• Strategic Planning/Thinking
• Professional Education

What does it mean to be ‘green’? The Accepted Practices Exchange (APEX), an initiative of the Convention Industry Council (CIC), is aggressively pursuing the development of best practices for green meetings. Join this influential focus group and help shape the direction for establishing greening best practices for the following industry segments: Transportation, Accommodations, Meeting Venue, Exhibits, Food and Beverage, Communications, On-site Office, Destination and A/V production.

• Provide input about what it means to be ‘green’.
• Assist in developing baseline standards that achieve responsible levels of sustainability.
• Contribute best practices for organizations to produce green meetings.

Amy Spatrisano, CMP, Principal, Meeting Strategies Worldwide and Chair, Green Meetings and Events Practice Panel

Location: NOMCC

• Leadership
• Executive Education

As leaders, some of us personalize feedback, lose perspective and fail to take risks. Based on a four-year study of leaders who achieved high performance and high happiness, this session will identify key ingredients of sustainable performance. Walk away with insights into the patterns of your reactions and how those reactions impact your most important business and personal relationships.

• Assess yourself on achieving high performance and high happiness.
• Clarify your intentions and manage difficult emotions in order to maximize impact.
• Reach compromises in difficult issues.

JP Pawliw-Fry BA, BPHE, DC, President, Institute for Health and Human Potential

Location: NOMCC 2nd Level 243-245

• Communication
• Professional Education

How well do you handle conflict? It is an integral contributor or inhibitor to growth and innovation, yet conflict is often feared, avoided, and mismanaged. This session will distinguish between constructive and destructive conflict within an organization as well as between individuals. Engaging discussions and exercises will help you create a climate that fosters innovation and proactive change by understanding and managing the causes and solutions related to conflict.

• Determine the most common causes of professional and personal conflict.
• Apply techniques to manage difficult people and disagreeable situations.
• Utilize conflict constructively to aid innovation and change, lower employee turnover, and improve customer and personal relationships.

William Forssander, President, CODA Consulting Group, Ltd

• Professional Development
• Professional Education

Sue M. Tinnish, Principal, S.E.A.L., Inc

Glen C. Ramsborg PhD CMP, Senior Director, Education, Professional Convention Management Association

Location: NOMCC 2nd Level Outside of room 236-267 near escalator

• Program Planning
• Professional Education

Does your meeting or event appeal to every generation? Gain new insights into Boomers, Gen X and the Millennials and discover how to design events to reach across generations. Drive participation and attendance at events by using key messages and techniques that are “ageless.”

• Design more successful meetings and events that appeal to Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.
• Recognize the rational and emotional triggers for each generation.
• Promote events that appeal across all generations and all audiences.

Matt Thornhill, Founder & President, The Boomer Project

• Marketing
• Professional Education

Back by popular demand! This interactive session is a must-attend for anyone responsible for marketing meetings and events. Discover how to transform and elevate your convention marketing materials into hard-hitting tools that effectively drive attendance and revenue. Gain practical tools you can apply immediately. Please note: all attendees are encouraged to send their own marketing brochures to the speakers prior to the session.

• Design marketing pieces that drive registration.
• Recognize the top ten things every marketing piece MUST have to be fully effective.
• Avoid the most common mistakes designers make when designing convention marketing pieces.

Kenneth P Esthus, Account Director, Marketing General, Inc.

Raylene H. Kershaw, Vice President,

• Professional Development
• Professional Education

New this year! You’re passionate about this industry and face challenges in the upcoming year. Bring your top concerns and questions to this open forum and speak with other meetings industry leaders about what keeps you up at night or what next challenge you can’t wait to tackle. Stop by and join the conversation.

Location: NOMCC

• Communication
• Essential Education

Students, you won’t want to miss this interactive session. Think you know how attendees learn in today’s virtual world? Visit four interactive learning stations which highlight different learning and facilitation styles and discover for yourself how the role of webinars in today's technological and economic environment are advancing meetings.

• Demonstrate the role of webinars in the meeting planner's toolbox.
• Recognize the potential impact of virtual communication on meetings.
• Collaborate on content for a webinar to be produced and delivered by a student group following the PCMA Annual Meeting.

This session is limited to the first 60 partcipants.

Lars Friedriszik, Student, George Brown College

Tyra W. Hilliard PhD JD, CMP, Department of Tourism & Hospitality Management, George Washington University

Joan L. Eisenstodt, Chief Strategist, Eisenstodt Associates, LLC

Izzy Gesell CSP, Organizational Alchemist, IzzyG & Company

Corbin W. Ball CMP CSP CSP, CMP, President, Corbin Ball Associates

Location: NOMCC 3rd Level 343-345

• Program Planning
• Professional Education

Can you navigate through the global challenges of the U.S. orientated PhRMAand AdvaMed Codes? While specific regulations apply to medical meetings in most countries, these regulations and codes are not standardized for all countries. This session will show you how to map your way through this potential minefield with ease.

• Gain understanding of regulations around the interaction of PhRMA/medical device companies and physicians.
• Explore the broad similarities and differences between how these regulations are articulated globally.
• Recognize the implications of these regulations for meeting planners and organizers/providers of CME.

Moderator

Gregg H. Talley CAE, President and CEO, Talley Management Group, Inc.

Panelists

Lauren Kramer CMP, Principal, Meeting Priorities, LLC

Anne Young, Former Senior Director, Academic & Professional Affairs, Merck & Co. Inc.

Ann Leopold Kaplan, Assistant General Counsel, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America

Location: NOMCC 2nd Level 255-257