CEMA Newsletter: March 2023

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Opening Letter

Leslie Hasvold

Senior Director, Global Event Management & Strategy, Illumio

Colleagues, friends, and friends that I just haven’t met, yet. As we are getting ready for the renewals of Spring, I am reflecting on the new CEMA season and the 2023 event “season” and how excited I am to be a part of them both.

I have been a member of CEMA off and on for about 14 years or so (we won’t talk about how long I’ve been in the business), and I’ve just this year have taken the honor of supporting the group as a Board Member at Large. While I was keen to be more involved before, as a new member of the team, what am I so excited about?

First, CEMA is going to continue to blossom under Junior Tauvaa’s leadership and Karen Galatis as our expert interim director. With them we will rebuild the leadership organization (with many, many thanks to the former team), enjoy the infrastructures that our PCMA partnership has afforded us, and work to expand our membership base, programming, and CEMA specific culture. I was a member that had curiosities about what the relationship with PCMA will do to our wonderful group, but it is going to grant us the best of both worlds, like a late-stage start-up.

Second, my interactions as a new Board Member have shown me how passionate, smart, experienced, and, indeed, delightful the folks are that are working to give the whole community amazing experiences. They, er, we are driven to produce the content that we know you need at every level of your job. we are working to attract more of you, the industry’s thought leaders, as we flesh out how this year’s CEMA Summit will knock your socks off (registration and Call for Papers is open until March 31!).

Finally, why am I excited about the 2023 event “season”? This year, I truly feel like we are emerging from the bubble we have been in since March of 2020. I know that across the country some industries and locations have been active and in-person longer than others, but even many of the 2022 programs still felt like they were somehow not quite back to normal. I come from the tech industry, so that could be where the last vestiges of our shutdown lived, but my team and I are hitting the ground running in 2023, going to more events, planning more events, and expecting more attendees in-person at the large-scale user conferences. For that, I’m so thrilled! We do intend to continue to participate in virtual events, and my hats are off to all of those supplier partners and vendors that are holding them. I fight against the word hybrid, but I think we may truly be there, this year.

Thank you for listening, I can’t wait to hang out with you all in Salt Lake City, and onwards!

Member of the Month

Rachel Heller

Senior Event Content Manager, GitHub

Rachel Heller is an event content professional with over 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. She leads content strategy and production for GitHub’s event portfolio. Prior to GitHub, Rachel held strategic event content roles at Bizzabo, PTC, and Sage. She is a founding member of the Event Content Council and sits on the content committee for CEMA Summit. She is passionate about diverse, equitable, 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, baking, restoring furniture, and trying to beat her fastest time solving the NYT crossword puzzle.

Newsletter Sponsor

Bellwether was born out of necessity and inspiration. Our founders were the technical producers behind some of the event industry’s largest and most celebrated events and experiences. After a decade of doing it the “Big Agency” way, they had a vision to create a leaner, more innovative production company that is focused on delivering the results most important to each client.

Bellwether’s structure strips away bureaucracy in favor of collaboration. We emphasize processes and solutions that are more efficient, allowing our clients to save both time and money. While the projects we support are complex and challenging, we also believe strongly in creating an environment where we can all have some fun along the way (after all…aren’t events supposed to be fun?). But in the end, it’s never actually about us, it’s about you. Our history and passion are all about making our clients heroes within their organizations.

If you want to learn the 3 secrets to our success, email us at CEMA@bellwethershow.com

Main Articles

Have you heard the news? The Event Leadership Institute has joined the PCMA Global Community, which now gives CEMA members new benefits!

Current CEMA members, at no additional cost, now have access to ELI’s extensive content library of 260 video modules and webinars and a 20% discount on 17 certificate courses. 

To access ELI’s content library click here

Once you are logged in to the ELI site, start exploring these new benefits by:

If you have any questions about your new benefits, please get in touch with the Event Leadership Institute at info@eventleadershipinstitute.com.

Help Build the New CEMA Career Catalyst Hub!

During these dynamic and disruptive times, it is essential for the CEMA community to work together to expand our knowledge, hone our skills and learn new ones, and rally around members who are in career transition.

To that end we’re revamping the CEMA Job Board to become a comprehensive career enhancement hub that focuses on new opportunities, upskilling and personal brand building. We will be rolling it out in April.

We envision CEMA Career Catalyst Hub as a member-sourced content platform where you can up your game in meaningful ways:

  • Find and post new career opportunities (for both job and talent seekers)
  • Read timely articles, case studies, white papers. etc. that promote leading-edge thinking, perspectives, and insights. 
  • Contribute your own thought leadership content.
  • Tap into members and sponsor’s experience and expertise. 

Like everything CEMA, the Career Hub will succeed because of you! We’ll be seeking and curating content for the hub continually and promoting it via our monthly newsletters and social media channels.

If you’re hiring or looking, have a compelling story to tell, found great article to share, or need ideas and guidance for your peers, contact us info@CEMAonline.com

Haven’t renewed your CEMA membership yet?

It’s well known that CEMA members are brilliant, powerful, and well-connected!

Do it now because you must be a current CEMA member to register for Summit 2023 and to take advantage of the ELI benefits above.

This year, renewing is super simple. Just reach out to our membership concierge, Lianna Bolton, at membership@cemaonline.com. Lianna will handle your renewal personally, so you don’t have to go through the online process.

February CEMA Connects

Thank you, Megan Henshall of Google Xi and Dan Shuman of Marriott, who shared their story on advancing NeuroInclusion in the events industry. They discussed the valuable role of partnership in innovating the industry toward recognizing the value of belonging– about care, consideration and wellbeing being featured at events. Learn more about the Neu Project and how it applies to your role as an event marketer.

See what you missed by checking out this highlight mural.

CEMA Summit 2023

“A View of the Summit”

from Karen Galatis
Find Your Mountaintop Moment

Last month, I couldn’t wait to share the remarkable experience I had on our CEMA Summit site visit in Salt Lake City.  Our theme for CEMA Summit 2023, “Elevate Your ‘Vision,” could not be more spot on.  I was so energized and inspired by the scenery…and I came away thrilled at the idea that all of us can have that same experience in August…without the 10-degree weather!

We spend so much time in the daily grind, and we need a mountaintop moment. You can find yours by registering today for CEMA Summit. The link is below.

You can also help Elevate the Vision for all of us – by submitting your best ideas for Summit topics and speakers by March 31. Details are also below.

CEMA thrives because of you!  You, and your brilliant ideas, belong at Summit ’23!

The wait is over… registration for CEMA Summit 2023 is now open.

Click here

Join us in August at the “Crossroads of the West” to Elevate Your Vision! Here’s why you won’t want to miss it:

  • Network, share, and grow with the very best events industry pros.
  • Stay abreast of the most impactful trends, and the most effective event engagement strategies and creative executions, from the people who make them happen.
  • Roll up your sleeves and work with peers and partners in real time to find creative solutions to our most pressing challenges; come away with leading edge, actionable ideas that demonstrate the business value of corporate events.
  • Get a front row seat to an exciting showcase of leading-edge innovation in event technology, production and attendee experience.
  • Up your game with advice, inspiration, and empathy from your peers – and bask in the glow of our warm friendships and the joy we get from being together.

CALL FOR SPEAKERS

The CEMA Summit 2023 Content Committee is committed to delivering content that will help you elevate your creative, strategic, and leadership vision. This year, we envision a Summit experience in which we work together to solve our most pressing challenges, explore new ideas, affirm the value of event marketing, and celebrate our dynamic & resilient profession.

With these ideas in mind, we’re excited to open the 2023 Call for Speakers and Topics to CEMA members. The theme for CEMA summit 2023 is Elevate Your Vision: Creativity. Strategy. Leadership. We are planning three content tracks:

  • Elevate Your Strategy
  • Elevate Your Data
  • Elevate Your Teams

Your input will help ensure the topics and speakers we select truly reflect the professional interests and career needs of our CEMA community. To help inspire you, here are a few sample session titles:

  • Elevate Your Strategy: Strategic Conversations: Pitching to C-Suite
  • Elevate Your Strategy: On the road: Developing a Multiple Event Portfolio
  • Elevate Your Data: Bridging the Gap with Demand Gen-How to Drive Pipeline from Your Events
  • Elevate Your Data: Event Survey Tips & Tricks
  • Elevate Your Teams: Setting up for Success: New Approaches in Coaching & Mentoring
  • Elevate Your Teams: Navigating the Shifting Ground – Building a Resilient Team

If you have ideas to share, please act soon as the Call for Speakers will close at 5 p.m. PDT on March 31. Please click here to share your insights.

  • Session Topic
  • Presenter Names and Company
  • Brief overview of the session content
  • Key Takeaways Attendees will benefit from

We’ll notify all submitters – whether their speaker/topic is accepted or not — by May 1. 

Also, calling all partners who want to sponsor one of our interesting and engaging activations, etc. contact sponsorship@cemaonline.co

Save the Date

CEMA Connects

March 22nd, 10am PDT

“The Gumby Model to strategize an event?”

Two months before their annual Revenue Kickoff (RKO), RingCentral implemented layoffs that impacted the highly respected leader of their events group. Fast forward to the conclusion of the RKO and the feedback among executives and attendees was unanimous: “Best RKO Ever!”

Hear from Sara Straw, Director of Strategic Events at RingCentral, how she and her team used “The Gumby Model” to deliver exceptional results despite the obstacles of limited time, minimal budget, and mostly new players in critical roles. She’ll provide 7 Key Takeaways that provided the agility and focus to overcome layoffs and leadership changes.

CEMA Connects Zoom Link

CEMA In the News

CEMA Summit has been named among the top “Inspiring Meetings Industry Conferences You Won’t Want To Miss In 2023” by Corporate Event News. Read more here

Interesting Articles

PCMA: Connecting, educating & inspiring business events strategists

The industry is divided over resort fees: Travel Weekly