Successes in Strategic Meetings Management

Date: Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Time: 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m./14.00 - 15.30

Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) is a disciplined approach to managing enterprise wide meeting and event activities, processes, suppliers and data in order to achieve measurable business objectives that align with the organizations’ strategic goals / vision, and deliver value in the form of quantitative savings, risk mitigation, and service quality.

In this session you'll take a look at a successful example of a structured event discipline evolution and hear stories of the journey direct from the event professionals at Microsoft who brought brought notoriety and credibility to the event professionals at their organization.  This story recently came to life through the pages of Event Marketing Magazine. 

Jessica Heasley
(Moderator)

Jessica worked for more than 15 years in marketing and events before joining Event Marketer in 2007.  She earned her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and her bachelor’s from the University of Washington (go Huskies!).  Her last gig before coming to Red 7 Media was at Psychology Today magazine.

Her proudest professional accomplishments include fixing a branded 1972 VW bus accelerator pump on the side of a highway in South Carolina with a paper clip and some string the night before a 30-city college tour; convincing Dr. Laura that she wasn’t writing a piece about lusty event marketers having lurid affairs on the road (which she kind of was); and, while at an independent film dot-com called AtomFilms, using about fifty bucks worth of chocolate chip cookies and a couple gallons of milk to lure film festival attendees away from Steven Spielberg’s (now defunct) big budget “Pop! Multimedia” booth to her company’s tiny living room event space.

Although she is a native of Seattle, she never once owned an umbrella or rain boots until she moved to Brooklyn, where she currently resides with her husband and 13-year-old cat, Lucy.  She was born in Everett, WA, home of the pulp mill.

Kati Quigley
(Panelist)

Kati Quigley, CMP, leads the corporate event marketing team.  Ms. Quigley’s team is responsible for driving and executing Microsoft’s large corporate global events.  She provides thought leadership in the event marketing discipline for the company including digital events, event ROI metrics and cost efficacy.  She has been in this role for the past 8 years.

Prior to Microsoft, Kati spent over ten years in the Washington DC area leading meeting, education and marketing departments for various professional associations.  

Kati has been involved in several industry organizations and is currently the PCMA Chairman of the Board.  She has been a certified meeting professional for the past 15 years.  She is a Seattle native and graduate of the University of Washington.

Jeff Singsaas
(Panelist)

Jeff Singsaas is the General Manager of Microsoft Global Event Marketing with responsibility for event strategy and execution across all of the Company’s core business groups.  Jeff leads an integrated team of professionals with skills ranging from large scale project management and business operations to industrial staging and creative design.  He also directs relationships with several hundred vendor contributors as well as city, venue, and hotel partnerships worldwide.  Jeff and his team are acknowledged industry leaders in corporate event strategy, management, and associated technology innovation.

In addition to Microsoft’s corporate event work, Jeff has responsibility for the Company’s Studios facility.  At 65,000 square feet and with a staff of 48 production and engineering professionals, Microsoft Studios is one of the world’s largest private media and international broadcast facilities.

Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Singsaas spent 14 years in the aerospace industry with the Boeing Company in Hawaii, California, and Washington State.  During that time, he had business management responsibility for several large scale development programs, as well as responsibilities in defense contracting, finance, and divisional operational planning.

Jeff also serves on several industry boards and is an accomplished speaker featured at several industry conferences and executives retreats.