IMEX America convenes next week at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Planners’ priorities are likely to be the business-to-business appointments that help hammer out future conference locations or the (almost) 24/7 networking and hospitality opportunities around the show. But you will want to save some time for the conference education as well.
From October 9 to 13, 272 learning sessions will play out, from the three-hour Event Design Summit on Sunday to Thursday’s last one-on-one professional coaching session. Regarding the latter, Dawn Ray and Matt James of The Listening Collective are each offering 24 20-minute one-on-ones over the course of the show.
The full IMEX America educational schedule is here, but MeetingsNet’s editors have five picks that we expect to be well worth carving out time for.
Monday 3:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Incentive Travel Index 2022 Launch: Join this session for a first look at the Incentive Travel Index 2022, an annual study of the global incentive travel market by Financial & Insurance Conference Professionals, the Incentive Research Foundation, and the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence. If you’re rethinking your post-pandemic incentive strategy, gain some perspective on the latest trends and future predictions. (North Convention Center, Islander F)
Tuesday 10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Venue Contracts for Today’s Unruly Environment: Meeting contracts are a perennial pain, and Tyra Warner, College of Coastal Georgia, is an expert at explaining the fine print. Her session will tackle performance clauses, surcharges, and the always-challenging force majeure clause. (Booth F606)
Wednesday 1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
Pricing in an Endemic World—Three Perspectives: Nationwide Insurance’s Patricia Kerr and Meeting Encore’s Jenn Glynn, along with moderator Vail Ross of STR, will dig into the impacts of the pandemic on hotel supply and demand. The session description asks attendees to “bring your questions and examples and be ready to dig into this tough topic,” and the panelists are highly qualified to deliver insightful answers. (Booth F606)
Wednesday 3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Web 3.0, NFTs and Other Digital Dragons—Next steps for Events: The metaverse and NFTs may sound far-fetched for those just working to navigate their day-to-day meeting jobs. But you can bet speakers Julius Solaris of Boldpush and Nick Borelli of Allseated will help attendees better understand how up-and-coming technologies are expected to intersect with meetings and conventions in the years ahead. (Booth F606)
Thursday 1:30 p.m. -2:15 p.m.
2023 Meetings and Events Trends—American Express GBT Report: This session is also running in a 30-minute format on Tuesday (10:30am - 11:00am), but the deep survey of global and regional trends shaping the industry is probably better digested in the 45-minute time frame and will provide some big-picture ideas to leave IMEX America with, including a look at the effect that macroeconomic factors such as inflation, war, and Covid-19 have on our industry. (Booth F606)
