Thank you to everyone who made our “Half Day Education” program a great success. The University of St. Thomas Minneapolis was the ideal venue host. The layout of breakout rooms made it easy for all attendees to get to their sessions on time. A special thank you to all the room monitors: Daphne Meyers CMM, Emily Nelson, Holly Knutson, Ann Margaret Young, Shelly Harrington, and Catherine McKenna, CMP, CMM.

We had many great speakers to help our meeting planners as well as suppliers invest in their craft. The following speakers offered us key subject matter knowledge on April 21, 2010.

Our Keynote Speaker

Joan Eisenstodt of Eisenstodt Associates, LLC motivated us on her topic “Who’s Looking back at You in the Mirror? Industry Ethics^™.” Joan provided a very interactive session discussing issues like payment of commission, relationships with vendors, itemizing expense reports and so much more. This main learning platform was beneficial to all attendees.

Breakout Education Sessions Overview:

Joan Eisenstodt of Eisenstodt Associates, LLC shared her expert knowledge from her educational track of “Contract Negotiations from a Planner’s Perspective^™.” Joan equipped the audience with techniques on question-thinking and unraveling hotel contracts on what planners don’t know, should know and may not know about negotiating contracts. Key takeaways were how to facilitate the contract process, questioning skills, and how to construct questions to use within your organization.

Leslie Wright from Meet Minneapolis spoke to us about the “State of the Industry” and what to look forward to in 2010. Key takeaways were understanding the effects of the economy on hotel and meetings industries, the value of meetings, and how to establish winning partnerships.

Roshini Rajkumar of Roshini Multi Media enlightened us with compelling information from her newly released book entitled Communicate That!. Roshini’s session discussed “Now to Wow!^™: Who Are You?” Key takeaways were knowing your purpose before you walk into an introduction, how to analyze your audience to create focused results, and ways to present yourself by maximizing your strengths.

Rick Hardcopf of ACCELEREN Consulting introduced a new concept that meeting planners and suppliers can use (as so many other industries do already) entitled “Lean and Six Sigma.” The key takeaways were what processes we can make more effective and efficient, how we can quantify our meetings and events, the best way to work with suppliers who use Lean/Six Sigma, and how we leverage the Voice of the Customer (VOC).

Dan Yaman of LiveSpark thrilled and motivated us with the topic of “Brain Based Events: The Lastest Research on How to Engage Your Audience and Make Your Message Stick.” He prompted the audience with the notion that many large events are conducted with little regard for making sure key objectives are conveyed in a way that ensures actions. The ACTION oriented takeaways were how to set outcomes for events, ways to structure a presentation so attendees are engaged the entire time, and how to apply brain based tricks to help your audience retain more information.

Seth Mattison of Bridgeworks opened our minds to “The M-Factor: Why the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace and How You Can Turn Their Great Expectations into Even Greater Results.” Seth demonstrated the obstacles and opportunities of bridging the gap with the newest generation in the workplace. Key takeaways were understanding the four generations in the workplace, how to communicate more effectively with these generations, and identifying critical “clash points” along with solutions to improve overall interactions.

We are looking forward to having a similar list of wonderful subject matter experts next year!

Finally, thank you to our generous sponsors:
Destination Winnipeg
Travel Manitoba
University of St Thomas-Minneapolis Campus
Gainey Conference Center
DoubleTree Guest Suites-Minneapolis
Laurel Street Flowers
St Paul Hotel
Eclipse Transportation
Meet Minneapolis
Acceleren Consulting
LiveSpark
Roshini Multi Media
Bridgeworks

[recap written by LaVasha Lobbins, PMP, CMP and Holly Knutson]