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All professional education at the show is free of charge, including the specialist events for association, corporate and agency planners taking place on Smart Monday, powered by MPI.
REMARKABLE Experience strategist for interactive and immersive mediums, Laura Hess, founding member of the World Experience Organisation, will deliver an education keynote – REMARKABLE: A new methodology for evaluating ROX( Return-on-Experience).
She tells CMW how she became interested in business events?
“ My entry point and the majority of my current work is in experiential art and entertainment, including participatory theatre, experiential marketing, themed entertainment, film, VR, and installation art.
“ Experiential storytelling can have a profound impact. There’ s incredible opportunity across the event spectrum, whether a production is business-centric or entertainment-driven. I’ m invested in how we reach new audiences and deepen those relationships.”
After exploring hundreds of experiences, Hess says she developed an evaluation rubric that fills in gaps from traditional evaluation metrics.“ There’ s nothing wrong with measuring attendance, revenue, conversation rates, social shares and the like, but that data doesn’ t capture event sentiment. If we don’ t understand what guests feel and what they walk away with from an emotional perspective, we can’ t know if an event resonates. The REMARKABLE framework is a comprehensive tool to understand that Return on Experience.”
She will walk attendees through the development, application, and value of the framework so that they’ ll then be able to use the rubric to clarify and develop an event’ s intentionality.“ It’ s through careful intentionality that we can best deliver on goals and KPIs,” Hess believes.
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She adds:“ Events that stand out include meaningful engagement and some degree of personalisation. That personalisation can be simple, scalable moments. It’ s all about cultivating authentic connections. Broadly speaking, events need to step away from formulaic approaches that often feel transactional and lack genuine connectivity. No matter the type or size of an event, attendees are longing to feel welcomed and seen.”
Evolving and elevating Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group shares her take on what’ s in store in Vegas:“ Standing still while everything changes isn’ t stability – it’ s irrelevance,” she says.“ Holly Ransom, one of the speakers at IMEX America, will offer
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Top left: Laura Hess
Bottom left: Carina Bauer
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her guidance for leaders in our recent report, How to lead with impact in extreme times. It’ s a strategy we’ ve adopted in designing our shows each year. We evolve and reiterate, seeing what works and improving on what doesn’ t, so the result is a show that really hits the mark in terms of event professionals’ needs.
“ Our team has also elevated our education programme, designed to enhance buyers’ business conversations on the show floor, with big names, bold ideas and intriguing formats. Experts from Cirque du Soleil, Dîner en Blanc and the World Experience Organisation are just some of the names to look out for and we’ re also crafting specialist events for association, corporate and agency planners, all taking place on Smart Monday, powered by MPI.
“ The only problem we have with our first-timers’ programme is that it’ s become so popular, so we’ ll now run three sessions designed to help newbies get the most from their IMEXperience and make a few friends along the way! Our aim is for the show to be as welcoming and inclusive as possible – this year we’ re working with the American and Australian Psychological Associations on a groundbreaking case study which means IMEX America will be one of the first global events measured against their Neurodiverse Inclusive Event Certification – a new standard for inclusive event design. We’ re excited to share more in due course.
“ Finally, underpinning these initiatives are the business meetings. Bringing together motivated planners from around the world to meet and do business with our global range of suppliers is really the cornerstone of the show. And with buyer demand currently tracking significantly ahead of last year, there’ s strong momentum and a clear desire to connect face to face.” n
n IMEX America takes place 7-9 October, at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, and opens with Smart Monday, powered by MPI on 6 October.
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