Get Ready for the Future of Events at ELI’s Business, Design & Strategy Summit
In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like we’ve reached a turning point as major destinations like New York City announced plans to fully reopen by the summer and the vaccine rollout continues.
So where does that leave you?
The Event Leadership Institute’s Business, Design & Strategy Summit, held virtually on June 3, invites meeting and event professionals to chart their course for the future. The packed agenda will bring together leaders from across the industry to address the most pressing issues—with content specifically addressing the needs of corporate events teams, nonprofits, and trade show organizers.
The summit will target three key areas:
Business: For senior leaders, how do you build institutional resilience in your events, teams and organizations? Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary of Homeland Security and CNN national security analyst will share tips for moving ahead. Other sessions will address positioning your company for post-COVID growth and how the work-from-home culture and decrease in business travel will affect in-person meetings.
Design: After being forced to adopt virtual events—and seeing rapid innovation in event tech—many event organizers plan to retain virtual options even after returning to in-person events. J.B. Miller, CEO of Empire—producer of the Webby Awards, Time 100, and other major events—will discuss useful frameworks for considering how to design, plan and execute hybrid events, without doubling your budget.
Strategy: Bob Bejan, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for global events, production studios and marketing community, will share how the tech giant is reorganizing its event portfolio: Which events are virtual, hybrid, or in-person—and why? Another common challenge is creating sponsorship models that work in a virtual or hybrid environment. Informa has succeeded in devising creative solutions, and Kathryn Frankson will discuss its strategy.
Additionally, the summit will take on the hottest issues of the day such as the changing-by-the-day debate over vaccine passports and the politics of site selection in light of the calls for boycotting Georgia over its new voting restriction laws—and the high-profile departure of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. We will also take a meaningful look at diversity, with Antwone Stigall advising how to make DEI principles part of your event DNA.
Look for more announcements to come with additional speakers, the full agenda, and more surprises.
