The Millennials: a generation of digital professionals who are entering our workforce. It takes more than daily donuts and cool tech tools to recruit and retain. This session addresses the inherent challenges in this new generation as well as an action plan on how to recruit and retain them.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how to attract Millennials to your workplace.
• Understand what makes a Millennial a valuable member of your team.
• Create an environment that not only will attract them to your workplace but keep them on your team.

There are many directions you can go in your job search. There are the basics – the tried and true strategies. But, it’s a new world with new strategies that can put you ahead of your peers. This session will cover both old and new to elevate your search.

Learning Objectives:

• Use successful job search techniques to land a new job – including must haves with resumes, networking, interviewing, and cover letters.
• Use search strategies that will allow you to effectively propel your job search in 2016.
• Work with applicant tracking systems, job websites, and use social media in your job search.

This session was not approved for CMP-IS clock hours, but may count towards other industry designations such as the CAE.

Current market conditions, attendee preferences, and the perception of your event's value are just some of the factors affecting your contracted room block.

Are we at the point of no return? Will room blocks eventually become a thing of the past? Engage with our panel of industry experts who will share their first-hand observations of successful room block practices. Learn new room block trends and how you can position your event to prevent the decline of your room block.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the current room block trends.
• Explore the pros and cons of allowing the decline of your contracted room block.
• Identify which strategies are important for your specific event.

Our industry has become more complex with issues like room piracy, cyber security, and meetings advocacy. It is critical to understand economic concerns and forecasts that will dictate behavior in the meetings environment. Industry veteran Michael Dominguez shares the latest trends and how they affect your meetings.\

Learning Objectives:

• Examine pricing demands in today's meeting market.
• Understand behavior changes in audiences of the future.
• Review the future of meeting room design and the influences behind the trends.

Your events have many moving parts and people who are relying on you to bring it all together. Miscommunication can quickly derail all of your hard work. In this session, you will explore the three keys to asking powerful questions to help you quickly gather more accurate and detailed requirements.

Learning Objectives:

• Use the three keys to powerful questions to gather accurate and detailed requirements.
• Identify true versus superficial needs.
• Use two simple techniques to improve clarity.

The education industry is undergoing massive disruption, driven by a wide range of innovations in learning and development. This session will help you stay abreast of these developments and empower you to determine which ones should be implemented in your meetings to foster greater engagement, learning, and retention.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain how flipped learning works, list benefits and drawbacks, and identify key factors to insure success.
• Describe methods for helping attendees apply concepts learned at your meeting to their day-to-day operations.
• Explain how digital credentials work, how they can be used to add value to your meetings, and what factors should be in place for them to have traction.

In this session, Rory Vaden shares ideas for how to increase your self-discipline, overcome procrastination and as a result get better control of your time to grow your business and achieve your goals in life!

Learning Objectives:

• Use clear methodologies for defining what your priorities really are in life and in business.
• Feel more empowered to say "no" to the things that don’t matter so you can say "yes" to the things that do.
• Employ solutions to give yourself more margin in life without compromising your results.

This session was not approved for CMP-IS clock hours, but may count towards other industry designations such as the CAE.

This session provides a practical look at using cloud technologies to better manage meetings and events. Learn what cloud computing is (and isn't) and gain cost savings, increased efficiencies, and better collaboration.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss what cloud computing is (and isn’t) and why it makes sense for the busy meeting professional.
• Review several areas where our small business, clients, and colleagues entered the Cloud using various solutions and get practical advice on how these may work for you and your organization.
• Gain cost savings, increased efficiencies, and better collaboration through use of cloud computing.

Take a deeper dive into the fascinating work around Strategic Happiness with our Opening General Session Keynote speaker Amy Blankson. In this Master Class, Amy will share more details on strategic happiness and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way in the midst of change and challenge.

Learning Objectives:

• Minimize the effects of burnout by rethinking stress.
• Inoculate your brain against negativity and setback.
• Create a renewable source of positive energy that maximizes your impact.

This session was not approved for CMP-IS clock hours, but may count towards other industry designations such as the CAE.

Planning and staging meetings outside the United States is fraught with legal and financial pitfalls. Professional meeting and convention organizers must understand the complexities and issues in three key areas when planning international meetings. This session, for novice and intermediate level planners, will address all three areas.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how negotiating internationally is different from negotiating in the United States.
• Identify critical contract terms to include in international contracts.
• Implement strategies for handling risks with currency, deposits, and methods of payment in global contracts as well as preferred methods for dispute resolution in international contracts.