Rachel Heller

Senior Event Content Manager,
Sage Intacct

Rachel Heller is an event content professional with a decade of experience working in the technology space (both in-house and on the agency side) on events ranging from 50 to 50,000 attendees. Currently, she is a Senior Event Content Manager at Sage Intacct, driving content strategy and execution for their annual user event, Sage Transform. Previously, she held a similar role at PTC, where she managed content strategy and the speaker recruitment/management process for LiveWorx. She is passionate about diverse and inclusive presenter lineups and providing attendees with engaging content.

When she’s not thinking up new session format ideas or searching for the best speakers, Rachel enjoys hiking around New England with her husband, baking, restoring furniture, and trying to beat her fastest time solving the NYT crossword puzzle.

Executive of the Month

Matthew Cooney

Vice President
Wilson Dow

As Vice President at Wilson Dow, an industry-acclaimed creative production agency dedicated to uniting and activating audiences through The Power of Live™, Matthew Cooney directs agency growth while leading client strategy and account teams. Leveraging over 20 years of industry experience, Matthew connects clients’ business objectives with audience engagement expertise to design and deliver strategic communications, creative production, and experiential learning solutions.

Matthew supports global brands such as Visa, Gilead, Clorox, Genentech, Pure Storage, and more with strategic vision, engagement expertise, and an eye for long-term client success. He is passionate about understanding all factors that better engage, inspire and prepare clients’ business-critical audiences.
As a member of Wilson Dow’s executive leadership team, Matthew helps bolster the agency’s growth by cultivating teams of award-winning digital specialists, strategists, world-renowned creatives, instructional designers, and acclaimed production teams bound together through work, culture, camaraderie. His mentees, colleagues, partners, clients, and friends know Matthew as the embodiment of the adage ‘work hard, play hard’ insisting the journey to a successful event should be just as enjoyable as the outcome.

Matthew graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a concentration in Economics. Born and raised in Canada, he now resides in Chicago, IL, and enjoys spending time coaching and watching his three sons play hockey.

Connect with him on LinkedIn here: linkedin.com/company/Wilson-dow

Or catch up with him on the road to his next live client event: mcooney@wilsondow.com

Learn more about how to represent your brand in an engaging, immersive and visually stimulating virtual conference experience through the ProGlobalEvents BeyondLive platform.

https://beyondlivex.com/go-beyond/blog/virtual-event-branding/

Summit Keynote

SPONSORED BY:

#EventExecs Join us as we’re “Lighting the way back to Live Events” at CEMA Summit 2021 Announcing our Keynote speaker Will Bowen, #1 International best-selling Author and founder of the Complaint Free Movement Click here for more info https://cemasummit2021.com/

Will Bowen is a humorous motivational speaker, a #1 International best-selling author, a multi #1 Amazon best-selling author, an award-winning trainer, the 2016 Purdue University Executive in Residence, and he’s the World Authority on Complaining — why people complain, what’s wrong with complaining, and how to get ourselves and others to stop.
He’s been featured on Oprah, Dr. Oz, Forbes, NBC’s Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, The ABC World News, Fox News, People, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. In July 2006, Will Bowen handed out 250 purple rubber bracelets inviting people to use them as a tool to stop complaining. Will’s idea EXPLODED around the world and, to date, more than 12 million of his purple Complaint Free bracelets have been distributed to people in 106 countries. Maya Angelou provided the forward for Will’s #1 International best-selling book, A Complaint Free World, which has sold more than 3 million copies in 30 languages and required reading at many universities and businesses. Thousands of companies worldwide has used Will’s Complaint Free Business program to increase productivity, improve communication, and raise morale. Will’s clients include The Million Dollar Roundtable, Volvo, and, and Kimberly Clark.

May SWIRL Circle Discusses “Convergence” Rather Than “Conference”

This month’s SWIRL call included conversations about the continuing virtual attendance decline, ROI metrics and projections that 2022 will be “the year of the relationship.” The group discussed the past 15 months of ROI evidence that virtual events, where anyone could attend, had a significant effect on the quality of leads in the sales pipelines. This data is fueling the type of meetings they’re planning for 2022.

Several commented that they’re recommending to their C-Suite that next year’s events focus on in-person networking and should include fun components. It was even suggested that we’re moving from digital “conferences” with a focus on education, to “convergence” events highly focused on in-person networking and socializing. There is pent-up demand for in-person relationship building by attendees and event executives who recognize how to do this correctly will see greater returns on event investments.

Participants acknowledged burn out from the change demanded in virtual-only events and have learned so much about achieving work/life balance. Gearing up for an extraordinarily busy 2022 will demand that newly learned wellness skillsets be practiced to manage potential burnout.

The group also agreed that more frequent conversations between event executives and their industry partners is critical for successful in-person events – that now more than ever they need to frequently discuss salient issues.

We’ll be hosting more SWIRL circles throughout the year. We’re building more Smart Women I Really Like networking groups, interested? Contact CEMArsvp@CEMAonline.com with your name, email, company, and regional location if you’d like to be invited to participate.

May 25th – TALES FROM THE ROAD BACK TO LIVE EVENTS!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first LIVE event — May 25th at the amazing Caesars Forum — celebrating the road back to live events! Here is the link to the event found on our On-Demand section of the website.

SEE THE VIDEO

Our expert panel shared lessons learned from the recent “Trauma, Critical Care & Acute Surgery Conference” the first live event held at CAESARS since the pandemic lockdown. We’ll post a link for on-demand viewing of the full discussion soon. Below are just a few insights:

Mary Allen – TCC&AS Event Manager
“If you are doing a hybrid meeting – know the platform, your expectations and what you can get out of it. I could have done more if I had that understanding.”

Don Ross, Vice President Meeting Operations Las Vegas, Caesars Entertainment
“Attendees want to understand the safety protocols in place and to clearly understand them. We will likely exceed the current guidelines because it’s what is right for the guests.”

Rachel Andrews, Director of Meetings & Events, Cvent
“We had to kick the tires to find the right format. Virtual has tremendous reach, but there is nothing that compares to in person.”

Michael Massari, Chief Sales Officer, Caesars Entertainment and Co-Chair of Meetings Mean Business
“The value of face-to-face meetings is even more apparent now than ever. Hybrid events are not a threat. They complement live meetings.”

Kimberley Gishler, Executive Director, CEMA
“It just feels good to be back live together. It’s all about communications and we can do this all working together.”

What is the Experience Renaissance? – Wilson Dow White Paper

Is it possible that the likes of Peloton, Warby Parker, and AirBnB are paving the way for experiential transformation? We think so. Welcome to a people-first approach to experience design rooted in emotion that transcends the environment–virtual world, physical world, or both–to drive an emotional connection unlike any other. Driven by data, theory, and inspiration, this white paper will help create a mindset shift from an experience to a personalized and participatory journey. A journey where value is garnered continuously, purposefully, and organically with emotion guiding the way.

Wilson Dow developed an 18-month qualitative research study defined by future-forward, emotion-based attendee criteria to study pioneers outside of the industry that are shaping our collective future. See below for an excerpt from The Experience Renaissance™: A People-First Approach To Experiential Reimagination.

The reigning experiential industry challenge is captured in the midst of a live virtual technology conference as the A-list musician performs his famed song from what appears to be his living room. Attendees are viewing the musician from their respective living rooms, but the environment disconnect in this awkward acoustic performance is not the only aspect being shared. The musician looks as miserable as his audience.

The problem persists as the listless performance permeates through conference keynotes, sessions, networking opportunities, and everything in between.

In this moment, it’s less about the conference thematic—‘Shaping Your Future’—coming to fruition and more about the notion that nothing feels future-forward about the attendee experience design.

Something is missing.

And, this is not just a technology conference problem, but rather an escalating industry issue. That sense of connection? That feeling of inspiration meets anticipation? That unspoken shared moment? That human component?

In changing times, attendee expectations are on the rise. Conversely, experience designs of all shapes and sizes are becoming more and more formulaic, expected, and passive. Is it possible that as an industry we’ve lost sight of the single, most critical component that drives human connection? Emotion.

Welcome to the Experience Renaissance™.

Click Here

download The Experience Renaissance™: A People-First Approach To Experiential Reimagination

Wilson Dow is a global creative production agency dedicated to uniting and activating audiences through The Power of Live®. For 24 years, the company has designed and delivered shared experiences that engage, prepare and inspire.