what participants actually experience. This session explores how to bridge that gap using event design thinking. Participants will learn how to align business objectives with participant needs\, creating experiences that deliver measurable impact and lasting value.  \nLearning Outcomes\nBy the end of this session\, you will be able to:  \n\nIdentify the most common gaps between business goals and event delivery. \nApply design thinking to close those gaps with practical tools. \nLearn how to measure success in terms that matter to both business leaders and participants. \n\n\n        \n    \n\n\n    \n    \n\n    \n        \n            \n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Tuesday\, October 13\n    Smarter by Design: What the PCMA Outlook 2026 Means for Corporate & Association Planners\n10:00am-10:30 am | Chantal Sturk-Nadeau \nCorporate and association planners are being asked to deliver more value\, demonstrate greater impact and adapt more quickly\, often with flat or shrinking budgets and teams. Drawing on insights from the PCMA Outlook 2026 product in collaboration with MCI\, this session explores what planners across both sectors reported about volatility\, readiness gaps\, event formats\, audience engagement\, data and measurement. Organized around four themes; Plan\, Design\, Grow and Lead Smarter\, the session will translate these insights into practical actions planners can apply to their teams and events. Attendees will leave with a prioritized set of actionable moves and four questions to help guide conversations and decision-making within their organization.  \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    You Get the Proposals You Request: What to Ask Before You Write the RFP\n10:45am-11:15 am | Tammy Moore \nYou send an RFP with dates\, room block\, space and budget. Four proposals come back\, all describing world-class service and flexible meeting space\, and none of them describing your event. So the decision comes down to rate\, and the shortlist is hard to defend upward.  \nThat is not a supplier problem. The gap is in what you asked for\, and it is the one part of the process you fully control.  \nIn 30 minutes you will learn a four-question framework\, borrowed from consultative selling and turned around\, to use on your own stakeholders before you write the RFP. Ask these four questions internally and you will get proposals you can actually compare\, and give partners enough to bring you ideas instead of rate sheets.  \nWhat you will take away:  \n\nFour questions to ask your own sponsors and stakeholders before you write the RFP \nThree sentences of purpose to put at the top of your next RFP \nA pocket card with the framework\, to use on your next sourcing project \n\n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Future–Proofing Your Career in a World With AI \n11:30 am-12:00 pm | Nick Borelli \n \nAs AI integrates deeper into our daily workflows\, event professionals face a critical question: how do we ensure our roles remain essential? In this interactive 30-minute session\, we’re skipping the basic tool tutorials to focus on the ultimate survival strategy: defining truly human work. Facilitated by PCMA’s Enhancing Events with AI course instructor\, this session is an open floor to discuss the candid realities of automation’s impact on content\, experience design\, and our professional lives.  \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    The Agentic Planner: What AI Does on Its Own Now\, and What It Still Can’t\n12:15pm – 12:45pm | Vamshi Velmajala\n \nAI has moved from answering prompts to running whole tasks. In this live session\, an AI agent in Spark takes a real event brief and works through a destination shortlist\, RFP draft\, budget and run of show. The audience changes the constraints midway and watches it adapt. You’ll leave with a clear picture of which planning tasks you can hand off today\, which still need you\, and how to tell the difference.  \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    The Architect’s House: Using an Intentional Event Design Framework\n1:00 pm-1:30 pm | Devon Montgomery Pasha \nAre you the planner\, or the strategist? The builder\, or the architect? Most events are executed well and still fall flat\, not from a lack of effort\, but because no one stopped to design the experience on purpose. In this live 30-minute session\, watch a real event take shape on screen using the Event House™\, a visual framework that makes the difference between building to spec and designing with intention impossible to miss. Come for 30 minutes\, leave seeing your own events differently.  \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    S.H.A.PE. the Future: 4.0 Leadership in the Gen-AI Economy – When AI Can Do Everything\, What Makes You Essential?\n1:45 pm-2:15 pm | Amy Blackman  \nAI is changing how work gets done\, but leadership has never mattered more. Meet the five human capabilities that technology cannot replace\, drawn from new PCMA Insights research publishing in 2027. You will get a preview of the research\, score yourself live\, and leave knowing which capability is your strongest and which one to build first. Amy Blackman (Fruition Co.) is the researcher behind PCMA’s 2026 Feature Study\, The Human Advantage: 4.0 Leadership\, launching at CL27.  \nLearner Outcomes:  \n\nName the five capabilities that keep a person essential once AI handles the execution. \nScore yourself live and locate your own gap. \nLeave with one practice for the capability you choose to build first. \n\n\n        \n    \n\n\n    \n    \n\n    \n        \n            \n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Wednesday\, October 14\n    Your Boss Is Tracking The Wrong Number. Here Is How To Fix That\n10:00am-10:30 am | Vinnu Deshetty  \nPlenty of planners have built the dashboard at midnight\, then sat in the boardroom watching leadership nod along to an attendance slide that proved absolutely nothing. Leadership does not resist better metrics because they are difficult. They resist them because nobody ever showed them a better question to ask.  \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    The Mindset of Influence: How Event Profs Can Lead with Flexible Focus\n10:45am-11:15 am | Anthony Vade  \nReady to take your seat at the executive table?   \nMoving from logistics to leadership requires a profound mindset shift. In this 30-minute session\, you will learn to pivot from delivering outcomes to directing bold possibilities. We will explore how to cultivate a flexible focus that shifts easily between daily execution and strategic thought.  \nDrawing from the PCMA Institute’s Lead with Strategic Influence and Strategic Analysis to Action courses\, this session previews the modern strategist’s toolkit. You will discover how to uncover stakeholder needs\, apply systems thinking\, and foster innovation. You will leave with a blueprint for building trust with leadership and see exactly how enrolling in these full PCMA courses can transform your career.  \nBy the end of this session\, attendees will be able to:  \n\nCultivate a Strategic Mindset: Balance data and intuition to successfully transition from a tactical planner to a strategic leader. \nTranslate Creativity to Business Value: Reframe event concepts into business language that resonates with executives and earns their trust. \nTurn Analysis into Action: Use frameworks like the PDCA cycle and Iceberg Model to diagnose challenges and design actionable solutions. \n\n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Bridging the Design Gap: Aligning Business Objectives with Human Experience \n11:30 am-12:00 pm | Devon Montgomery Pasha  \nMany events are well-executed yet strategically misaligned. When business objectives and human experience are designed separately\, events miss opportunities for deeper impact and measurable outcomes. In this fast-paced 30-minute session\, participants will learn how to identify disconnects between intention and experience and apply a practical alignment framework to elevate both ROI and audience engagement. \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    From Survey to Strategy: Turning Post-Event Data into Next Year’s Program with AI\n12:15pm – 12:45pm | Vamshi Velmajala  \nMost post-event surveys get read once and filed. This session shows how to turn that data into decisions. Using Spark\, we take real survey and registration data and build attendee personas\, surface what worked and what didn’t\, and test next year’s session titles\, formats\, and pricing against them. Bring your own survey results if you want to see it run at your event.  \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Faster\, Sharper\, Together: What PCMA Outlook 2026 Reveals About How Destinations Win Next\n1:00 pm-1:30 pm | Chantal Sturk-Nadeau  \nDestination organizations are under growing pressure to prove their value\, navigate uncertainty\, and deliver more with limited resources. What separates those that struggle from those that find a way to win? Drawing on the PCMA Outlook 2026 research with MCI\, this session reveals what DMO leaders told us and where the biggest opportunities lie to rethink how destination organizations create value. Discover four critical shifts that can help your organization gain an edge: navigating uncertainty\, reforming the system\, competing on intelligence\, and leading the ecosystem. Leave with practical\, prioritized actions to strengthen your strategy\, sharpen your competitive advantage\, and position your organization to win.   \n\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Digital as the Strategy: How to Create Value Beyond the Event\n1:45 pm-2:15 pm | Brian Zambotti  \nWhat if the event was only one part of the experience? \nToo often\, organizations invest heavily in a few live days and then let the value disappear when the event ends. This session looks at how digital can extend content\, reach new audiences\, create more value from the work you are already producing\, and keep people engaged before\, during\, and after the event. \nYou’ll leave with a practical way to think about digital as part of your overall event strategy. \n\n        \n    \n\n\n    \n    \n\n    \n        \n            \n    Press Conference\n\n\n    Wednesday\, October 8th at 1pm  \nPCMA Delivers Enhanced Education and Technology for Global Business Events Community \nPCMA Board Chair\, Neil Brownlee and Sherrif Karamat\, CAE\, PCMA and CEMA President & CEO will preview two unmatched education offerings with the application process to open during Convening Leaders 2026 in Philadelphia\, Pennsylvania. Enhancements to destination and venue research and sourcing platforms continue with Destinaitor and Spark. \n\n        \n    \n\n\n    \n    \n\n    \n        \n            \n    Join the IMEX America Wellbeing Challenge\n\n\n    Sponsored by Caesars Entertainment\nPowered by Heka Health\nIn partnership with the PCMA Foundation and Prevue Meetings & Incentives  \nParticipate in a range of wellbeing activities and enjoy some healthy competition with your peers at IMEX America 2025. Earn chances to win amazing prizes for reaching Challenge Goals and working your way up the leaderboard.   \nIn addition to competing as an individual\, you can create your own team or join an existing team. Teams compete against other teams based on average points and you can also see well how you rank against your teammates.  \nThe IMEX Wellbeing Challenge starts first thing on Tuesday\, October 7 (12:01a PT) and ends Thursday\, October 9 at noon PT.  \nStop by the PCMA Foundation booth (F441) and take on the hula hoop to earn 1\,000 bonus points per day. Earn an additional 2\,000 bonus points for every donation to the PCMA Foundation of $25 or more at https://foundation.pcma.org/donate/  \n\n[vc_btn title=”Learn more and sign up here” style=”outline-custom” outline_custom_color=”#54a0df” outline_custom_hover_background=”#54a0df” outline_custom_hover_text=”#ffffff” shape=”round” align=”center” i_align=”right” i_icon_fontawesome=”” add_icon=”true” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hekahealth.com%2Fimexamerica25|target:_blank|rel:nofollow”]        \n    \n\n\n    \n    \n\n    \n        \n            \n    \n    \n    \n    \n\n    Networking Receptions \n\n\n    Tuesday\, October 13 & Wednesday\, October 14 PCMA & CEMA Member Reception\n3:00pm-4:00pm | Booth B4694Connect with fellow members during IMEX and enjoy networking and industry camaraderie.\n \n \nTuesday\, October 13\nCEMA Happy Hour\n6:00pm–8:00pm | Pinky’s by Vanderpump\, Flamingo Las Vegas \nEnjoy an intimate setting to exchange ideas\, meet new peers\, and strengthen industry relationships while celebrating IMEX week in style. Register here »
URL:https://www.pcma.org/event/imex-2026/
LOCATION:Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino\, 3950 S Las Vegas Blvd\, Las Vegas\, NV\, 89119\, United States
CATEGORIES:Featured,Industry Calendar,PCMA Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.pcma.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/1500x500-IMEX2026.png
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR