CEMA Newsletter: May 2023

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Opening Letter

“No balloons, no live animals.”

 

Sandra Marcus

Vice President, Strategy and Operations, CEMA

What Event Marketers do is essential.

At some point in your career, I imagine at least one of you has shared the experience of being referred to as a “party planner.”  First you sigh, then you smile, and then launch into a polite and careful explanation of how what you are responsible for is not a party but rather a business event. You go on to explain that business events are sophisticated, complex, and essential growth engines for business. In fact, there’s an enormous eco-system surrounding such events that would have a GDP larger than many small countries!

This is a powerful community. I was drawn back to it, like a moth to a flame.

On a dreary day in March, I discovered what sounded like an interesting role with CEMA that I could not stop thinking about. While I spent the last seven years in the startup world (one that provides physical security screening for some of your large conferences, but that’s a story for another day), my true love was and is event marketing. As a technology and software event marketing veteran, in my DNA, I am one of you.

We’ll preserve what’s wonderful about our community.

Doctors, lawyers, finance professionals, and event marketers gather with their own to learn from one another, and from experts in their respective fields. It’s a model as old as time. However, in this community, there’s more to it. It’s flat, in a good way. There is always someone to learn from and someone to teach. Each community member is willing to contribute from their experience. It’s the lifeblood of our community. It doesn’t get purer than this.

I’ll listen and learn, and together we’ll define our path forward.

As event professionals, we conduct events for the sake of the businesses we support, not for the sake of the event. PCMA and CEMA recognize the transformational economic and social impact events have — on industries, businesses, and professionals — and in the communities where they take place. Together, we’ll define the next chapter for our community.

Thank you for welcoming me into the community. Over the next few months, I look forward to getting to know you and hearing what you have to say – I am always available for a virtual cup of coffee. I invite you to book one here.

Warmly, and until many of us meet in Salt Lake City for CEMA Summit, thank you.

Sandra

Hello CEMA community!

I’m Nicole Kern, your new Community Development Manager for CEMA, and it’s a pleasure to meet you all.

Originally from Florida’s Space Coast, I spent the start of my career rallying communities around early-stage tech startups. In 2020 I jumped into the association world as the Publications and Communications Coordinator for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. At my first ASSH Annual Meeting, I fell in love with the energy and shared sense of purpose that comes with in-person gatherings. Now, I’m thrilled to champion CEMA’s community of world-class leaders and industry partners who bring these invaluable experiences to life. A few fun facts about me: I’m an avid gamer, a passionate baker, and my household is mostly run by a Chihuahua mix named Toast (pics always available upon request!).

As Sandra and I work together on the CEMA roadmap, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any ideas, questions, or feedback. You can book time to connect with me via Calendly as well. And if you haven’t already, be sure to register for CEMA Summit this summer! I would love to connect with each of you in Salt Lake City to get a fuller sense of what the CEMA community wants and where you see us headed. Otherwise, you can always reach me at nkern@cemaonline.com or at (312) 423-7279.

Executive Profile

Scott Beck

As the President & CEO of Destination Toronto, Scott Beck is a champion of the visitor economy and a proven leader in the destination sales and marketing industry.

Prior to moving to Toronto in 2019, he spent 14 years as the President and CEO of Visit Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served on the Executive Committee of Destinations International for six years and as the organization’s International Board Chair from 2014-2015.

Before Visit Salt Lake, he worked in the hotel industry for 18 years, most recently with Ocean Properties Ltd. (OPL) as the General Manager of the Salt Lake Marriott City Center. While at OPL, he spent time in British Columbia and Alberta working on a task force with OPL’s Canadian affiliate, Atlific Hotels. Prior to his time with OPL, he served as Director of Sales and Marketing for Sundance Resort in Provo, Utah.

Scott’s a proud father to four daughters, and lives in Toronto with his wife, Angie Welling, along with their two rescue dogs. True to his roots, he’s an active skier, biker and outdoor enthusiast.

Newsletter Sponsor

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Main Articles

Members Meet the New CEMA Team at May Town Hall

The Town Hall, held on May 16, kicked off by introducing CEMA’s new Community Manager Nicole Kern. Prior to joining CEMA, Nicole managed publications and marketing communications for the American Society for Surgery. She is celebrating her first month at CEMA and has already jumped in to engage with CEMA leadership and serve as the membership “concierge.” Of note: Nicole works at PCMA headquarters in Chicago.

CEMA’S new Vice President, Strategy & Operations, Sandra Marcus, shared a brief career journey – most recently, leading marketing and communications for two startups, and prior to that working in event marketing at IBM for “too many years.” Sandra went on to comment that with three weeks in the job, she realizes that the last year has been bumpy, but bringing on two full time people and still seeking to fill an events manager role, reflects the commitment that both CEMA leadership and PCMA have to the ongoing health and prosperity of the community. She also observed that CEMA is truly “all about the people,” and that the value of the CEMA community and the shared vision, mission and dedication to sharing expertise is by far the most important thing that must be preserved.

Sandra outlined key areas of focus for CEMA leadership:
• Improving CEMA member data to take full advantage of the substantial back-office infrastructure PCMA offers
• Structuring onboarding processes to that new members engage quickly to get the most value out of the shared expertise within the community
• Enhanced programming, including new programs and re-imagining existing programs to enhance their value
• Developing regional in-person events to enable sharing Summit and other content and experiences with members who cannot attend
• Operationalizing member-hosted events, such as study tours, to make it easier for member organizations to organize and produce them

Karen Galatis also provided an update on CEMA Summit. The Summit content committee is finalizing keynotes, panels and breakout sessions reflecting the Summit theme Elevate Your Vision. Summit session and content will follow three topical areas: elevating your strategy, elevating data and analytics and elevating your leadership and teams. Karen mentioned that since the committee put out the call for topics in March, they received more than 85 submissions. She went on to say that members who submitted a topic should be hearing from the content community this month.

Sandra wrapped up the Townhall with the idea that growing CEMA is imperative, and that growth needs to be intentional – finding and attracting the right people from the events ecosystem, and striking an optimal mix of EMs, agency people, and industry partners. She also reminded members that CEMA needs a healthy base to build a sustainable operational model, so members who have not renewed for 2023 should do so right away.  Watch below for all the details.

 

Promoting CEMA Summit 2023 Could Give Your CV a Boost!

We’re off to a great start on the Pre-Summit social media contest introduced this month and many thanks to the 40+ CEMA enthusiasts who shared the below CEMA Summit post leading to 72k impressions and 516 clicks on the Summit registration link.

The current leaders of the Pre-Summit social contest are:

1st Brian Hodge, NetApp, Director, Global Experiential Marketing

2nd Lisa Messina, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority – LVCVA, Chief Sales Officer

3rd Richard Steinau, Bellwether, Senior Vice President

It’s not too late to enter this year’s social media contest on LinkedIn to win one of two free premium professional certification courses offered by the Event Leadership Institute (ELI).

In keeping with this year’s Summit content pillars: Strategy, Data, and Teams, Our referral marketing partner InGo is sponsoring enrollment in one of two ELI certification courses:  Advanced Event Design & Strategy or Event Measurement & Analytics.Participating is easy, click on the contest link here and share a post with your network.You can participate even if you haven’t yet registered for CEMA Summit ’23.Follow the LinkedIn login prompts, and the system will automatically create a pre-designed LinkedIn post from your profile that promotes CEMA Summit 2023. You can share the post with your LI network with one click! (No need to create any post copy on your own.)  You can also send personalized invites to individuals in your network right in the app.As your LI network engages with your post and invites, your engagement activity will be tracked on the contest leaderboard. The leaderboard standings will be shared each month.The top three (3) participants who generate the most engagement with their posts will get to choose one of the ELI certification courses. They’ll also be recognized on stage at CEMA Summit 2023.  Promoting Summit through the tremendous power of our member’s networks works. The sooner you enter the contest, the more you can help make CEMA Summit 2023 the best yet…and maybe enhance your CV with a nice new certification.

According to a 2022 CMO Council/Cvent report, 65% of event leaders say the learnings from the last two years are leading to resetting and reimagining event strategies. Designed specially to help experienced event professionals advance their event strategy and execution, join Event Leadership Institute’s upcoming facilitated course, starting May 17: Advanced Event Design & Strategy.

 Reminder: Current CEMA members receive a 20% discount on all of ELI’s 17 facilitated and self-paced certificate courses. Discounts are also available for multiple members from the same team or department. 

 Your CEMA membership now also includes access to ELI’s learning library of over 260+ videos. Check out this month’s featured resources by first logging in here.

  • Designing Your Event for Maximum Engagement – this on-demand panel discussion features speakers from Hubilo, MetLife and the National WIC Association, who share their tips on creative event design and how to reimagine the standardized to stand out from the crowd. 
  • 3 Key Components of Experience Design – There’s a clear distinction between designing an event experience, versus planning an event. In this quick read Smarticle, discover three points to focus on throughout the experience design process.

April CEMA Connects

Many thanks to Dr. Marcus Collins for sharing his vast knowledge of branding and culture at April’s CEMA Connects last month.

Marcus shared that we all try to influence others in our daily lives. “We are all marketers, whether you are a manager motivating your team, an employee making a big presentation, an activist staging a protest, or a teacher trying to encourage your students.”

The group discussed how to leverage the idea of culture as it is abstract, omnipresent, and hard to describe. Allison Crooker asked “Is culture like a micro-climate or like the ocean? Lots of little ones or one big vast one?” Marcus described how humans are meant to live in small communities and “deep stuff happens in smaller groups. Culture exists in small pockets, the larger the group, the shallower the conviction.”

Continue the study with his new book, For the Culture, where he illuminates that true cultural engagement is the most powerful vehicle for influencing behavior.

To learn more, click here for a larger image of the session’s key points and ideas mural of key points. Or click below to watch the session recording.

CEMA Summit 2023

“A View of the Summit”

from Karen Galatis

I can’t believe it is May already. Three months until we see each other in Salt Lake City at CEMA Summit. The big news for those of you who have not registered for CEMA Summit is that we are extending Early Bird registration until May 31st. To make it even easier for you to register just click here.

Did you see that we announced Dr. Julie Williamson, Chief Growth Enabler at Karrikin’s Group? This keynote titled, “Go beyond the task list and make strategy part of your business-as-usual mindset” is sponsored by New Orleans & Company. We have also secured Natalie Nixon, PHD, from Figure 8 Thinking, LLC, for our Tuesday morning keynote. More to come on Natalie.

At our Industry Forum, you will hear from Michael Dominguez, president & CEO, Associated Luxury Hotels International, discussing current and future trends across the events industry, hospitality, and travel that we need to think about in 2023 for more effective planning in 2024 -2028. 

Stay tuned for more announcements this month for keynotes, the general session Town Hall and Breakout Sessions.

If you haven’t renewed your CEMA membership, please do so now as you need to be a member to attend CEMA Summit. You can renew by sending an email to our new Community Development Manager, Nicole Kern at membership@cemaonline.com

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

Save the Date

Join leaders from TED, Forbes and CEMA on May 18th, 1pm EDT for new insights on #Leadership in the events industry.

Every leader – and leadership journey – looks different. Join an open conversation with Erika and Monique to discuss the connection between authenticity and leadership. How do the spaces we create as leaders foster authenticity for our organizations, and how do our authentic qualities serve us as leaders in our own right?

And you won’t want to miss meeting CEMA’s new VP, Strategy and Operations. Sandra Marcus as she moderates the discussion between Monique, Head of Events for TED Conferences, and Erika, Manager of Live Programming, Forbes.

They will focus on personal leadership journeys, consider what leadership means in its many forms, and assess how an understanding of leadership styles and preferences can help us grow at all career levels. Bring your insights, questions, and ideas on leadership to this vital community conversation!

Study Tours

Join us for a CEMA Study Tour at the Salesforce Connections learning event in Chicago, IL June 6-7. 

CEMA looks forward to seeing you at this exclusive, two-day behind-the-scenes personal tour of Salesforce Connections in Chicago, IL. You will experience this “hands-on” case study and learn firsthand about managing a hugely successful proprietary event. You will see how Salesforce builds out an event specifically for a marketing audience and uses their unique style of storytelling in event production. A panel of Salesforce and event partner experts will share insights into what makes Salesforce unique in the industry, focusing on Innovation and Personalization. CEMA members can register below.  Once you have been approved to attend the event you will be sent a registration code and instructions for the event as well as hotel information.   We have a limited room block at the Marriott Marquis for Tuesday June 6th, so please register early.Agenda:Tuesday, June 6th•    Morning arrivals to Marriott Marquis•    3:00 pm Study Tour Kick Off — Marriott meeting room          — Late lunch/snack           — Welcome and review agenda — CEMA Board Representative•    4:00 pm Registration to pick up badges•    4:30 pm Behind the scenes tour —Salesforce Connections:            — Elizabeth Gilstrap, Vice President Strategic Events           — Story telling through our brand: Katie Snider, Vice President Cloud Creative•    5:30 pm End of formal agenda for day one•    7:00 pm Sponsored welcome reception/dinner (TBD)Wednesday, June 7th•    9:00 am Welcome back/breakfast — CEMA Board Representative•    9:30 am Walk to keynote room •   10:00 am Main Keynote: President, Chief Marketing Officer: Sarah Franklin•    11:00 am Break•    11:30 am Lunch at McCormick Place•    12:30 – 1:00 Salesforce Events Panel           — Marketing to Marketers: How Salesforce uses events to tell our story.          — Various Salesforce Executives and Event Partners•    1:00 -1:30 Q&A•    1:30 DeparturesComplete your application by clicking here. Applications are due by May 30th, you will be notified of your status on or before June 1st. The Study Tour is limited to 30 applicants. 

We hope to see you in Chicago! 

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

“The U.S. corporate event industry is forging a strong Q2 as event-related venues and organizations across the country tap experienced industry leaders and appoint new team members to expand their growing teams. Take a look!” Corporate Event News 

Interesting Articles