This podcast episode starts with a smart idea from Content Marketing World (CMW). showcased a six-part CMW video series, designed to help the 225 speakers who were selected to lead sessions at their conference improve their presentations. CMW went bigger with this series. Rather than sharing these through a speaker portal, they published these in a more public way for everyone to enjoy.

Gazing into the Future of Events with Mike Walsh

Mike Walsh is a futurist, a global nomad, and a much sought-after keynote speaker. He’s a 21st century business designer who advises leaders on how to thrive in the current era of disruptive technological change.

During this interview, Walsh weighed in on quite a few tech considerations for event organizers.

Last week, at e4, more than five hundred event professionals gathered in Anaheim to explore What’s Next? What’s next for their events – and what’s next for our industry?

Maritz Global Events' Tim Simpson and Dan Sundt led a series of workshops, where event strategists shared more about their design lab journey and the impact these labs are having on their events, their relationships with customers/members, and their organizations.

In this special edition, we get a chance to listen in on a debrief conversation between Tim and Dan, plus get a glimpse at what’s next for this growing community of extra-mile designers.

For more than two decades, Polly LaBarre has helped organizations to unleash and organize human potential in more powerful and productive ways.

As co-founder of The MIX (Management Innovation eXchange), a “think and do” tank dedicated to rebooting management for the 21st century, Polly has pioneered a method and platform for changing how large organizations change.

In this episode of The VIP Lounge, Pattee Brown and Justin Mizel talk to industry expert Rudy Ellis to get his insights and observations about the benefits of live streaming events.

Ellis is the founder of Switchboard Live, a technology company helping events tech-up their capabilities to include live streaming and interactive engagement online. 

He discusses his experiences with this technology, what has already been done at events to implement this approach and what event planners need to know and do to best embrace this essential technology when building their events in the future. 

In this podcast, we take a closer look at P.E.O., a remarkable organization that started with seven young women in 1869 and now has nearly 230,000 members across the United States and Canada.

We showcased the P.E.O. success story with excerpts from interviews with three leaders:

• Jackie Matt, Executive Director
• Rebecca Bruce, Convention and Special Events Manager
• Sue Stevens, Past State President for the North Carolina chapter

Joining us in The VIP Lounge is John Ruhlin, Founder & CEO of The Ruhlin Group, a gift strategy and logistics company. John’s also a renowned speaker, masterful storyteller, and author of Giftology: The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut Through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention.

Experience design is the theme running across this entire podcast episode, which features two experience design superheroes who share a wealth of priceless insights with us.

We caught up with Dan Sundt, with the Maritz Global Events Design Studio team, at Experient’s EnVision conference in Detroit and in this podcast, we share a few excerpts from that exchange on experience design and the importance of goals and objectives.

Then we talked with Tonya Almond, VP of Knowledge and Experience Design at PCMA. She shared some insights on what to expect from PCMA's Education Conference in Cleveland in June. She also gave us a sneak peek at Convening Leaders 2019 in Pittsburgh. 

In this episode of The VIP Lounge podcast, we start with a book recommendation to help you ask smarter questions to uncover valuable insights. This book was recently introduced by Jamie Murdock at our EnVision conference and given the positive feedback, it’s a topic you might consider exploring at your own events.

Later, we move on to the world of expos, where we chat with Dave Lutz, Managing Director at Velvet Chainsaw Consulting. He explores how the needs of B2B buyers walking your show floor might be changing.

In this episode of The VIP Lounge podcast, we’re tackling an array of challenges that are top-of-mind for event organizers, but before we do…

PCMA Hackathons Deconstructed Workshop

Are you planning to attend PCMA’s Education Conference in Cleveland June 10-13?

If so, we hope you’ll also join Jamie Murdock, aka Hackmeister General, for a one-of-a-kind, pre-conference workshop experience that combines behind-the-scenes hackathon design strategies through an actual hands-on hackathon.

Event Hot Topics with Gary Schirmacher, SVP at Experient

We kick off our chat with Gary on a playful note, with a Word Association game. Then it’s on to a myriad of hot topics, including:

• Industry Advocacy
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Hotel Contract Negotiations
• Room Block Optimization
• Safety & Security

In this edition of The VIP Lounge podcast, we’re showcasing an interview with an industry rockstar…

Christine “Shimo” Shimasaki, CDME, CMP

Shimo is President at 2-Synergize, Inc. and she’s a passionate advocate for convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs), also referred to as destination marketing organizations. Since 2009, Shimo has provided leadership and guidance to the CVB industry and has helped individual CVB sales organizations with specific meetings market issues and opportunities. 

Shimo’s 35-years in the travel industry covers hotels, theme parks, convention centers, and CVBs. Her focus has been a continuum of strategy formulation and execution; helping organizations achieve competitive advantages, community collaboration, strong customer relationships and high performing sales and service teams.

Topics explored in this podcast interview include:

• Observations about the housing hackathon, hosted by Experient last November
• Recap of a PCMA Convening Leaders presentation: Cracking the Code on Room Block Practices
• Recommendations for combatting room block piracy and poaching – Shimo suggested reading Best Practices for Piracy and Poaching Prevention, published by APEX (Accepted Practices Exchange, an initiative of the Events Industry Council).