AMERICAS – The pre-show education day programme for the third edition of the IMEX America trade show, set to take place at Sands Expo in Las Vegas 15-17 October 2013, promises a ‘conference within a conference’.
Professional development for association meeting planners features high on the agenda of the free event, sponsored by Sands Meetings and organised in active partnership with ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
The Association Focus programme on the 14 October Education Day, or ‘Smart Monday’, is powered by Meeting Professionals International.
Following a networking lunch, the education focus will kick off with a keynote address by Tim Sanders, a former Yahoo! executive and bestselling author of Love Is the Killer App, The Likeability Factor, and Saving the World at Work.
Attendees will then be offered three education tracks: an Executive track, a PCMA Meetings track and a Global track featuring ICCA leading two ‘wisdom of crowds’, round table sessions to extract and share expertise on the themes ‘International Meetings are from Mars, Domestic Meetings are from Venus’ and ‘Going Global: Dangers, Risks, Problems, Challenges and Other Worries that Keep You Up at Night’.
“In today’s increasingly globalised world and to keep up with the resulting opportunities and challenges facing their members, US associations need to adopt an international mindset wherever they hold their meetings. Our sessions will explore some of the fundamental ways international meetings differ from US domestic meetings and discuss implications for venue and destination selection, marketing, education content delivery, networking and risk management,” said ICCA CEO, Martin Sirk.
“We’ll be asking our audiences to share their successes and failures, objectives and fears, and we’ll mix in perspectives from different regions of the world to generate a host of fresh ideas on how to deliver the most effective international events,” Sirk added.
In the afternoon, the Association Focus programme will offer delegates a choice of eight roundtable discussions across all three tracks.
Smart Monday will offer an evening networking reception for exhibitors and association partners.
IMEX America’s Hosted Buyer programme is now open (subject to qualifying criteria) ‘buyer attendees’.
Full programme details: www.imexamerica.com/events/forums/association-focus/
Smart Monday takes place in The Venetian l The Palazzo Congress Center, Las Vegas.
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