IMEX America Promises Impactful Programming That Will Engage Attendees on Deeper Levels

 

Carrying the theme “impact” for the next two years, IMEX Group’s major annual tradeshows in Las Vegas and Frankfurt are striving to communicate the true influence of meetings and events in myriad ways and on a deeper level.

"How is the world going to get better? Well, it’s going to get better if we’re all working together toward achievable ends,” said Tahira Endean, head of program for IMEX Group. “So, it’s really about leaving positive impacts where we go.”

The impact theme will permeate the conference, according to Endean.

[Related: IMEX Releases IMEX America 2024 Education Lineup]

“Well, we have an impact track, so that’s the super-obvious one,” Endean joked. “When we’re programming, what I’m looking for is the things that we aren’t necessarily going to see somewhere else; creating some different collisions of people to come together and talk about things, and just different perspectives. And then, of course, we want to cover some tool kit things, and we want to identify the challenges the industry is facing and bring forward the people who are working on some of those solutions and ideas.”

One speaker that’s all about impact is Andre Norman, who Endean brought in to deliver the keynote at SITE’s 2023 Global Conference when she led the educational efforts there, and which received a standing ovation from the crowd. Norman will deliver the Smart Monday keynote October 7.

“He was just a superstar, honestly, just a really amazing human,” Endean said. “When we went through the process of looking at all of the different keynote speakers with MPI, he quickly rose to the top choice.”

[Related: How Mentorship Will Be Making a Big Impact at IMEX America]

Talk Show at a Tradeshow

Creating relatively informal sessions that engage attendees and speakers on a more-personal level is an ongoing goal for IMEX.

“One of the formats that I think has worked really well for us, that we tested last year, was called Event Profs Unplugged,” Endean said. “It’s a 60-minute session that’s basically like a talk show. It happens every day for an hour—Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday—in the morning and has different hosts every day.”

Aside from tackling major meetings and events industry topics, Event Profs Unplugged speakers also reveal details of their non-professional lives, such as Cvent CEO & Founder Reggie Aggarwal, who at IMEX Frankfurt described the advice he would give to his daughters about the business world, and recalled when he brought his mother in to work.

Core fundamental topics impacting meetings and events will also be featured in various sessions, such as industry attorney Dr. Tyra Warner talking about current contract issues.

“There’s always 100 people in her session, and contracts are always going to be something we need to talk about,” Endean said. “She’s with Jill Blood, who’s one of the Maritz lawyers, and they’re also having a reunion, as they did a great session last year and asked if they could do it again.”

Endean said IMEX America is adding a 90-minute coaching period so people can sit down with the attorneys and ask them more specific questions about legal issues such as contract clauses.

Industry attorney Joshua L. Grimes will also deliver legal education at the show.

[Free eHandbook featuring Joshua L. Grimes: Critical Contract Clauses]

Wellness and One-to-Ones

Endean added that this year’s IMEX America will offer more-personalized interactions with subject matter experts, including another return engagement, an Ayurvedic health session from Carmen Boscolo, an industry veteran who founded Veda Blossum.

Ayurveda is the traditional Hindu system of medicine that takes a natural approach to well-being and is based on people having specific life forces (doshas).

“One-to-one life coaching will be available that people will be able to sign up for ahead of time,” she said of the free offering. “What’s that blend of the professional tools that I need with some personal care that I need? Nobody’s going to go too deep in the middle of the tradeshow and give away all of their therapy questions; it’s just a nice time to have a little bit of focus on yourself and probably leave with something that is a little bit richer for your overall experience.”

An interesting F&B session will feature Eating at a Meeting Podcast host Tracy Stuckrath, founder of thrive! meetings & events, and industry F&B vet Trevor Lui, who will team up to tackle conscious catering. Another F&B segment includes award-winning travel writer, cooking instructor and philanthropist Sucheta Rawal, founder and executive director of Go Eat Give, which travels to developing nations to immerse participants in the local culture of communities while giving back.

Stick Around for Thursday!

Endean said attendees should definitely plan on sticking around for the last day of the show, Thursday, for some more-robust content than was offered on previous “get-away days.”

“Susie Arnett, [director of wellness programming] from Six Senses will be in conversation with Daniel Scheffler, a Condé Nast writer who’s been to many of those [developing] places,” Endean said. “So, one of the key messages is don’t leave on Thursday morning! We’ve got some really stellar people coming on Thursday.”

Another Thursday session will feature Richard Crawford, host of TV’s Leave No Trace, who will talk about sustainable luxury travel. 

A series called “Tough Talks” will tackle challenging topics such as suicide prevention for veterans and hospitality workers. Held in a more-intimate section of the exhibit floor, one of the sessions will be led by Deana Brown Mitchell, who will deliver her “Scars to Stars” presentation detailing the experience of losing her DMC business due to Covid, and also the loss of a close industry friend who took her own life during the pandemic.

Other impactful sessions include a facilitated meetup for cancer survivors and an “anticipatory grief” session led by meetings technology expert Dahlia El-Gazzar for people who are facing end-of-life situations that may be further out on the horizon.

“So, some coping skills, a safe space, basically, just to have some of those conversations, which I think is really, really appreciated by the people who are living through or have had these lived experiences and are wanting to open up the conversations and make them more normalized,” Endean explained.

A core element of IMEX America 2024 is mentorship in a meetings and events industry that is realizing the vitality of the profession can only be maintained by fostering its future professionals.

[Related: The Z: Understanding the Importance of Mentorship in the Meetings Industry]

Perhaps turning that topic on its head a bit, recent retiree Kevin Iwamoto will be on-hand to address his experience after “retiring” from the industry. In essence, he is helping to mentor those who are beginning the transition to retirement.

“Retirement means different things to different people,” Iwamoto said. “Some people are able to just cold turkey it just by saying, ‘I am done, I did my time, I’m not doing anything anymore. I’m just going to focus on family, vacation, traveling, my hobbies, whatever.’ And some people want to stay somewhat engaged but not completely engaged, but only for projects and things that interest them, and that would be me; that’s my definition of retirement.

“It’s really more about having dialogue with people and exchanging ideas or hearing what their challenges are,” he added, “and maybe giving advice on how they want to navigate to those challenges.” 

Featured Speaker:  Andre Norman

Smart Monday will showcase a speaker that is sure to raise the roof of Mandalay Bay, with an inspiring story of a kid that faced a mountain of challenges, landed in prison facing a 105-year sentence and then rose above it all to help at-risk youth throughout the world and deliver his message of hope, community and mentorship as a keynote speaker at major events.

Born in Boston in 1967, Andre Norman came from a family of six headed by an abusive father and faced the court-mandated public school busing upheaval that had White Bostonians close to rioting about African-American children being integrated into White-majority schools.

“I went through the busing crisis where kids threw rocks at us and called us names when we were going to school,” he said. “Boston was particularly bad back then and that was a flash point.”

Expectations for young Andre were practically nonexistent after being placed in the “dummy class” after it was discovered he was illiterate. This found him on a path that would eventually lead him to a lengthy prison sentence following multiple convictions, including attempted murder, as a high-ranking member of a major street gang.

“In middle school, I found out we were poor,” Norman joked, “so I started selling weed in a park to kind of make dollars or buy food and clothes. And before long, I’m not in school full time but in the street, and then I found myself in prison. It was like a reunion of all my friends from the dummy class, from the principal’s office, from juvenile probation, hanging out in the park—all those guys. It was just a giant collection of quitters.”

After 14 years in prison—including two-and-a-half in solitary—and winning an appeal, Norman walked free and straight into his true life’s mission: helping others who faced challenges similar to his own, regardless of race or social standing.

“I came up with a different goal, and that was to go home and be successful, and go to Harvard University,” he said.
“Ninety minutes after I walked out of prison, I started helping young Black kids in juvenile centers—I started helping everybody I could,” he said. “And for the last 25 years, I’ve traveled the world just helping people. I’m creating a platform where people can be heard, be seen, be acknowledged, under the auspices of our program called Second Chance University. We believe everybody needs access to information and inspiration to turn their life around.”

Central to Norman’s message is that all kids are essentially at risk in today’s world because they often lack direction and mentors, with an addiction to technology further distancing them from human connection. At its core, Norman’s message is about mentorship, a guiding theme of IMEX America 2024.

“Second Chance University is designed to help people, wherever they are, get access to information that’s going to change their life,” Norman said. “We help kids with drug addiction, depression, suicide, criminal backgrounds, it doesn’t matter.
“I am here because of mentorship. I went to prison because of mentorship. I came home from prison because of mentorship. The question is what kind of mentors do you have?” Norman said of the positive, and negative, aspects of mentorship. “Do you have mentors that are positive and legal or mentors that are negative and destructive?”

Fortress of Solitude

Hello! Destination Management is once again thinking outside of the box at IMEX America.

In 2023, the DMC created a multisensory, “Ode to Color–Multi-Sensory Event and Environment Design” concept with designer Lori Weitzner in collaboration with Google Experience Institute (Google Xi). At this year’s show, Hello! Destination Management will create a “Resilience Space” where attendees can chill out with a respite from the cacophony that is the exhibit floor of IMEX America. Hello! Destination Management's booth will be #E1830.

We talked with Kate Walsh, VP, professional development and stakeholder engagement with Hello! Destination Management, to get the deets.

What is a Resilience Space?

A resilience room is a space utilized at an event that is a separate physical space from the event itself. Design-wise, it is a room that calms the senses and allows an individual the physical and mental space to decompress and step away from over-stimulating stimuli. Picture a room you enter that has soft lighting, the sound of a gentle waterfall, calming smell, soft seating options, a mix of greenery placed throughout the space, various textures in the furniture, fidgets to explore and a soft breeze of a fan for temperature regulation and white noise.

Why is this important for IMEX America attendees?

Every human being can benefit from a resilience room. As humans, we all have sensory needs that we meet throughout the day. Oftentimes we do these things without realizing we are meeting a need.

Examples: chewing gum, tapping feet, working out, listening to music or avoiding music after a day at work. As human beings, we all have our daily quota of sensory needs that we process and fill in gaps to either increase stimuli to meet homeostasis or decrease stimuli to get back to baseline. 

Our brain and central nervous system are truly miraculous in not only just maintaining our bodily needs to survive but they also work together in consistent pilot mode navigating the rapid fire of information happening internally and externally around us to allow us to function. However, some people struggle to process this information and the rapid fire in their brains just keeps coming without the ability to quickly perceive, modulate and integrate the information. This can result in a feeling of fight, flight or freeze for the individual until that person is able to access tools, strategies and an environment that better supports their needs.

Why did you decide to offer this?

Have you been to a show floor? Hello! Destination management in partnership with IMEX and Google Xi recognizes the benefit an “around the corner” environment like this can mean to all attendees. What began as recognizing a gap to better include and support our Neuro Diverse community has grown into a solution that ALL can benefit from. Popping up to your hotel room for a quick break is not an option at many events. Providing this environment just off the show floor provides many benefits, including attracting more attendees that might not attend without this space to retreat to as well as all attendees to quickly recharge to be more present and “on their game” as they move through appointments, build connections and close business after visiting the space.

Where will it be located and at what times will it operate?

The Resilience space will be just outside the show floor doors. Be on the lookout for signage and details leading up to and at the event. The space will be open all show days.

IMEX + MPI: A Strategic Partnership

MPI and IMEX Group have been partners for more than 20 years, with the last decade seeing MPI taking the entirety of Monday to stage keynote speeches and a variety of educational sessions via its Smart Monday programming just before IMEX America kicks into full gear on Tuesday.

Dubbed a “conference within a conference,” 2024 Smart Monday highlights include a moving “Prison to Harvard: The Power of Belief and Self-Motivation” keynote from Andre Norman, who was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison and rose above a challenging childhood to earn an Ivy League fellowship and bring his inspiring message of hope to at-risk youngsters as well as ballrooms full of meeting attendees.

A CEU goldmine, Smart Monday also features multiple concurrent educational sessions and various engagement activations—puppy cuddling, anyone?

MPI also produced the keynotes on the two days following Smart Monday, with Tuesday featuring Justin Wren, on “Purpose. Performance. Impact,” and Wednesday showcasing Olympia LePoint delivering her “Making New Artificial Intelligence Technology Ethical & Accurate” keynote.

Smart Monday is free for planners who are registered for the conference but requires a separate registration process that is available at www.mpi.org/events/imex-america.

Other MPI activities at IMEX America include a free headshot station, a business lounge, a video testimonial station and various membership activations, along with the promise of IMEX-exclusive membership swag at MPI’s booth.

Where's Taylor?!

Meetings Today editor Taylor Smith will once again be a busy bee at IMEX America, delivering no less than five educational sessions during the event.

Here’s where and when you can find her at the show:

• 9:30-10:30 a.m., Monday, October 7: “OK, Zoomer!: The Battle Between Baby Boomers and Gen Z,” with Michael Owen (MPI’s Smart Monday)
• 2-2:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 8: “Timeless Talent: The Benefits of Maximizing Multigenerational Team Potential,” with Meetings Today editor Tyler Davidson (MPI Booth)
• 10:30-11:15 a.m., Wednesday, October 9: “The XYZs of Networking: How to Build Authentic Connections Across Generations,” with Adventures in Business podcaster Mandi Graziano (IMEX Future Leaders Forum; invite only)
• 2:15-3:45 p.m., Wednesday, October 9: IMEX Future Leaders Forum roundtables (invite only)
• 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Thursday, October 10: “Modern Mentorship: Understanding Mentorship in Today’s Workforce” (first 45 minutes) followed by mentorship roundtables discussions (with Meetings Today editor Tyler Davidson) (Curious Minds Theatre, Inspiration Hub)