General Sessions
Thursday, August 4
Opening General Session
The Original Social Media
Don Neal, Executive Vice President and CEO, Leading Authorities Inc.
All meetings, conferences, trade shows and special events are media environments. Media is defined as a medium of conveyance and the number one reason we design live events is to convey an emotion that can’t be delivered in any other medium. Television and radio can’t do it; newspapers or magazines are one dimensional; and Twitter, Facebook, or Linked-In don’t stand a chance. Our media is live, it’s branded and it’s the most powerful medium to make the emotional connections that an organization hiring your firm is trying to accomplish. Remember, “reason leads to conclusions and emotion leads to action!”
You are in the emotional transference business and this talk will give you:
• Insight into how the four layers of event design can help focus your time and resources to achieve better results
• The relationship between the four media categories and how they work together to produce a more integrated live event
• New tools from outside of the events world that you can apply to your next project
• Get ready for a new perspective and a few new ideas that can help you add that x-factor to your next event!
Demystifying Virtual Events
Angie Smith, Vice President, Client Services, InXpo
Virtual Events are becoming a standard across major corporations, and the lines between physical and virtual events are becoming blurred. Will every event in the future be a hybrid? Hear from one of the industry leaders in Virtual Events. Kathy’s team at Cisco has produced hundreds of virtual events over the past 4+ years. She will demystify virtual events, addressing key questions that include:
• How do you define a virtual event?
• What are the benefits of going virtual?
• Who will attend a virtual event – what audiences are they optimized for?
• Will a virtual event cannibalize my physical event?
• How do I define success and what metrics can I track?
Friday, August 5, 2011
The Experience Marketing Imperative
David Rich, Senior Vice President, Program Strategy/Worldwide, George P. Johnson
The advertising model is turned upside down, putting experience-driven brand engagement on top, just the opportunity special events professionals have been waiting for. The value of the special event is no longer in question. The issue now is delivering with the required level of impact expected by a world over exposed to multi-million dollar experiences from the Olympics and Super Bowl ceremonies to the interactive games on your entertainment consoles and mobile devices. Are you up to the challenge? In this inspiring and example packed multi-media presentation, one of the world’s leading experts on creating strategically focused events will share the insights and best practices for refining your skill set to meet the new realities of the special events industry. As a result of this session you will understand:
• The trends that are driving new audience and client expectations
• The principles of strategic experience design
• The keys to reshaping your skill set for success in the coming decade