Education topics at MPI’s World Education Congress—June 21-23 in San Francisco—will run the gamut. Here, we delve into creativity, LinkedIn and contracts with just a few of the expert speakers who will be imparting their knowledge at WEC.

Learn more about the WEC education lineup.

CREATIVITY ON A COMPRESSED TIMELINE

Heather Munnell, director of client experience for VDA, will lead the session “Creativity on a Compressed Timeline” at WEC. We spoke with her about enhancing creativity and keeping your edge.

Can you tell us one simple way meeting professionals can enhance their focus on creativity?

Timelines in a post-COVID landscape are compressed and being pushed. As an event professional, you need to define the deliverables with your partners; establishing clear lines of communication is imperative. This may mean redeveloping email communication strategies to work with your partners and colleagues so they can quickly visualize in a subject line “action, decide or inform.” This will help keep the creative process on task.

How can meeting professionals adjust to compressed timelines without losing their creative edge?

Keep an “idea toolbox,” which could be an active idea Pinterest board, notes on your phone, inspirational images or continued conversations with your partners on activations/concepts. The next best thing is born out of ideating with your partners and compressed timelines: You need to move quickly. So, do not be afraid to be in touch with your partners to ideate on the next best concept even if you do not have management sign-off or a venue confirmed. Move this up stream so that when you are ready to pull the trigger you are further along in the process. You do not want to get caught feeling like you can only do what you did last year, because you are lacking a key ingredient: time.

What do you hope attendees will take away from this session?

We will start by truly understanding the reason why compressed timelines are plaguing the event industry today. We will develop a camaraderie and understanding that we are all facing these same issues and develop strategies to effectively design and understand the limitations of the compressed timeline vs. the traditional pre-COVID execution schedules.

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LEVEL UP YOUR LINKEDIN GAME!

Leanne Calderwood, founder of of LeanneCalderwood.com, will lead the session “Level Up Your LinkedIn Game!” at WEC. We spoke with her about common LinkedIn mistakes and using the platform the right way.

Can you tell us about one common way meeting professionals misuse or underuse LinkedIn? 

I feel many are still scrolling the feed looking for answers and feeling disappointed when they don’t find anything. LinkedIn is a platform that goes beyond the scroll. It’s about professionals being intentional and time spent engaging with the content and thus creating deeper connections.

Why is it critical for meeting professionals to use LinkedIn in the right way in order to be successful?

Our industry and its people are always changing. Staying on top of trends and putting yourself out there as an engager and thought leader will bring you top-of-mind when opportunities arise.

What do you hope attendees will take away from this session?

I hope they will be encouraged to look at the platform differently and use it beyond its old reputation of being a job-posting and job-seeking platform.

CONTRACING FOR RECOVERY

Joshua Grimes, Esq., of the Grimes Law Offices and Brenda Howes of the Howes Group will lead the session “Contracting for Recovery: Safeguarding Your Business for the Next Normal” at WEC. We spoke with them about the changed contracts landscape and “hidden” provisions.

As in-person meetings continue to return, what’s one piece of contracting advise you would offer planners operating in this changed landscape?

Brenda Howes: The key will always be to mitigate risk. Identifying the “next risk” is the challenge so ensure that your wording encompasses a “list of possibilities” and not just a specific reason to invoke the Force Majeure clauses.

Joshua Grimes: Use your experience and negotiating skills to reach a fair contract and protect your organization’s interests.

Can you tell us about a “hidden” provision common in today’s contracts?

Grimes and Howes: The costs that hotels have incurred during the pandemic will make it to the clients’ master accounts. Some provisions to carefully review for fairness include additional costs for cleaning and guestroom housekeeping, service charges and add-on fees and fee and cost increases. It’s also critical to consider negotiating a “cap” or “do not exceed” on food and beverage prices and service charges.

What do you hope attendees will take away from this session? 

Grimes and Howes: Participants need to have confidence to “proceed and sign” their meeting contracts knowing exactly what their organizations’ obligations, costs and risks will be—and that the agreement includes critical components to help ensure that the contract is fair and allows both parties to be successful.