Knowledge Sessions

Below are current sessions booked for WEC 2009.
Be sure to check back often as we continue to add to the program!

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday

Monday July 13

10 Essential Legal Issues in International Meetings
Joshua Grimes
8:30 AM - 10:00 AM
The dramatic growth of international meetings is creating new and challenging legal issues for both planners and venues. Twenty-first century concerns have turned the hand-shake deal common in many countries into a detailed written legal agreement addressing competitive pricing, extra charges, terrorism and health scares, money transfers, privacy and intellectual property concerns, and corporate accountability laws. The rise of meetings in the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere brings different legal traditions to the bargaining table, and they can change contract negotiations dramatically. This session will focus on the most important legal issues in global meeting contracts. Whether you are a venue executive or a planner, come examine the most talked-about contract provisions and learn ways to limit your costs, reduce your liability exposure, and successfully navigate the maze of laws affecting international events.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify legal clauses being introduced into meeting contracts throughout the world.
  • Identify steps to minimize risk of financial loss to a sponsor and host facility.
  • Develop contract clauses for all critical parts of global meeting agreements.

Extreme Meeting Makeover: Social Networking and Meetings
James McDonough and Hugh Lee
8:30 AM- 10:00 AM
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please turn off your mobile phones and web-based communication devices." Sounds like a familiar start to any meeting, right? How often have we been in those meetings where everyone around us are looking down at their Blackberry's - disengaged from the presentation being delivered? If they are going to be texting during your sessions, don't you want them texting about your meeting content? It's time to stop asking for an action that's not going to happen and design a meeting to integrate what the attendees are going to do anyway. This session is about using Web 2.0 tools to involve attendees with the critical messages that need to be delivered and integrating your messaging in a way that attendees will understand, remember, and act upon. Next time, you'll be announcing, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please turn ON your mobile phones and web-based communication devices."

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify how Web 2.0 tools provide opportunities for creativity, message delivery, and community building.
  • Create powerful and practical connections by using social networking with event content and communications.
  • Integrate traditional and innovative tools for a meeting all stakeholders will remember.

Finding, Hiring and Working with Professional Speakers
Todd Hunt
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
"We had a comedian last year, but he wasn't funny." "The celebrity we hired read his speech from a legal pad." "Our keynoter recited 237 PowerPoint slides and everyone fell asleep. Including me." Sound familiar? After the temperature of the room (freezing) and quality of the food (lousy), attendees are not afraid to tell you if a speaker was boring or inappropriate. So how do we find the right speaker in the first place? And how do we work with the speaker to ensure a smooth and successful event? This session shares tips and techniques for successfully finding, hiring and working with professional speakers. We'll discuss bureaus versus direct booking, negotiating fees, and arranging space to get the best value from our hired partners. This professional speaker has interviewed dozens of meeting professionals, melding their knowledge with his own platform experience to create spot-on examples that teach through laughter.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify speaker types and evaluate the effectiveness of each for your event.
  • State the difference between working through a bureau and booking speakers directly.
  • Structure meetings to achieve the most value from your speaker investment.

Give Your Resume A Facelift
Sheryl Sookman Schelter
8:30 AM- 10:00 AM
Once employers had the capability to post positions online, it immediately increased the volume of resumes they could receive from prospective candidates and changed the way that candidates have to present their information. As a result, your resume needs a contemporary "facelift" to make certain that it grabs an employer's attention. Your resume has to sell prospective employers on the fact that you have the necessary skills and abilities they require. This session will provide you with the tools you need to create a resume that grabs an employer's attention and gets them excited about having you on their team. We'll also address how to design a resume so it passes the applicant-screening test that employers use. You'll leave this session ready to fine-tune your resume so it gets you in the door for that next great job.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Create a resume that highlights your accomplishments and achievements.
  • Design a resume that grabs an employers attention in less then 20 seconds.
  • Improve employer response by creating a resume that passes their applicant-screening process.

The Fundamentals of Creating your Meeting Budget
Bonnie Wallsh
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Mention budget preparation to most meeting planners and their eyes glaze over with boredom and trepidation. Creating budgets is challenging work but crucial to the success of your meeting. If you budget with confidence, it actually can be fun. In this interactive session, you'll review the budget process in an easy-to-understand manner. You'll learn three key factors that are essential in preparing your budget and discover how to avoid seven common mistakes, such as neglecting to include taxes and services charges, which can lead to budget overruns. You'll leave this session with a light-hearted perspective, plus 60 money saving tips that are guaranteed to impress your management and an assurance that you will never fear budgeting again.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • List 3 key factors that are essential in preparing your budget.
  • Discover how to avoid 7 common mistakes.
  • Create a budget with income and expenses using Excel.

Understanding Production Budgeting
Kevin Olsen and Bethany Veerman
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Are you being challenged to create a memorable event experience with decreased budgets? When it comes to the production of your event or general session, are you feeling uncertain about how to make wise budget decisions? This session will provide a detailed overview of production budgeting, enabling you to manage production costs, make smart event choices to keep production costs manageable, and avoid production budget surprises. Topics include: the importance of the earliest stage of the planning process, the biggest cost drivers in event production, elements that can make production costs increase and where savings can occur, and protecting yourself from budget surprises.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify what decisions and circumstances increase production expenses.
  • Discuss alternatives to manage costs, but provide a similar experience for your audience.
  • Avoid being surprised by the final production bill.

 

Presenting the “Case for Meetings” to Your Executives:
An Interactive Design Session with Mary Boone, Jack Phillips, and Susan Radojevic
1:45 PM - 5:30 PM
The meeting industry crisis and the global economy have created the conditions for a tipping point in the way we define meetings and events and our industry. Because of recent media attention and new US Government regulations, key decision makers are focused on meetings and events, and you have an unprecedented opportunity to influence the way they think about them. You can help leaders see meetings as a strategic resource that can transform organizations.

This session will bring together three of the top subject matter experts on the strategic value of meetings: Susan Radojevic president of The Peregrine Agency (Portfolio Management), Mary Boone, president of Boone Associates (Meeting Design) and Jack Phillips Chairman of the ROI Institute (Measurement).

A highly interactive, well-designed learning environment will assist you in developing information you can use immediately to craft a concise, compelling description of strategic value for your key decision makers.

As a pre-requisite for attending, please read “The Case for Meetings” or view “The Case for Meetings”.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Describe all four elements of strategic value and how they relate to each other.
  • Identify the types of measures of success.
  • Learn from peers as well as the subject matter experts.

60 Cost Saving Tips for Meeting Professionals
Douglas McPhee
1:45 PM - 2:45 PM
Ever thought about how to save money in planning an event? These tips will assure that you think about all the aspects of your meeting that impact cost. Can you afford to miss any cost saving tips in these difficult economic times?

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Analyze every aspect of your event for cost savings.
  • Identify at least 13 tips that you had not thought of prior to this session.
  • Hear the best tips from your colleagues.

Creating Meetings that Excite the Brain for Optimal Learning
Lawana Gladney
1:45 PM- 2:45 PM
For optimal learning to take place, the brain has to be focused and excited. Creating events that will tap into the different components of the brain takes knowledge and strategy of information processing. This session will teach you not only how the brain processes information but also why the color of the tablecloth does really matter.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Discover how the brain processes information.
  • Identify how to avoid information overload.
  • Create brain friendly meetings.

CSR: Incorporating Philanthropic Elements Into Events
Kevin Olsen and Bethany Veerman
1:45 PM – 2:45 PM
Focused on community outreach and philanthropic activities, this session will highlight creative and practical ways to integrate corporate social responsibility(CSR) into your events. Brainstorm and interact with fellow attendees on topics including the importance of giving back to your local community, effectively building interest for philanthropic outreach activities, selecting an appropriate charitable organization, promoting CSR within your department and ways for your team to create impact.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Energize and excite attendees about philanthropic activities through effective communication.
  • State considerations needed when choosing a philanthropic activity.
  • Ensure your philanthropic activity is a success.

Everyday Ethics for the Meeting & Sales Professional
Michael Shannon
1:45 PM - 2.45 PM
Recent events have shown that our industry has become even more competitive. Sales professionals must work not only harder and smarter, but be more aggressive to achieve 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. To complicate matters, sales and meeting professionals must now address the impacts of Sarbanes-Oxley issues within their organizations and how to develop ethical guidelines.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify common ethical issues affecting the meetings industry.
  • Describe the challenges in and develop methods for addressing ethical issues across cultures.
  • Develop a code of ethical behavior.

Tapping Into New Markets to Survive and Thrive
Christina Pappas and Brian Horsburgh
1:45 PM - 2:45 PM
Everyone is talking about globalization as a hot trend and how we are a part of a global economy. But what is the global economy? What does globalization mean to my organization? How do we become a part of it? Where are our best opportunities to succeed? How do we tap into new markets to survive and thrive? In this session, learn how the meetings industry fits into the global economy, what globalization means to the meetings industry, and how to uncover opportunities to grow your business in overseas markets.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • State how the meetings industry fits into the global economy.
  • Discuss what globalization means to the meetings industry.
  • Identify ways to uncover opportunities to grow your business in overseas markets.

Technology and Economic Trends Affecting Travel And Meetings
Amy Vanderbilt 
1:45 PM – 2:45 PM
The travel industry is affected by a complicated landscape of technological and economic trends. In this highly interactive session, you will review technology trends affecting the travel industry from booking to communications as well as economic trends affecting the travel industry. We will look deeply at how these trends affect personal and business travel and, in turn, affect the meetings industry. Some of these trends bolster attendance at meetings, and some seem to deter it. Participants will gain insight into how these trends will evolve during the coming years; how that evolution will affect how business travel is booked, and when it it NOT booked; why these technologies will not decrease business travel, but are actually likely to increase it; and how businesses can take advantage of these trends to survive the current economic conditions and prosper.After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify technological and economic trends in the travel industry.
  • Create a plan for implementing strategies within your events and specialties.

The Chemistry of New Ideas - Connecting with Audiences
Ken Kirsh
1:45 PM- 2:45 PM
You made a huge mistake at your last event that everyone noticed but no one mentioned. Know what it was? How can you give attendees nothing to eat or drink at their coffee break and make them love you for it? What free things you can do to make your meetings and everyone who attends them more green? Answers to these questions and the tools to answer more are available at this session. The content spells out what matters most to you, your executives, your audience, and your company. See specific examples and tools that help you tie your success to the events you plan and produce. It's about time someone revealed the secrets and lies, shining a light on overlooked truths and methods to differentiate yourself and your company.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Discover and implement information already available to you to achieve heightened results.
  • Identify methods for creating new unique event activities, environments and outcomes.
  • Engage and educate your audiences while helping to secure your success.

The New Tax Laws and Financial Independence
Patrick Astre
1.45 PM – 2:45 PM
The Internal Revenue Code affects retirement, wealth building and many aspects of businesses. This session provides insights on the latest tax law changess and how to apply them favorably. Receive an overview of the Internal Revenue System (IRS), information on the "semi-voluntary" US tax system and how to audit proof your tax return. This session is designed for business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals who want to pay less taxes and avoid problems with the IRS. Ongoing email alerts will make sure attendees are always informed on the latest tax-saving and wealth-building strategies.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Spot audit triggers on your tax returns.
  • Use "sleeper deductions" that are safe and audit proof.
  • Identify IRS updates and changes and how they will affect your tax situation.

Top 5 Technology Trends in Meetings Measurement
Roger Lewis
1:45 PM- 2:45 PM
This discussion will unveil current technologies that are being rapidly adopted across the meetings and event industry today to measure event effectiveness. Throughout this session, you will discover key trends in event measurement and how to increase your ROI. Learn the latest industry tools that are being utilized by organizations and an overview of how to implement them.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify the latest trends in event measurement.
  • Determine ways to increase ROI and revenue.
  • Discuss the top five technology trends in event measurement.

9 Non-Verbal Secrets to Success
Janine Driver
3:15 PM - 5:00 PM
Do you strive to be more persuasive? Make more money? Did you know that within the first seven seconds of meeting someone, they have already formulated their first impressions of you? First impressions are key and if you have not made a positive one, you will need to do a lot of work to correct it. The success of a site visit, negotiation, sale and conference often depends on how well you have developed a rapport with the other person. Explore the meaning of body language and learn one of the most important parts of person-to-person communication: the ability to maintain rapport and control through your actions and words. This session is designed to familiarize you with current innovative principles and practical applications of rapport building.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Apply nine rapport-building strategies to strengthen your persuasion skills.
  • Identify how people process information and how to influence their attitudes, beliefs, and behavior.
  • Utilize language cues to gain the competitive edge during site visits, interviews, and sales negotiations.

From Planning to Managing - Time to Lead The Team
Angie Duncan
3:15 PM- 5:00 PM
For years you've been managing programs and working with clients producing highly successful meetings and events. Now, you've been given the opportunity to lead the planning team. Moving into management means greater career opportunities and the reward of helping others become better at what they do. How do you successfully make this transition? As leaders of planning teams, we must create environments that make our organizations great places to work so that we foster the maximum results from team members. This process is threefold; determine your management style, recruit and retain outstanding talent, and create a constant coaching culture. Whether you are a new team leader, department head or operations manager, this session will give you new ways to think about your role as a leader and creative director of the programs your team produces. You'll walk away with an action plan to assist you with implementation as soon as you get back to your office.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Determine how your leadership will integrate into creating a successful meeting department.
  • Define management strategies to make your department fully functional and retain your top talent.
  • Develop recruitment strategies to find the right team members and attract even more top talent.

Jurors Wanted for the Wrongful Termination Trial of the Century
Bob Pederson
3:15 PM- 5:00 PM
You recently attended a four-day event with thirty-five other planners. Vendors, hoteliers, destination management companies and others hosted an arrival event with music, multiple entertainers, an open bar and dancing. Fifteen other planners and sales people decided to continue having fun in a local pub for another five to six hours following the arrival event. You observed improper behavior and decided to ignore it and simply have fun. Then, you received a summons from the plaintiff's attorney to appear in court as a witness for a wrongful termination lawsuit. Come hear the testimony. Sit in the jury box. Make an educated decision on whether the Gen Y planner was dismissed by the Baby Boomer boss - with just cause - or was it a wrongful termination. You will hear opening statements, listen as witnesses are questioned on the stand, hear the judge rule on the evidence and attorney objections, listen to the closing statements and then deliberate at your table for a verdict.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • List three reasons to properly document an employee file.
  • State improper behaviors when representing your company on site.
  • Identify differences between a baby boomers expecations of a Gen Y employee and vice versa.

Planning for the Unexpected
Katja Morgenstern
3:15 PM– 5:00 PM
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 a fast-paced environment.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Create a basic event emergency plan.
  • Identify the top 20 questions to ask when creating an emergency plan.
  • State the five key items every emergency plan should include.

Self-defense for Women on the Go!
Kyle Eastham
3:15 PM - 5:00 PM
We're all concerned about our personal safety — especially as we travel to various events. This hands-on session will let you practice various techniques against a personal attack. It will also reveal comments made by convicted offenders about who they target for an attack and learn why to never let an attacker take you away from the "primary" scene of an attack.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Practice self-defense techniques to thwart a personal attack.
  • Discuss what common items in your purse can be used as weapons if necessary.
  • Identify how to avoid a dangerous situation in the first place.

Techniques for Capturing the Talents of Under 30s
Steven Prentice
3:15 PM- 5:00 PM
Young professionals grew up in a world very different from that of older generations. Their level of comfort with instant, ubiquitous information, empowered attitude towards work and life, and priorities regarding human business relationships, timelines and workflow are profoundly different. This presentation summarizes the research findings from interviewing company employees of all ages and industries across North America. Through case studies and numerous industry examples, the speaker will demonstrate the essential techniques for ensuring you get the most from younger professionals in any meeting scenario, from one-on-one, to a boardroom, to the AGM.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Enhance communication and participation among younger professionals.
  • Act as a cultural bridge between generations in a meeting scenario for heightened productivity for all.
  • Develop skills for knowledge transfer and interpersonal communication.

The New "Stimulus" Law and the Meetings Industry
Joshua Grimes
3:15 PM - 5:00 PM
The global economic crisis is shaking the meetings industry. Conferences, incentive trips and travel are suddenly under attack as examples of corporate excess, and the federal government is legislating spending controls that affect every part of the industry. The resulting confusion and fear is leading to meeting cancellations, reduced spending, and confusion over how to move forward given today's economic uncertainty. These effects are most acutely felt by corporations accepting federal stimulus funds, but all companies and associations need to adjust due to increased scrutiny of spending and meeting activities. This interactive discussion of the federal stimulus law and its affect on the meetings industry will include effective approaches to addressing the stimulus legislation.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • Identify the new rules for the industry in the federal stimulus legislation and the TARP Treasury guidelines.
  • Develop a strategy to continue meeting and travel activities in the face of increased regulation of spending.
  • Reduce meeting cancellations and generate new business.

The Owners Workshop: Refining and Exploiting Your Best
Andy Birol
3:15 PM– 5:00 PM
Let's face it, anyone can set up shop and proclaim, "I'm a meeting professional and business owner." Running your own business is an equal-opportunity pathway to great respect and achievement or to embarrassment, regret and failure. Your conviction, drive, passion and potential are vital to the success of your company but they are not enough to sustain your business beyond its early successes. To grow your company in a more consistent and efficient manner, you need to apply a systematic process to acquire customers and enhance retention. By using a series of scoring tools that strictly adhere to your target prospect profile, you can create three sales funnels--Acquisition, Retention and Development--that will organize and implement your plan for finding, keeping and growing customers.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  •  Discuss a process for finding, keeping and growing customers.
  • Articulate your target customers' pain or opportunity that your business can resolve.
  • Compare and contrast three sales funnels: Acquisition, Retention and Development.

Using Technology To Green Meetings
Corbin Ball
3:15 PM - 5:00 PM
Meeting technology not only improves efficiency, but also helps make meetings more environmentally responsible. This session will cover many ideas to reduce paper, waste and unnecessary travel, as well as improve the meetings process before, during and after events.

After attending this session you will be able to:

  • State 20+ ways that technology can increase efficiency in meeting planning.
  • Identify a dozen ways to reduce waste during an event while improving attendee services.
  • Discover ways to improve the meeting wrap-up process.