Melissa Riley

Event Marketing Manager
AWS

January is an amazing opportunity to “start over” or “start something new.” This new decade will even bring remarkable opportunities to create something new within yourself that you might have never thought possible. Forget New Year resolutions, focus on something you have never done before and just freaking do it already. Just jump in with both feet – make the move, buy the shoes, just don’t cut your own bangs.

I accidently fell into the event world right after my undergrad and immediately fell in love with how much the rest of the type-a personalities were just as crazy as I was. I was then inspired to go back and get my MBA to ensure my love for all things “project management” wasn’t a farce.

Now with 13+ years of event experience, the backbone of my career has been within the technology event space working with Cisco, Brocade, ServiceNow and now AWS (Amazon). My love for events has given me the opportunity to bring both creativity and the insanity of new technologies to life all over the world. I absolutely love seeing how the customer journey comes together to bring new and unique experiences allowing each attendee to understand the event their own way.

I joined CEMA almost 9 years ago with fellow colleagues and wasn’t really involved until the past couple of years. I truly believe that my biggest advancements in my career have come from dear friends and teammates at CEMA allowing me to lean on them for career advice, thoughtful leadership, and sound guidance when I really needed it most. If I could give any words of wisdom – it would be to look to your fellow CEMA members to get inspired in ways you never thought possible. Lean on us for any and everything. We are here to help! I can only hope to give you half of the blessings other CEMA members have brought me over the years.

While not running around like a crazy lady on the show floor, you can find me running around like a crazy lady at home with my 5-year-old son and my just as witty husband. We live in upstate New York where most of the year it is either snowing or in the freezing temps. While most people would think we are crazy – I absolutely love the snow and love anything outdoors. I truly cherish my friendships and really adore all those near and far from so many walks of life. I welcome all networking opportunities and cannot wait to see you all at the next big event. Cheers my friends to an amazing new year and decade ahead!

Gold Member Executive of the Month

Barbara Bouman
Vice President of National Sales
Live Nation

As Vice President of National Sales, Barbara Bouman works with closely with clients on high profile VIP events, multi-city road shows, conference receptions, experiential events and much more. She represents Live Nation Special Events at industry tradeshows increasing the profile and presence of Live Nation Special Events throughout the hospitality community. Serving as a single point of contact, her National Sales Team is dedicated to providing seamless service within Live Nation’s portfolio of over 100 venues.

Barbara is ready to not only host epic events but to create a lasting relationship that exceeds your every expectation! She invites you to reach out, say hello, and enjoy a complimentary show at one of their legendary 100+ unique venues nationwide.

Starting Off the New Year with Big Thanks to E-Newsletter Sponsor of the Month – New Gold Member MotivAction

MotivAction is an Enterprise Engagement company delivering full-service meeting and event solutions to Fortune 500 clients in a variety of industries. We’ve made the CMI 25 list of the largest and most influential meeting and incentive companies for 13 straight years, we’ve won SITE crystals and over 150 awards from industry organizations for our efforts in meetings and events, and several of our team members have been recognized in Incentive Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People in the Incentive Industry over the years. And in 2019 we won Incentive Magazine’s Motivation Masters Award for our full-service incentive, recognition, meeting and event solution delivery. For more information visit motivaction.com or contact Mike McWilliams at mmcwilliams@motivaction.com.

CEMA @ CES

January 8th, 2020
Las Vegas, NV

Have you ever wanted to spend time talking to the right “behind-the-scenes” people at CES who were responsible for the booth design, activations or experiences at some of the best in class brands? We experienced that and MORE during the CEMA @ CES Study Tour 2020. Thank you to CEMA Members Nicole Vidovich, Director, Strategic Partnerships & Marketing, CTA and Ben Nazario, Division President, MC2 who wowed our attendees with special access to some of the coolest stuff at CES 2020.

Our experience started with VIP seating for the opening keynote, followed by a day of learning from subject matter experts at these booths: Toyota, P&G, Beta, Panasonic, Sleep Number, Samsung, C|Net, and AARP. We closed our full day with dinner at the exclusive Mansion in MGM and a customized behind-the-scenes tour of Cirque de Solei’s KA show.

All this could not have been possible without the contributions of the most generous and supportive community in the industry, our CEMA friends: CTA, MC2, Mandalay Bay (thank you Nick Taylor!), MGM & KA (thank you Ashley Hinsen and Barb Roth!) and Suite Access (thank you Darin Gangwish!).

Kick Off Your Decade with All the Right Stuff at CEMA Summit 2020

2020 CEMA Summit Speaker Submission is Open
Submission deadline is February 1, 2020

Who’s the best speaker in the house? Why, any one of our CEMA members could be in the running…but we need YOU to grace our stage! The 2020 CEMA Summit Call for Speakers is open now, and we’re encouraging you to submit your proposal. Speakers at the CEMA Summit will selected for the Summit breakout sessions. Click here to submit your session idea.

2020 CEMA Summit Sponsorship Opportunities
As a sponsor at CEMA Summit 2020, you will have exclusive access to more than 450 senior-level event marketers, seasoned professionals responsible for developing the strategy and managing programs for elite companies around the world. There’s no better way to connect with this elite group. Click here to view the Summit Sponsorship Prospectus. Contact Meg Fasy for opportunities to be a CEMA Summit 2020 sponsor.

DMO of the Month:

Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau

Discover why Philadelphia was the only U.S. city included in National Geographic’s Top 25 most exciting destinations to visit in 2020!

Let us know if there is a destination you’d like more information about or,
if you would like to be showcased as the next DMO of the month contact Stacey@CEMAonline.com

Make 2020 All About Advancing You, Your Career, Your Organization

As a member of CEMA, event marketing professionals and industry partners who offer unique and compelling services to our event marketers have the opportunity to work together to learn from one another and drive new industry standards. Renew Your Membership today, and take advantage of our special offer for 2020. Encourage your manager to approve your membership now and you can immediately add CEMA Summit 2020 registration. Find out about all Membership options here.

Getting Social in 2020

We’d like to encourage you all to get Social this year! Please join us to tell all your friends about CEMA.

• Use our key hashtags #CEMAOnline #EventExecs #MeetingProfs in your industry-related social posts and tag us with @CEMAonline
• Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, and like, comment and especially, share our social posts.
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/cemaonline
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cema-corporate-event-marketing-association
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CEMAonline/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cemaonline/

Let’s start sharing away. We’ve kicked off a contest early this year, with the CEMA member who is our most active social media participant the winner! The contest winner will be announced on Leap Day and given special recognition & prize at Summit.

Tips to making the leaderboard:

• Watch for study tours and other event posts
  • We post on Tuesdays and Thursdays @ 8:30 PST
  • Watch for posts on Valentine’s Day
• Share your experiences and ideas while you attend study tours on your social pages tagging @CEMAOnline
• Share and like CEMA’s pre-in and after event posts

2020 CEMA Board Focuses on Guiding Growth and Innovation

As we enter into a new decade, the CEMA Board of Directors have the awesome responsibility of guiding and inspirsing our elite membership. Congratulations to our 2020 Board Members, featured in this press release.

CEMA and PCMA Announced Partnership: Strategic Alliance Fosters Collaboration, New Learning Opportunities

By now, you’ve likely seen the news about CEMA’s new strategic alliance with PCMA. We wanted to give you a bit more context around the agreement – although details are still being hammered out.

Essentially, we will be co-developing educational content and sharing it with both CEMA and PCMA members at specific events, including PCMA’s Convening Leaders, EduCon, European Influencers Summit and Asia Pacific Annual Conference, and CEMA’s Summit and Study Tours. We also plan to collaborate on webinars and other services, and we’re super-excited about gaining access to PCMA’s extensive research capability.

At the end of the day, it’s all about delivering greater value to CEMA members. Cooperating with peer organizations like PCMA is a smart, strategic move to grow CEMA’s presence in the industry, while increasing access to professional networking, knowledge sharing and rich event experiences.

We look forward to sharing updates on our collaboration and introducing our first co-created educational platform in the coming months. Learn more about the partnership here.

Career Development Opportunities Now Online

The Events Industry Council (EIC) recently announced they’ve launched a new online learning hub, the EIC Knowledge Hub. The Hub provides event professionals with the latest education, courses and trends, in addition to the organization’s extensive archive. You’ll find everything you need to know here.

CEMA Diamond Member Eventcore shares case study:

Annual Developer Conference for AT&T developers