June 5: PYM LIVE Austin panel

• Kent Emeson (Carlson Wagonlit Travel): Strategic Meetings Management, Contract Negotiations
• Ruth Gregg, MPS, CMP, CGMP (East West Connection): Crisis Management
• Cindy Y. Lo (Red Velvet Events): Event Design, Audience Engagement, Event Tech
• Jeff Rasco, CMP (Attendee Management Inc.): Meeting Technology, Registration, Logistics
• Kristi Casey Sanders (Plan Your Meetings): Meeting Technology, Innovation

Hybrid Event Consultant/Virtual Emcee Emilie Barta‘s #1 goal is engaging the audience…no matter where they are located. She helps design the audience’s experience before the event, hosts the audience’s experience at the event, and continues the audience’s experience after the event through the power of video, online communities, and social media. Emilie’s 15+ years of broadcast/video experience AND physical event experience enable her to help meeting, conference, and trade show organizers plan successful, visually stimulating, and interactive virtual and hybrid meetings. Known for her audience engagement expertise, she is forging new territory in the blended conference world and in creating the role of virtual emcee to ensure that the virtual audience feels like they are in the room even though they are not physically in the room. Connect with her @EmilieBarta.

John Chen (@bigkid) is the energetic CEO of PLAYTIME Inc., infusing corporate team building and leadership skills through technology and adventure.  Their latest offering is Geoteaming™, a GPS-Powered Team Building event where you go for a high-tech treasure hunt using GPS, Pocket PCs, Digital Cameras and 2-way radios to find hidden items.  Using his unique Competitive-Collaborative Design, Geoteaming™ is not only about team building, but about team-to-team building as teams compete for high-score while collaborating to achieve a company goal.  Through this process, John’s clients learn how to balance the paradox of competition and collaboration through his 7 Keys for Cross Team Collaboration. John has worked with over 100 Fortune 500 clients in over 650 events around the world including Barcelona, France, Taiwan and Shanghai to provide value through team building skills. He is the author of “50 Digital Team-Building Games.” 

Midori Connolly is the Chief AVGirl of AVGirl Productions and co-founder of an AV company, as well as senior tech advisor to 7 Degrees Communications. She is a professional speaker and writer who specializes in providing end-to-end hybrid meeting design, strategic technology planning, and technological execution. Her passion is to make technology more human, approachable, and sustainable. You can reach her at midori@avgirlproductions.com or via Twitter: @AVGirlMidori.

Kent Emeson is a UNLV graduate that has been a meeting planner for over 20 years with companies like IBM, Network Associates, Harcourt Education and Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Experienced results-producing strategy, marketing communications and brand strategies with a proven record of accomplishments in multi-pronged integrated marketing campaigns, live event marketing, online advertising, channel marketing management, brand/product launches, training initiatives, media purchasing and planning, social marketing campaigns, complex product launch marketing programs, training and staff development, and Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) for impactful bottom line results. His Twitter handle is @earsonmarketing.

Claire R. Gould is the owner of Rx for Events International and Rx for Catering LLC, a full-service events design and logistics company that has done work in more than 30 countries. A large part of Ms. Gould’s company is designing menus and negotiating culinary for meetings and events, in addition to exhibit design, strategies and general meeting planning. Her company has done work for the Coca-Cola Co., Aerion Supersonic Business Jets, Honeywell International and HCC Life Insurance, among others. Gould teaches and writes about culinary and banquet trends and topics. Follow her on Twitter @Rx_for_Catering and Rx For Events on Facebook. E-mail cgould@rxforevents.com.

Traci Gregory, CEM, resides in southern California and has been in the meeting industry for nearly 20 years. She planned her first international conference at age 16 on behalf of her church youth conference. That conference hosted over 2,500 attendees in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  Traci went on to learn both hotel and facility service prior to becoming a full time meeting planner. She has more than 10 years of experience as a senior events manager, organizing trade shows, conferences, corporate events, and consumer events attracting thousands of attendees. Currently, she is the director of Transforums. You can find her on Twitter @raciplace. 

Gregg Herning (@PeabodyOrlando) is an award-winning hospitality professional. He’s known best for his creative and innovative approach to hospitality sales and marketing, and has served in multiple capacities with the Peabody Hotel Group for 11 years. He began his Peabody career as director of sales and marketing for the group’s flagship property, the Peabody Memphis and later became general manager of the Peabody Little Rock hotel in Arkansas. He helped the property earn the Forbes Four Star designation, the first in the state’s history. In 2010, Gregg was promoted to vice president of sales & marketing. He was named “Leader of the Year” by Peabody Hotels President/CEO Martin Belz in 2006 and honored with the President’s Award for Special Achievement in 2010 and 2012. Gregg devotes much of his effort to developing sales and marketing talent for the hospitality industry, frequently speaking and serving as an adjunct instructor at hotel schools across the country. You can read more at greggsblogg.com, where he posts entertaining commentary on life, living and moving the needle.

Jeff Hurt, executive vice president, education and engagement, Velvet Chainsaw Consulting, has worked in events/nonprofit arena for more than 20 years including Keep America Beautiful as a consultant/trainer/writer; Keep Texas Beautiful as Education Coordinator; Professional Development Manager for Meeting Professionals International; Professional Development Manager for Promotional Products Association International; and Director of Education and Events for the National Association of Dental Plans. He has also served on several board of directors for several North Texas, state and national charities and organizations. You can read more about his ideas for meetings and events on his blog Velvet Chainsaw’s Midcourse Corrections and follow him on Twitter @jeffhurt.

Christy Lamagna, CMP, CMM, CTSM, (@SMEChristy) is the founder and chief strategist of Strategic Meetings & Events (smeplanners.com), an event planning company that specializes in producing events that achieve clients’ marketing and sales goals. With an ability to see the big picture while simultaneously understanding events down to the minutiae, Christy’s ability to create, market and execute programs has made her a leader in the industry. A former vice president of a Fortune 20 company and a member of five startup organizations, Christy has built successful marketing, event, travel and trade-show, departments for companies while helping them create or strengthen their brands and the infrastructure that supports them. Christy teaches event and meeting management classes at a college level and is working on an industry textbook on the science of strategic planning. She speaks at industry events whenever possible as a way of giving back to the profession that has given her 21 years of career satisfaction.

Cheryl Lawson (@partyaficionado) is the owner and founder of event planning and marketing firm, Party Aficionado, and creator of the Event Planning Tools mobile app. Party Aficionado helps companies develop social marketing strategies both online and face-to-face, using full event coordinating capabilities, and coaching to help companies engage their audience.  Cheryl is also a self published Children’s book author of The Adventures of Precious the Dog series, and is the mastermind behind Social Media Tulsa and the #SMTulsa Conference.  Social Media Tulsa is the areas most active social media group. To learn more visit: http://partyaficionado.com/.

Cindy Y. Lo is owner and event strategist behind Red Velvet Events Inc. in Austin, Texas. Red Velvet Events has been planning unique and flawless meetings, conferences and social events around the world for 10 years. You can follow her on Twitter @RedVelvetEvents and see more of what she does with meeting design by watching this short video.

Meredith Martini, M.S., is the ChiefPlayWorker and owner at PlayWorks Group and meetingWorks, event and meeting planning firms based in Atlanta. Meredith specializes in creating interactive learning in meetings, conferences & events through meeting, content & team-building design. “I find inspiration in my daughters and husband and sometimes (unfortunately),” she says, “reality television!” You can reach her @PlayWorksGroup or at playworksgroup.com.

Jeffrey W. Rasco, CMP (@jeffrasco, @attendeenet) is a veteran meeting professional with nearly three decades of experience and the founder and CEO of Attendee Management Inc. (attendeenet.com), which provides online registration expertise and a full range of registration and housing services. Jeff is a popular speaker on technology and its impact on meetings, and especially those people who plan and support them. He has written well over 100 articles and columns on meeting technology, and is frequently quoted as an expert in the trade press. He has received a number of professional honors, most notably Meeting Planner of the Year from Meeting Professionals InternationaI in 1996, their international Chapter Leader of the Year in 1994, the only person to have been awarded both of these prestigious honors. He was also named the MPI Texas Hill Country Chapter’s Supplier of the Year in 2005 and Houston MPI’s Planner of the Year in 1987.

Kristi Casey Sanders is the VP of creative/chief storyteller of Plan Your Meetings (PlanYourMeetings.com) and site selection chair for the Society of American Travel Writer’s Eastern Chapter. She frequently speaks at industry functions about how meeting professionals can prove their worth, meet responsibly, create innovative experiences and change the world. She’s proud to be one of MPI’s 20 Proprietary Content Speakers for 2012-2013, as a subject matter expert on the topic of using technology to plan “Smarter, Faster and More Efficiently.” Follow her on Twitter @PYMLive or @KristiCasey. #yaypym!

Paul Salinger (@psalinger) is an event designer, event strategist and a member of Oracle’s marketing management team. As a vice president of marketing he is primarily responsible for creative marketing concepts, strategiccommunications, working with executives on messaging and event presentations, and working with event marketing on integrating event design and sustainability into the event planning process. Paul is an advocate and evangelist for a more sustainable and responsible approach to events and is past president and current board member of the Green Meeting Industry Council. He has been in the events business, on both the supply and client side, for close to 40 years.

Dennis Shiao is Director of Product Marketing at INXPO and author of the book “Generate Sales Leads With Virtual Events.”  At INXPO, Dennis is responsible for go-to-market strategy and execution, and for shaping product and platform evolution via the “voice of the customer.” Dennis has managed virtual event campaigns for Cisco, HP, Oracle and Microsoft, among others.  Dennis blogs about virtual events at INXPO, and on his personal blog, “It’s All Virtual.” Dennis can be found on Twitter at @dshiao.

Derrick Stomp (@djstomp) combines a strong sense for trends with creativity and passion for people. He’s able to bridge the gap between people and technology by focussing his creativity on what’s both useful and usable. Due to the seemingly odd combination of studying Business Information and Technology, Human Health Sciences and Physical Therapy, he’s capable of exploring problems and solutions from very different perspectives. He’s co-founder at twoppy.com, a platform for event organizers to create their mobile event guide for free.

Tracy Stuckrath (@tstuckrath), CSEP, CMM, CHC, is founder and chief connecting officer of Thrive! Meetings & Events and an event planner who is one of 277 people in the world to hold a designation as a Certified Special Events Professional (CSEP). She’s also one of the 15 million people in the United States with food allergies. In 2009, while attending a professional training program on nutrition, she decided to combine her expertise in producing events with her newly discovered food allergies and nutritional training to make the world healthier one event at time. She educates and empowers the hospitality industry to serve more inclusive, nutritious and health-enhancing foods. Tracy is a member of Georgia Chapter of Meeting Professionals International, the International Special Events Society, International Association of Culinary Professionals and FARE, the world’s leading organization working to increase awareness of food allergies as a serious public health issue. In her spare time she works as a chef’s assistant at Cook’s Warehouse.

Previous PYM LIVE 2013 educational sessions

Follow the links to view the archived educational sessions on our YouTube channel.

Feb. 6: PYM LIVE Jacksonville

• James Rota and Christy Lamagna, CMP, SMM, CTSM (Strategic Meetings & Events) – Meeting Design, Advocacy, Right vs. Left-Brain Planning
• Tracy Stuckrath (Thrive! Meetings & Events) – Dietary Restrictions, Healthy F&B
• Kristi Casey Sanders (Plan Your Meetings) – Meeting Technology, Trends
• Emilie Barta (Hybrid Event Consultant/Virtual Emcee) – Virtual and Hybrid Meetings
• Midori Connolly (Unified Event Tech) – Sustainability, Audio/Visual Best Practices
• Jeff Rasco, CMP (Attendee Management Inc.) – Meeting Technology, Registration, Logistics

March 19: PYM LIVE Dallas/Irving panel

• Claire R. Gould (Rx for Events International) International Meeting Planning and Culinary Logistics
• Traci Gregory (Transforums) Contract Negotiations
• Cheryl Lawson (Party Aficionado) Social Media and Technology
• Cindy Y. Lo (Red Velvet Events) Event Design, Audience Engagement, Event Tech
• Kristi Casey Sanders (Plan Your Meetings) Meeting Technology, Innovation
• Tracy Stuckrath (Thrive! Meetings & Events) Dietary Restrictions, Healthy F&B

April 11: PYM LIVE Chicago panel

• Midori Connolly (Unified Event Tech) – Sustainability, Audio/Visual, Social Media Best Practices
• Dennis Shiao (INXPO) – Virtual/Hybrid Events
• Derrick Stomp (Twoppy) – Mobile Conference Apps
• Kristi Casey Sanders (Plan Your Meetings) – Meeting Technology, Innovation