Category Archives: Industry Buzz

Data Power Unleashed

Leave a reply

Do you have a data strategy? I ask that question of many organizations. Typically, the answer is “no.” When we start to peel back the onion a little, it’s clear that contact data accuracy is an issue. Organizations were not overly effective before COVID-19 with the quality of their prospect and client records. It’s an issue for many companies now as they start to develop new sales strategies.

Just think about how many times your organization has exhibited or participated in an event and had your sales representative download unqualified lists into your CRM. Did you reduce administrative staff during COVID-19 that were dedicated to CRM activity? How confident are you with new sales plans for 2022 and beyond?

Stepping back and looking at a new data strategy can be a key move in helping your sales team be more productive. Data input leads to great data output. Making decisions using solid data is essential to organization growth strategies. If you were in a room with 20 stakeholders, could you answer all the questions they have about your data?

Analytics are part of our daily lives. Whether you are starting your day with a look at your Dashboard, CRM, Traces, Notifications, To-Do Lists or any other strategic or tactical necessities, you are seeking clean and accurate data.

There is an old saying “If it was easy, everyone would do it” that applies to analytics. Using fact-based data to assist with decision making is imperative in today’s world.  Things change so quickly that organizations must be nimble and find ways to get feedback quick.

Errors are prevalent within any CRM and especially lists that could be 2-3 years old. How many records do you have in your CRM? Do you have a strategy that highlights target markets and those potential clients that have a keen interest in your products and services?

Here are five “must do tactics” to drive data accuracy and improve sales productivity when it comes to driving revenue and profitable growth.

  1. Assume your data is old, not accurate and in need of a renovation. That 1990’s house needs a full walk-thru and you should assume your data base is a fixer-upper
  2. Don’t admire what you had in terms of information on potential clients, active clients, and your own high performing salespeople. You are starting a new journey and need to look at “What If” rather than “What Is.”
  3. It takes about eight minutes to validate a record. Make sure you are dedicating trained research coordinators or outsourcing the task to provide your sales team with accurate client records to solicit.
  4. Marketing is important. Use your stakeholders to help develop messages that resonate with potential clients and why current clients use your company for products and services. Use a human voice to provide distinction on why your organization is different. Identify these voices in your CRM and with one-page testimonials. There is a product called Gather Voices that makes it easy to capture video testimonials.
  5. Use a dashboard that is transparent and that team members at all levels have access to.  Highlight and celebrate your top performers in research, sales & marketing.

Act sooner than later.  Turning data into decisions is a purposeful exercise. Business Intelligence is a key indicator for organizations to increase productivity. What does your dashboard look like?

Dashboards allow report consumers to create a single artifact of directed data that is personalized just for them. Dashboards can be comprised of pinned visuals that are taken from different reports. Where a Business Intelligence report uses data from a single dataset, a Powerful BI dashboard can contain visuals from different datasets: www.smartsheet.com

A Power BI dashboard is a single page, often called a canvas, that tells a story through visualizations. Because it’s limited to one page, a well-designed dashboard contains only the highlights of that story. Readers can view related reports for the details.  Being engaged with data proficiency, analytics agility, and community are pillars that can be part of your data strategy plan.

The seven key thoughts for driving action might include a thought process that asks many questions:

  1. Measure: if you can’t measure it, is it important? Will what you measure drive growth? Will it help you stop doing unproductive tasks? Are you measuring meaningful things?
  2. What are the questions you are asking of team members and stakeholders? Do you ask questions and listen, or do you just assume? How transparent is the access to your data? Self Service Models provide data that an on-demand world can find and leverage.
  3. Is segmentation part of your plan? Do you have strategies for your best clients? What is your new sales strategy? Do you have clients that need to be sunset? Are there target markets or verticals that could be easily accessed?
  4. Do you have stories that can be related to prospects that parallel the problems and issues you’ve solved for others? Can you highlight innovation and new ideas in industry publications or presenting at events?
  5. Are you training team members in Six Sigma, Experience Design and Advanced Sales Skills? Do you have the best performing, highly trained and polished sales and marketing teams?
  6. Where does storytelling fit in with your data driven insight strategies? Data Driven Insights involves everyone in your organization.
  7. What are the platforms you are using to gain customer feedback/ Do you have short succinct surveys, Customer Advisory Boards and Trusted Advisors that are your stakeholders?

How are you approaching your biggest challenges and opportunities? Are you in the Red Ocean or striving for the Blue Ocean? Blue Ocean Strategy – Wikipedia

New Vantage Partners recently reported that 98.6 percent of executives indicate that their organization aspires to a data-driven culture, while only 32.4 percent report having success. A 2018 IDC study also noted that organizations have invested trillions of dollars to modernize their business, but 70 percent of these initiatives fail because they prioritized technology investments without building a data culture to support it. What would these statistics look like four years later after the pandemic?

So what? Does it really matter to have a handle on one’s data? Whose responsibility, is it? IT, Sales, Marketing or Senior Executives? Ask yourself the question and the answer probably is that data driven decisions touch everyone in an organization. Working smarter, more productive and driving more revenue can be a result of fact-based data decision making. “Plan the Work, Work the Plan” is a simple way to integrate data into simple and complex decisions. If you can’t measure it, ask yourself “WHY”?

Gary Schirmacher, CMP

Chief Executive Officer

Total Hospitality Industry Solutions (THIS)

With 36 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Schirmacher has led the team at Total Hospitality Industry Solutions (THIS) since OCT 2020. Previously, he led Experient’s strategic plan development and implementation, as well as industry presence for Maritz Global Events for 25 years. He was awarded the company’s highest honor, the Pinnacle Award, in 2005, and was inducted into the Colorado Meetings Hall of Fame in 2011 with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He served as Chairman of the Meetings Industry Council of Colorado from 2001-2007. Schirmacher is the 2022 Chair for the MPI Global Foundation Board. He is a Past Chair of the Meetings Industry Fund. Gary is a member of the EIC APEX Commission for Business Recovery Task Force. He is a member of PCMA, MPI, IAEE, ASAE, Association Forum and CSAE. Schirmacher is a Past Chair of the PCMA Education Foundation Board of Trustees and a frequent speaker at major industry meetings and events. Schirmacher is a graduate of the Worldwide College of Auctioneering and Owner of Big Top Auctions USA

House Members are STILL fighting for aid for the Live Events Industry

Leave a reply

By Wendy E. Porter

Owner, Wendy Porter Events, LLC

Vice-Chair, Government Affairs, Live Events Coalition

March 18, 2022

On December 21, 2020, Congress passed the $15 billion Shuttered Venues Operators Grant (SVOG) as part of the COVID Relief Bill. And then on March 11, 2021, Congress passed the $1.2 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), of which $360 billion was allocated to state and local governments to support COVID relief efforts, including for small business relief. I’m hearing from a lot of misguided people that my industry “must be okay” now. Well… not so fast. 

While the SVOG was very much needed to keep our small independent venues, like Minneapolis’ First Avenue, alive, it didn’t go far enough. It helped the small venues stay afloat by covering their operating losses, but it didn’t help support the every-day gig worker or small business owners, who create events at those venues. 

The ARPA funding theoretically pushed billions into small businesses in the Live Events Industry, but yet, most of that money never got where it was intended to go, as states had wide discretion on how to distribute the funds. According to a September 2021 survey by the Live Events Coalition, over 90% of small businesses in the Live Events Industry have been completely left out of aid from these packages.

And then people said, “Congress is not prioritizing the money correctly. There are people standing in food lines, and they give it to the arts with SVOG? Who cares about the arts! Why aren’t they giving more to restaurants, where people are REALLY in need?”

I’m here to tell you why you should care. About the Arts and all the rest of the Live Events Industry, in which I have been employed for the last 20 years of my career. These ARE the people who are really in need… I’d argue as much or more than any other industry. After all, there was no curbside pickup in Live Events. We were literally SHUT DOWN. For almost two years. And some of our segments (i.e. Corporate) and not really back yet. Corporate trade shows are just starting to be held in person again. My company has done one in-person trade show. In two years. And it happened last week.

The Live Events Industry is the biggest “unknown” industry in the US, annually representing a conservatively estimated nearly $1 TRILLION in direct spending. This industry includes ALL events where people gather that are professionally organized. That includes not only Arts/Theatre, but also Conferences, Trade Shows, Business Meetings, Weddings, Funerals, Graduations, Birthday & Anniversary Celebrations, Art & Music Festivals, Concerts, Music Tours, Parades, Fundraisers, Awards Galas, Inaugurations, Sporting Events… basically the entire fabric of our culture and society. 

Every single person in the US takes part in a professionally organized event at some point in their lives. We are the people in black behind the curtain. When we do our jobs right, you don’t know we are there. That is completely by design. It’s supposed to look effortless. And over the last two years, that’s really hurt us. No one seems to know we exist and how large the industry is. It’s beyond time to come out from the shadows.

According to the Live Events Coalition, 12 million people work in the Live Events Industry in the US, with hundreds of types of jobs represented across over 1 million small businesses. From event producers coordinating the entire event, to the truck drivers hauling the gear,10 million of these people were 100% unemployed due to no fault of their own and an additional two million were underemployed.

To put that in context, in November 2020, 22 million people were unemployed in the US. 45% of the unemployed were people FROM the Live Events Industry. These were the people who were standing in food lines and not able to pay their rent. And many of these people are still not back to work or have mountains of debt to overcome. Homes, cars and other assets have been sold. 401K’s, savings accounts and college funds wiped out. People have taken their lives. The COVID-19 impact on the workforce in the Live Events Industry has been severe and staggering.

This is about a HUGE industry of people that have not been cared for by our government when they were forced to stop working due to government mandates to stop the spread of a deadly disease. So yes, if you care about Restaurant workers, you should also care about Live Events Industry workers. We are all interconnected.  An event is at the epicenter. People drive to get to the event; they stay in hotels; they eat at restaurants; they shop. The ripple effect is massive. Make no mistake, events are a major economic driver across the globe, and our industry has been forgotten.

To give you a comparison, in 2018, the US Automotive Industry was a $545.4 billion industry. The Live Events Industry is nearly two times larger. The US Automotive Industry got a government bailout several years ago for mismanagement because they were “too big to fail.” We have not mismanaged our businesses, but yet, we are not being seen as having a need. We were the first to close. And we have been the last to reopen… with many events still not back on the calendar.

The Live Events Industry is part of the entire US ecosystem. From the food grown by the farmers that is served by caterers, to the power used by utility companies to light events up and create the sound… to the flowers grown for weddings, and the gas used by truckers to get gear from point A to point B. If you think this “doesn’t matter”, you are sorely mistaken and entirely missing the point.

Think of a big game of Jenga, where the pieces are all interconnected to create the tower. The pieces are slowly being pulled out. You take out too many of the pieces… the entire thing collapses. That is exactly what is at risk. The people in our industry are those Jenga pieces in our society. Stop thinking of this as just the Guthrie or just the Kennedy Center or just First Avenue. Think of the entire ecosystem impacted. It’s massive.

Are we still fighting? You bet we are! Why? Because our industry now has a 2-year hole to dig out of. We have all been in the same storm over the last two years. But some of us have been on yachts. Some of us have been paddling in canoes. And some of us have been drowning. We are the ones drowning. We are not asking to be made whole by Congress. We have never asked for that. We are asking for the same help afforded to other parts of our society during this crisis, which is still not over. We just need a lifeboat to help us weather this storm until it passes.

We have active legislation in the works, being championed by Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN). In fact, just yesterday, an article ran in Politico about a Letter to Speaker Pelosi and Chair DeLauro asking them to support an active bill to get more help for businesses in live events, gyms, restaurants not supported by the Restaurant Revitalization Act (RRA) because the funding ran out, and for other small businesses that have been left out of aid.

The Live Events Industry is also “too big to fail”, and it’s more than time for Congress to take appropriate action to support this vital industry in our US economy.

____________________________________________________________

Wendy Porter, a nationally award-winning event strategist, is the Chief Events Officer of Wendy Porter Events, LLC, based in Minneapolis, MN. She is the Founder/President for the Live Events Coalition Minnesota, the Vice-Chair of Government Affairs for the National Live Events Coalition, and she sits on the National Board of Directors of LEC. Over the last two years, Wendy’s advocacy for the Live Events Industry has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, on CNBC and MPR, and in several local press outlets in Minnesota.

TheLive Events Coalition was established in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on the live events industry. LEC exists to provide advocacy, resources and a network that connects and supports all of the businesses, contractors and our workforce – the lifeblood of every event. To learn more: www.liveeventscoalition.org

IMEX announces a new reason to Smyle

Leave a reply

The IMEX Group has partnered with award-winning creative agency Smyle to produce a series of digital activations for the global business events community leading up to IMEX America in November.

The full programme, which will run between May and September, will be announced next month.

The new concept is designed to give tangible business value to IMEX’s traditional buyer and supplier audiences who have now missed a year of face-to-face trade shows. It also aims to unlock fresh business opportunities and attract a new online audience.

Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group, says: “Where 2020 was all about massive disruption and creativity in the face of chaos, in 2021 we’re focused on delivering digital experiences that generate business momentum and connections as we look towards IMEX America in November.

“Together with Smyle, and having learned huge lessons from PlanetIMEX, we’re planning a four-month activation with two clear advantages for the industry. First, it will be a time and a place for buyers and suppliers to build networks, nurture business leads and enjoy a sense of community and camaraderie. Second, for those who wish to use it this way, it will be a springboard for face-to-face engagement at IMEX America. Our partnership with Smyle, with their strong creative heritage, will enable us to deliver this ‘best of both worlds’ in a way that’s powerful, relevant and responsive to current business needs.”

Dominic Thomas-Smith, Managing Director of Smyle, adds: “We’re really excited to be working with the IMEX Group in building an all-new communications platform for event professionals globally. The boundaries of digital know no limits – we can’t wait to bring innovative thinking and a load of creativity to deliver engaging, interesting and rewarding experiences for all who participate.”

More details about the IMEX Group’s digital solutions will be announced next month.

IMEX America takes place 9 – 11 November at its new home of Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

www.imexexhibitions.com

#PCMACL – Convening Leaders: Recovery, Discovery, Resiliency Heading into 2021

Leave a reply

As a long time attendee of the PCMA Convening Leader’s annual January event, this year’s “virtual remake” Jan. 11-15 did not disappoint. Noted as the best way for participants to kick off the New Year, its traditional format of stellar education and networking was only slightly diminished by the lack of face-to-face interaction.

A total of 3,500 people from 36 countries registered to watch the content online through the Juno AI platform, interacted in The Kitchen conversations and as part of micro-communities and satellite gatherings keeping the level of engagement very high.

The event moved from its planned location in Houston to Singapore, with 19 official network partners hosting watch parties from United Arab Emirates, where 300 people joined the event, to a Marriott International gathering in Denver and a Hilton event in Dallas with 50 attendees each.

For those accustomed to the standard industry vernacular that we’re used to hearing from speakers, a new vocabulary surfaced as a result of the various education sessions highlighting the new virtual reality. Terms such as Gamification, Tik-Tok, Zoom Room, Fun Format, Bandwidth Considerations, and Twitch and Cyberpunk 2077 as streaming platforms (a.k.a. video games) are on track to become part of our professional conversations.

Counteracting these highly technological assemblies were opportunities to join wellness groups practicing Guided Meditation, Zen Yoga, and a Pranayama Breathing Session all sponsored by Puerto Rico. For the virtual side of this hybrid event, in person networking was replaced by chat rooms and scheduled groups for conversations highlighted by the opportunity to replace your facial expressions with those of various emoji’s when conversing online.

In conclusion, PCMA retained its reputation for soliciting a high level of involvement from the attendees. This was aided by the fact that the virtual format produced an enhanced number of global speakers as well as those participants able to attend due to the elimination of the travel component. It’s a testimony to the organizers that the energy of the audience was not diminished by the pivot to a hybrid event.

Sherrif Karamat, President & CEO of PCMA said face-to-face meetings are starting to come back…with full recovery in 2023. “Recovery is on its way, but we can’t expect to go back to what it was. We have changed, and we have to help people face that new reality.”

See you (hopefully in person) Jan. 9-12, 2022, when PCMA Convening Leaders brings its flagship education and networking event to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, be safe – innovate!

Join Us for IMEX America in Las Vegas November 9-11, 2021

Leave a reply

ConventionPlanit invites you to join the upcoming IMEX America hosted buyer group of our partners, Susan Sarfati and Liz Jackson.  Connect – Learn – Contract.  US and Canadian buyers of meeting location services will benefit from 2 days of a complimentary in-person trade show plus a full day of education earning certification points.  IMEX America will cover your coach air fare, hotel expense and Las Vegas airport shuttle service.  We’re hoping the world will be a safe environment by November and we can get back to work booking the events we have missed so much during the pandemic!  See you in Las Vegas! 

To RSVP:  Contact Liz Jackson ljackson262@msn.com 

Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Voted Malaysia’s Best Convention Centre!

Leave a reply

The progressive purpose-built venue strengthens its market leadership position

KUALA LUMPUR, 24 November 2020 – The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (the Centre) was recently voted as Malaysia’s Best Convention Centre 2020 by leading travel and business events industry players in the inaugural World Mice AwardsTM 2020, retaining its market leadership position.

This recognition came on the back of another industry award, ICCA Best Marketing Award 2020 – Recognising Leadership in Transformation, earlier this month.

The Centre’s General Manager, Alan Pryor said, “We are truly delighted to receive this honour from World Mice AwardsTM. This reinforces our commitment to forge ahead in a spirit of positivity and resilience to progress business recovery and to remain our clients’ preferred business events partner. We regard this award as an encouragement amidst this very challenging year and as an inspiration to continue all our efforts as Malaysia’s leading venue. We would also like to congratulate our fellow winners, One World Hotel for Best MICE Hotel and MEvents for Best MICE Organiser.”

World’s leading MICE brands were selected and nominated in a year-long process followed by a period of voting by travel industry professionals and the public. The nominee gaining the most votes in a category was determined as the winner.

Pryor concluded, “We applaud World MICE Awards’ initiative to recognise the leaders of our industry. It is much needed to keep the industry’s morale up during such turbulent times and this programme has definitely succeeded in this regard.”

Aimed to raise the standards within the business events industry by recognising and rewarding organisations that are leaders in their field, World Mice AwardsTM was developed with a mission to serve as the definitive benchmark of excellence, and help foster a new era of growth, innovation and best practice on a global scale. World Mice AwardsTM is the sister event of World Travel AwardsTM which was launched in 1994.

For all the latest news, visit the Centre’s Newsroom at www.klccconventioncentre.com or follow on social media (Facebook – @klccconventioncentre, LinkedIn – Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Twitter – @klccconvention and Instagram – @klccconventioncentre).

Angeline van den Broecke elected to the ICCA Board of Directors

Leave a reply

KUALA LUMPUR, 11 November 2020 – The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre’s Director of Global Business Development & Marketing has been elected to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Board of Directors representing the Venue Sector, at the 59th ICCA General Assembly recently.

On her new role at ICCA, Angeline said, “First and foremost, I would like to congratulate James Rees, ICCA President, on another leadership term as well as all re-elected and new ICCA Board Members. I am looking forward to continuing the efforts and hard work of the outgoing venue sector representative Anja Stas and very much look forward to working with Jonas Scharf who will be serving another term jointly representing the venue sector.”

“As a Board Member and representative of the Venue Sector, I am committed to driving collective momentum to pioneer business and economic recovery to keep our industry transforming and transacting, and to contribute and grow ICCA’s engagement platform across our industry supply chain and to strengthen ICCA’s membership so we can deliver more value to members.

“Of great relevance to me is for venues to be vocal and demonstrate the value they provide as social and economic drivers, we need to communicate the value of venues as important infrastructure assets to cities and communities. We need to keep our venues operating and delivering business events and ascertain what relevant information and support we can share as a sector to advance our recovery and progressive transformation,” concluded Angeline.

Her key areas of expertise are in global business development and acquisition, strategic marketing and organisational and destination growth initiatives as well as partnership and alliance engagement models, having worked extensively in both the public and private sector.

Alan Pryor, General Manager of Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre added, “On behalf of the Centre, we would like to extend our heartiest congratulations. Her leadership attributes, commitment and passion towards our industry is highly respected by her peers. Her appointment is a direct reflection of the charismatic team of experts that is part of the Centre and the ASM Global network. Angeline’s appointment is a recognition for the Centre and an inspiration to all our team members to be steadfast and passionate in their aspirations.”

Rod Pilbeam, Chief Operating Officer Asia-Pacific, ASM Global commended, “During her time at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Angeline has regularly evolved the marketing strategy to ensure the continuing success of the Centre as a leader in Asia. Angeline has also been a valued contributor to our combined group initiatives including our Advantage program around our Asia-Pacific centres. Her experience in looking beyond just her home venue will stand her in great stead in making a contribution to our whole industry, particularly in the areas of data and knowledge about our business that we look for ICCA to bring together.”

Malaysia Business Events Industry Commits to a Safe Event Environment

Leave a reply

Industry bodies and government sectors engage to ensure effective compliance and adherence to Business Events (BE) Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Business Events Council Malaysia (BECM) and Malaysia Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (MACEOS) with the support of Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) brought together Malaysia’s venue operators to engage with the Government on thorough monitoring and reporting as well as correct implementation and enforcement of the industry Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Present at the co-ordination meeting were Y.Bhg. Datin Sri Norfaliza, Head of Covid-19 Unit, Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture (MOTAC), Dr. Zulhizzam Hj. Abdullah, Deputy Director, Public Health Development Division, Ministry of Health (MOH), En. Hamzah b Ishak, Director of Crisis Management and National Intelligence, National Security Council (NSC), and Senior Assistant Commissioner M.V. Srikumar a/l Madhavan Nair, Department of Homeland Security & Public Safety (KDNKA), Royal Malaysia Police to share insights with the industry players on compliance and implementation of the SOPs.

“We are appreciative of this engagement with the government to help the industry implement effective measures to enforce adherence to SOPs. We would also like to acknowledge and thank Y.Bhg. Datin Sri Norfaliza who played an instrumental role in elevating our SOPs for consideration and endorsement. It is absolutely crucial for all industry players to commit to ensuring that in all stages of an event, from planning to execution to post event contract tracing, SOPs are strictly and ethically implemented and enforced. This will help the industry to instil confidence in the public and government that it is indeed possible to conduct events in a controlled, safe and secured environment,” said Alan Pryor, Chairman, BECM.

Besides emphasising on the importance of adherence to the SOPs, the engagement session also shed light on the Government’s support to the industry. Large Event Organisers were encouraged to liaise with the MOH and the Malaysia Royal Police in the planning phase of any large scale event to ensure a smooth and safe execution while the Industry itself was urged to reach out to all players, big and small, in the supply chain and to provide feedback through MyCEB on any challenges or problems faced in the implementation of the SOPs and to ensure they have access to the SOPs to ensure correct implementation.

BE industry supply chain is directly affected by no less than six SOPs covering the various activities that take place in differing facilities ranging from hotels and shopping malls to convention and exhibition centres and from special and government events to meetings, conventions and trade shows. The highest benchmark for each category was consolidated by BECM and MACEOS which culminated in the launch of the consolidated BE Guidelines late July. “The venue sector has to take the lead in ensuring conformity to the SOPs and it is imperative to ensure event organisers have ‘covered’ all the requirements in their pre-event planning. The execution in adhering to the SOPs is therefore a joint responsibility. Our primary objective is to demonstrate that events and exhibitions can and are being held in a controlled, secure and safe environment. For this, MyCEB, BECM and MACEOS will enforce strict self-regulation to ensure the BE industry can continue to operate in the new normal,” said Dato’ Sri Abdul Khani bin Daud, Chief Executive Officer of MyCEB.

“We urge all MACEOS members and other BE industry players to collaborate and adhere to the approved guidelines and SOPs.  With venue operators taking the lead to implement the best SOP practices, event organisers will be able to abide by the requirements when executing their events in accordance to the standards of our Ministry of Health”, said Dato’ Vincent Lim, President, MACEOS.

Travel bubbles and cross border travel were also discussed and it was emphasized that these developments are highly dependent on the developing trends around the spread and containment of Covid-19 around the region and the world, as the prevention and control of the pandemic remain the most important priority, as such, virtual participation continues to be an integral option in all types of business events.

PlanetIMEX Evolves With a Splash of Fun

Leave a reply

The IMEX Group’s virtual experience returns 12 – 16 October

Business event professionals can dive into a full week of learning, networking and a splash of fun when PlanetIMEX returns on 12 – 16 October.  The playful interactive experience, launched by the IMEX Group in May, has been redesigned with a whole new look and feel, plus new functionality and features inspired by audience feedback following the launch edition.

Renowned explorer brings the outdoors online 

The October edition of PlanetIMEX offers a full week of creative content with a series of headliners delivering education sessions across two days: 

  • Monday 12 October: PlanetIMEX launches with a full day of creative virtual experiences. Ever wanted to improve your knowledge of wines, take a dance class or try your hand at cooking a new dish? This is a day for exploring, being curious and meeting new people who share the same values.
  • Tuesday 13 & Wednesday 14 October: Two days of engaging education delivered by experts from around the planet. A series of headliners share their own experiences to shed light on new ways of working, connecting and experiencing the world.  Primary will be explorer, author and photographer Daniel Fox. Fox is an ambassador for LEXUS, ARC’TERYX, SANDISK, and MANFROTTO and has been described as a “modern Henry David Thoreau with the eye of an Ansel Adams”.  Expanding on Nature, IMEX’s Talking Point for 2020 and 2021, the aptly-named Fox will demonstrate how nature has the power to transform both the individual and collective human experience. He explains: “Nature is resilient and a source of priceless teachings. It reminds us that life is not about us, and that there is something far bigger.”
  • Thursday 15 October: A day of specialist education, designed so that event professionals from various disciplines can delve deeper into bespoke learning and dialogue. The Association Leadership Forum is created by ASAE for association leadership, the Executive Meeting Forum is for corporate executives and the IMEX-MPI-MCI Future Leaders Forum is for budding event professionals
  • Friday 16 October: PlanetIMEX week is rounded off on with Community Day, an opportunity for connections and content from a range of IMEX Group’s association and other partners including MPI, Site and EventMB.

Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group, explains: “We’ve evolved PlanetIMEX so that it continues to deliver really strong content – information that’s vital for the here and now – along with an element of surprise. PlanetIMEX has a whole new look and feel this time around and we can’t wait for business event and meetings industry professionals to dive into our wonderful new world.”

PlanetIMEX returns 12 – 16 October – www.planetimex.com