CEMA Newsletter January 2023

Allison Crooker

Director of Event Content, VMware

As Director of Event Content, Allison manages the goal alignment, event content design and content operations for VMware’s annual global conferences. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Allison brings 20+ years in the event content strategy and production arena.

Allison is also the founder of the Event Content Council, a membership organization dedicated to exploring all things event content.

In her spare time, Allison enjoys working out, spending time with loved ones, and experiencing God.

Mark White

Chief Sales & Experience Officer, Visit Salt Lake City

Mark White is Visit Salt Lake’s Chief Sales & Experience Officer. In that role, he oversees a team of 26 people in five offices who attract and provide services to meetings, athletic events, and conventions. His enthusiastic, client-centric leadership has been instrumental in putting Salt Lake City on the map. Visit Salt Lake’s bookings have increased an impressive 8% year over year since 2002. His team booked nearly 900,000 hotel room nights in 2022 to be consumed in future years, which was the organization’s best booking year ever.

Prior to joining Visit Salt Lake 30 years ago, Mark worked in the investment and banking industry. He holds an MBA, and Destination International’s highest credential, the Certified Destination Management Executive. 

Mark has served on the Children’s Museum, Utah Ski Association, Utah Rivers Council, American Whitewater, and Cottonwood Canyons Foundation boards. When not bringing group business to Salt Lake, he enjoys skiing, cycling, mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, and playing music.

CEMA Members Get Ideas, Insights and Inspiration at the CEMA@CL23 Program

CEMA hosted its second all-day CEMA@CL23 program during PCMA Convening Leaders 2023. Attendees participated in three leadership focused sessions, each with a unique purpose and leadership theme. Below is a short recap of the key takeaways from the day:

In the morning at the 2023 Visioning Sprint session, attendees worked in small groups. They were able to define/refine a vision, passion or idea they wanted to explore in 2023, and develop a step-by-step action plan and stakeholder engagement strategy to help make it a reality.

The mid-day Fireside Chat with Monique Ruff-Bell, the Head of Events for TED Conferences and Colleen Bisconti, VP Global Conferences and Events at IBM, shared a number of useful insights into planning for and delivering optimal value – both for attendees and your business: Listen to the full recording here.

• Define your brand – what do you want to be known for?
• Keep your North Star in mind when developing strategy
• Always be ideating – even if you have successful events
• Establish and employ a framework for creative thinking and problem solving
• Be agile and curious, embrace change and make time to learn
• Look beyond marketing goals to how the event can impact business as a whole
• Focus on attendee value vs. volume. Start with experience and build from there
• Elevate teams to execute, encourage risk and accept/allow failure
• Avoid data overload – focus on what matters, find the nuggets in the noise

The afternoon “Fishbowl” peer discussion centered on navigating three leadership concerns:

How to inspire and be inspired

• Get uncomfortable – put yourself out there, jump over your cringe chasm, channel awkwardness
• Create a sense of belonging at events
• Invest in purposeful experiences – both in person and hybrid
• Mentor younger team members – be a sponsor rather than a boss

Keys to managing goals and hopes

• Align individual talent with business goals; play to strength
• Find balance; build and respect boundaries
• Value authenticity
• Be open to learning and change
• Promote team health

Deriving value from partnerships and teams

• Promote trust and honesty – clear core values, safe, open dialogue and problems solving
• Show genuine gratitude and empathy – recognize commitment, celebrate success, acknowledge challenges
• Nurture team passion – helping them to love what they do, even when they aren’t liking it
• Seek and value fresh perspectives – diverse backgrounds, cultures

The CEMA@CL program was just the beginning of our insightful and engaging content for the coming year. Join us for CEMA Connects and CEMA Summit.

To Tie Event Strategy to Business Goals – Find the “Red Thread”

Historically, the basic formula for events has been content, content, and more content followed by networking and experience. Post-pandemic, however, attendee sentiment has shifted. After two years of virtual events and digital experiences, there is a pent-up demand for face-to-face interaction. We’ve witnessed this firsthand at a recent “sold out” event we helped manage with 1,500 unregistered people still showing up to attend— many from out of town.

Today, content still reigns supreme, but networking and positive experiences are becoming increasingly important. People want more time for networking and fun.

A new way of thinking about elevating experience and content delivery is to build event engagement earlier in the attendee journey. When someone signs up for a conference, why wait to engage them until they’re onsite? Why not give attendees the opportunity to engage beforehand and come to events with a built-in network of people to meet in person?

Read entire article here: To Tie Event Strategy to Business Goals – Find the “Red Thread” – CEMA Online