First-Time Attendees

WEC has plenty of opportunities for first-time attendees to connect with peers and get to know more about MPI. Simply locate an MPI staff member and he or she will be glad to answer your questions. Be sure to bring your business cards and get ready to increase your connections to ideas, relationships and marketplace resources.

Below are a few suggested sessions that, as a first-time attendee, you may be interested in attending:

Sunday July 12 8-9:30am – “Your MPI”

Description: Connect with new members and first-time WEC attendees. Take this opportunity to learn how to get the most out of your MPI membership. The growing, global community of MPI allows you to create your experience and map to professional success. Also, MPI staff members answer your questions about WEC. Be sure to bring your business cards to this session for an easy but effective networking exercise that will increase your connection to ideas, relationships and marketplace resources in mere minutes.

Sunday July 12 - 3:30 – 5pm – “Presenting to Management”

Description: This session helps intermediate to advanced level corporate meeting planners be more comfortable and effective presenting to senior management. Management needs people who know how to align plans and activities with strategic initiatives. Learn how to identify and understand strategic initiatives and then link them to your efforts. Presentations to management require the right focus and the right amount and type of information. Tips and tactics will be provided to help people plan the right messages and reduce the time spent planning. Identify how to manage both the mental aspects of organizing and delivering the right messages, and the physical aspects of creating the right impression, including how to replace those distracting nonverbal habits. A critical presentation skill is handling management's questions. Learn an effective 3-step process for successfully dealing with questions.

Monday July 13 – 1:45 – 2:45pm – “Everyday Ethics for the Meeting & Sales Professional”

Description: Recent events have shown that our industry has become more competitive than ever. Sales professionals must work not only harder and smarter, but be more aggressive to achieve their business goals. Meeting professionals have also been forced to make more out of less when it comes to their meetings and events. Ethical issues arise every day, yet many meeting and sales professionals are unaware of how to identify and to address such issues in a proper manner. To complicate matters even more, sales and meeting professionals must now figure out how to address the impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley issues within their organizations and how to develop ethical guidelines since many of them are not in place.

Monday July 13 - 3:15pm – 5pm – “Planning for the Unexpected”

Description: Planning an event also requires planning for the unexpected. This session covers the basics of emergency event management, backup plans and how to make it look like it was all part of Plan A. We will cover space issues, health issues, missing materials, technology challenges, natural disasters and staffing challenges. Clients go into an event knowing that hiccups may occur, but the art of successful event management is keeping the challenges and chaos away from the client. Being able to smoothly execute a "Plan B" without missing a beat is crucial in such a fast-paced environment.

Tuesday July 14 – 8:30am – 9:30am – “Secrets of Productivity - Achieve Amazing Results”

Description: Do you ever hear yourself saying there are never enough hours in the day? Do you feel like you get to the end of the day and you haven't achieved anything? Do you wonder if your 'to do' list is ever going to be completed? If you answered yes to any of these questions you need to hear the International Productivity expert share her practical advice on how you can accelerate your business and start creating impact with Super-Productivity. It's not about time management; it's about focusing your time, attention and energy in the things that will deliver the best results for you and your planning business. Stop being busy and start achieving!

Tuesday July 14 – 9:50am – 11:30am – “Management and Leadership In The Social Media Age”

Description: In the age of social media, managers and leaders must come to terms with one very important fact: control is fallacy, but leadership is real and required. In this highly interactive session, the speaker will detail how the communications age, and subsequently the social media age, has changed the ways managers must lead. Using case studies and best practices from the military, industry and everyday life, Dr. Vanderbilt will walk you through each step of the leadership cycle. The presentation will include handouts and worksheets as we work through real life examples and techniques that participants can implement immediately. Special cases and real-life scenarios from participants will feed a portion of the presentation on handling difficult and unique situations with new methods and an enlightened point of view.