Courtney Bales
Chief of Staff, Global Events & Oracle Studios at Oracle
CEMA Board Member at Large
2022 continues to bring challenges to our industry, but we are coming out of the tunnel. We’ve learned so much about how live event experiences translate into the virtual space – the good, the bad and the ugly. We’ve carried those insights forward to create new and exciting experiences that offer an optimal mix of digital and live programming.
Perhaps the best thing about this journey is that we never had to go it alone. CEMA, in particular has provided a wealth of opportunities to connect, share and learn from the best professionals in the business. That’s why I’m super excited about CEMA Summit 2022. We’re coming back to Nashville! Our theme, “Inspiration, Community, Ideas” embodies the essence of our association and as always, the workshops and breakout sessions will center on our most pressing issues: the future of teams, the future of events, and insights + innovation.
We have four outstanding keynote speakers. Award-winning journalist, motivational speaker and best-selling author Mariana Atencio will offer a fresh, global perspective on how resilience, innovation and authenticity can drive performance, productivity, well-being, and success. Holistic leadership strategist Ginny Clarke will share strategies for creating a conscious workplace that can inspire and uplift teams through scaled mobility programs that create advancement opportunities. Author, speaker, entrepreneur Judi Holler will share her unique perspective on how embracing an improvisational mindset will challenge your perception of what’s possible.
And you won’t want to miss why event execs today “Need to be Decisively Indecisive”. Back by popular demand, hospitality industry visionary and advocate Michael Dominguez, CEO, Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) will give his signature industry trend forecast keynote.
Our third CEMA Summit Town Hall – aptly themed Agents of Change – will offer perspectives on industry trends, challenges, and opportunities, with a forward look at what is going to drive event strategy and execution in the future.
And we have a fabulous lineup of networking events, including goat yoga (because we are the GOATS of the industry), Nashville hot summer cooking class, a master’s class on brown liquor, “From String to Bling” maker workshop hosted by our charitable partner Strings of Hope, a meditation session, line dancing lessons, a food preservation class, and even a chocolate truffle with booze and bonbon pairing class.
CEMA Summit has always been a celebration of the event marketing profession. A time to reunite, rekindle relationships and make new ones, inspire, and be inspired…and as peers, partners, and friends, imagine and explore new ideas and possibilities. So come join us to “Feed Your Need to Lead” and get empowered at CEMA Summit. Register here: https://cemasummit2022.com/.
MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Michelle Olmstead
Senior Marketing and Global Events Manager
ControlUp
Michelle is a Senior Marketing and Global Events Manager who lives for a challenge. “If it’s too easy, it’s not for me.” She enjoys planning and executing events that start conversations, motivate change, and have a lasting impression.
As an event marketing and communications professional for almost 20 years, Michelle struggled with the remote world that Covid brought to our industry. But as in person events paused, Michelle developed her skills by completing useful courses, including a Strategic Communications Certification from George Washington University. She also found comfort in getting outside in the garden, improving her home landscaping, and learning to fix sprinklers.
During this time of self and home improvement, a sick and traumatized 4-pound dog found his way into her home. “Houdini”, named for his previous escapist behavior, is now a whopping 6 pounds, who is healthy and loves to play and go on walks.
Now that Michelle has been able to get back to planning and executing in person events, she is dusting off her standing-all-day shoes and is excited to continue to learn and grow in the field.
Executive Profile
Tricia Daniels
President
Event Marketing Partners
As the president of Event Marketing Partners, Tricia manages her team of talented event marketing professionals to deliver extraordinary, seamless programs to EMP’s clients, as well as their attendees, customers, and prospects. With over 30 years of event and hospitality experience, including her time with the Walt Disney Company, Tricia is well-versed in all of the components that must be orchestrated to deliver programs designed to meet client’s unique business goals and business objectives. Over her past 12+ years at EMP, Tricia’s talents have served as a key factor in EMP’s exponential growth by providing event marketing solutions to clients, primarily in the technology sector, from Fortune 50 firms to new and emerging startups. Embracing EMP’s philosophy to view clients as partners – listening and understanding their needs – resulted in Tricia spearheading our global expansion, including establishing our first overseas office in London in 2017. For more information, please click here.
Newsletter Sponsor
Designing Your Content Strategy for Today’s Hybrid World – Breakout Session at CEMA Summit ’22 on Tuesday at 10:00 in Nashville. Join Erica Spoor, CEO & Chief Event Strategist, Impact Point Group and Allison Crooker, Director Event Content, VMWare, for a session to explore and discuss the reality of serving both in person and digital audiences and its importance to meeting your attendees where they are in their journey with your brand or organization. Creating a content narrative that evolves as an engagement continuum beyond a single event is key. As is optimizing your content for what is best for in-person vs. digital. So, what does this mean for corporate event marketers and content strategists? We’ll also practice what we preach, delivering this session in an interactive format that keeps you energized and engaged.
Learn more about Impact Point Group and visit the CEMA Summit registration page CEMA Summit ‘22
CEMA Summit Sponsors are truly our lifeblood!
Every year they go above and beyond to make Summit a premier experience, with generosity, invaluable presence, and collaboration at every stage of the event.
Our Headliner sponsors have stepped up in so many meaningful ways, whether it’s behind the scenes managing registration, the stage technologies, the comfortable furniture, or sponsoring keynote speakers, networking activities, dinners, and receptions, we’re thankful.
We encourage you to seek them out and learn more about their contributions to Summit and how they bring value to our industry.
Your company can still be a shining star in Nashville! Contact Meg Fasy meg@fazefwd.com for sponsorship opportunities.
Here is the Leaderboard for the Pre-Summit Social Media Contest
Congrats to Jessica Colmenares who has moved into second place on our leaderboard for who has shared our CEMA Summit ’22 promo posts and influenced registrations via their LinkedIn page. The members who generate the most engagement with the posts via their network will have a substantial number of trees planted in their names.
It’s not too late to join and entering the contest is simple. Click here to get started. The Start Planting button guides you to log into LinkedIn. You will then see a post with CEMA Summit news that you can share with your network in one click! You can also email or message the post to individual contacts.
The more you share the greater your chance to be on the leaderboard and win the contest. The winner will be recognized on stage at CEMA Summit.
1st Place – 20k trees planted (roughly the size of Central Park)
2nd Place – 5k trees
3rd Place – 2k trees
So, you too can spread the word about CEMA Summit and help plant a forest! We hope you’ll join us by clicking here.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
The Need to be Decisively Indecisive:
Summit 2022 Spotlight: Understanding Behavioral and Geo-Political Changes for the Meetings & Event Industry
Distinguished hospitality industry visionary and advocate Michael Dominguez, CEO, Associated Luxury Hotels International (ALHI) is returning to CEMA Summit 2022 to give his signature industry trend forecast. Thank you to New Orleans and Company for sponsoring.
The Pandemic forced all of us to experience so many learnings, twist, and forks in the road. As we start to emerge into a clearer future, there has never been a greater need for you to be Decisively Indecisive.
“Affective Forecasting”, the psychological study of how one feels into the future is front and center after 2020. The experience of 2020 has absolutely been unexpected, uncertain, and devastating in many ways. We now face a world, country, economy, and industry traveling a road much less traveled as we begin to restart our global commerce engine and hospitality industry.
What will be the long-term changes in our industry? What were the silver linings to come out of this challenging time? It is important to know where to look and more importantly to not overthink what may or may not be structural in change.
This session will help identify the questions we should be asking as we know the next 18 months will set the course on where end up with permanent behavioral changes to the Meetings & Events Industry.
Learning Objectives:
- Meeting environment expected changes for the remainder of 2022 and beyond
- Current state of the economy and expectations for 2022 and 2023
- A review of travel experience changes and expectations
- A changing Geo-Political Challenges
- Inflationary challenges and impacts moving forward
Join us for Innovation Nation at CEMA Summit
What are the most compelling, innovative…and tested…new technologies and strategies event marketers should consider? Our Innovation Nation segments at CEMA Summit 2022 will showcase cutting edge event technology, tools and services that will shape the future of events
Join our host, Mercedes Williams, Associate Director, Corporate Sales at Houston CVB, as she gets up close and personal with this year’s standout event industry innovators including Batch, Bellwether, cvent, Expologic/Community Brands, GEVME, Impact XM, JiffleNow, Meeting Play, and Ovation.
And a huge THANK YOU to Houston CVB for sponsoring this year’s showcase! See you in Nashville!
We Belong. We Learn. We Contribute. We Move.
Convening EMEA
Connecting people who share a common purpose to inspire and learn from one another — the business of human connections — is what we do better than anyone else. In a world of continued uncertainty, these connections will help us lay the foundation for a better future.
Together we will create the tools you need to thrive tomorrow. Let’s unite, challenge, experiment, and contribute at Convening EMEA, 28 – 30 September. Taking place in one of the world’s leading meeting destinations, Vienna, Austria.
The pause is over, the restart has passed, together we move forward.
CEMA members have an exclusive 20% discount, simply use promocode: C3M3A22 when registering.
JUNE CEMA CONNECTS
During June’s Summit Townhall Panel Sneak Peek CEMA Connects session, attendees shared with the panel what’s keeping them up at night. Click Here to review all these insights. And if you weren’t able to attend, submit your questions for the Townhall Panel through the Summit mobile app that is launching in July.
CEMA Webinar Education Series — How to Build Hype for a Can’t-Miss Event
ICYMI: Watch this webinar presented by Dara Burg and Emily Dick of cvent. The webinar is filled with strategies and tactics for pre- and post-event success. Learn about new uses for video ads including use in Zoom waiting rooms, tips on using look-alike ads in LinkedIn, thoughts on paid search and many more actionable ideas you can use for your next event. Click here.
CEMA Webinar Education Series — The Metaverse, Tomorrow for Today’s Events
In our second June CEMA Educational Series webinar, Impact XM VP Strategy & Planning Stephen Mapes, gave a nuts-and-bolts overview of the Metaverse, the emerging, increasingly hyped virtual environment comprising real-time rendered 3D worlds and simulations in which people can create digital identities, experiences, and relationships. The summary is below and to access the webinar, click here.
Mapes opened the session by framing the Metaverse as an experiential concept that has the potential to transform the future of events. He observed that the Metaverse is young, and it may be years before it becomes a seamless, persistent experience, but we are seeing the “edges” of the Metaverse in several emerging technologies, platforms, and products, such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), avatars (digital personas) and digital twins (digital replications of real-world things that can be used to experiment and test). He shared some compelling stats to support this view: 68.7 million Americans have used AR and 50% of smartphones are AR compatible. 52.1 million people in the US use VR technology at least once per month and 11.2 million VR headsets were sold in 2021.
Mapes sees a number of benefits in harnessing the Metaverse for events: it can help drive attendance growth, as there are no physical or geographical attendance limits and participating does not require physical presence – imagine event attendance in the millions! A metaverse environment can also enable new types of personal and group engagement, more hands-on education experiences, and realistic virtual product demonstrations.
He outlined five ways event execs can take advantage of the Metaverse today: use phone based AR, especially on exhibit floors and in demo rooms; develop multi-dimensional storytelling around products and services delivered via AR headsets; create VR event moments – in particular keynotes, workshops, concerts and sporting events; design physical event space to interact seamlessly with digital/virtual apps, websites and platforms; and tap into existing company, partner and commercial Metaverse platforms to test the water.
To get your events to the Metaverse “on ramp,” Mapes recommends building a five-year Metaverse event plan that begins with experimentation – creating virtual experiences at the “edges” of your events. Build on your experiments to develop enduring Metaverse assets and platforms connected to your “edges,” that can drive full Metaverse events. Along the way, use customer and internal feedback, and follow technology innovation to build new experiences.
Mapes closed by acknowledging that there is skepticism about the utility and long-term viability of the Metaverse. He reminded the group that two other disruptive technologies – personal computers and the Internet — received similar dismissive sentiments in their early stages. Mapes believes that the Metaverse will play a meaningful role defining the future of events. His parting wisdom for the group: take a measured, strategic approach, experiment and learn, and evolve as the Metaverse evolves.
CEMA Members in the News
Congrats to Joseph Kempa, National Accounts Director at Visit Orland on being named a finalist at this year’s SPORTYS Awards for “Best in Sales”.
Welcome to New CEMA Members
New Members:
Stephanie Cheung — Dubai Business Events; Petra Cooper—Nteractive; Susan Richardson and Andrea Cadotto — Visit Detroit; Ruben Barahona — Shashi Group; Mikki Walls — Discover Puerto Rico; Becky Harris – Amazon; Dawn Young — Choose Chicago; Mary Beth Kunze — Frost Brown Todd; Amy Manzanare and Kevin Brewer — LEO Events; Susan Adams – Poly; Elly Driscoll, Jennifer Marr and Karen Codington — ITA Group; Kelly Burns – Agencyness; Charysse O’Donnell, Chrissy Wean, Karen Sheldon and Ramona Florian — Ritz Carlton; Leeza Malachevsky – ControlUp; Celeste Blanton, Jen Beindorf and Jordan Kinard – Spiro; Michael Fetter — Louisville Tourism; Lourdes Bizarro and Rodrigo Esponda — Los Cabos Tourism Board
Returning Members:
Robynne Weaver – Spiro; Rob Harris – bluemedia; Margaret Launzel-Pennes — POP Experiential; Matthew Mongoven – Skyline; Joern Riccius — Parity Technologies; Lisa Ferguson — Crawford Group; Jonathan Young — Conference Direct
Career Opportunities
Conference/Meeting Planner, The Bowen Group; Virtual Marketing Manager, Virtual; Director, Event Project Management, Event Manager, Senior Product Manager, and other job opportunities at George p. Johnson. Click here for these and other job opportunities.
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The Great Resignation continues. There’s an obvious fix, but many bosses aren’t interested