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Session: Strategic Meetings Management Part I & IISpeaker: Melissa Logar, Senior Meeting Manager, Meeting and Events Services Department, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Melissa has over 23 years of industry experience both in hotel sales and as a meeting planner. Melissa focuses primarily on PwC's Strategic Meeting Management to include processes for Request for Proposal, negotiations, contracts, logistic planning and data reporting. Melissa achieved her Six Sigma Greenbelt certification by participating as a project team member on the Meeting and Event Process Improvement Project for the firm. A solution identified from the project was the development and implementation of a Small Meeting Solutions program, which Melissa is now currently rolling out firm-wide. Handling more than 1000 meetings annually, she has been instrumental in solidifying the Meeting and Events Services department as a valued and needed cost-savings department. Melissa is a CMP, the Past President of MPI Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter, and has received the “Planner of the Year” Award from the MPI D/FW Chapter in 2004.
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Session: Strategic Meetings Management Part I & IICo-Presenter: Karin Milliman, Senior Meeting Manager, Meeting and Events Services Department, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Karin Milliman has over 18 years experience leading and managing the strategy and business of meeting planning as well as supervising planning teams. Karin is a Senior Meeting Manager within the Meeting & Event Services (MES) Department for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and focuses primarily on PwC's Strategic Meeting Management. She directs a team of 20 MES planners and professionals in the implementation of the annual strategy meeting for PwC, a series of 17 meetings in 4 countries, delivered on 4 successive weekends, ensuring her team works effectively across cultures. Karin is an active member of Meetings Competitive Advantage Forum (MCAF), an industry benchmarking group of 20+ meeting, travel and procurement leaders at Fortune 500-type companies, which allows her to position PwC on the forefront of change in the meeting industry.
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Session: Attendee Management–RegistrationSpeaker: Bill Flagg, President, RegOnline
Bill Flagg is the President and co-owner of www.RegOnline.com the leading online event registration system. For over ten years RegOnline’s web-based system has made registration easier for corporate meeting planners at companies such as American Express, Sony, and Oracle. With Flagg’s help, the company has grown ten-fold over the past three years. RegOnline now powers the registration and attendee management for over 25,000 corporate meetings and events annually. Mr. Flagg frequently speaks at meeting industry conferences about how to attract more registrants and make event management easier. Prior to RegOnline, Flagg built a national advertising company called Word of Mouse. He also worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Harris Bank in Chicago. Flagg received his BS from the University of Michigan.
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Session: Secure E-Commerce Strategies for Meeting Planners
Speaker: Jonathan Dodson, CIO, Certain Software
Jonathan Dodson brings more than ten years of experience in Information Technology to the Certain Software team. Mr. Dodson joined Certain Software in January 2002 after the acquisition of Certain Registration. As CIO, he sets the technology strategy of the company, oversees technology infrastructure, and coordinates operations of Certain’s core applications. Mr. Dodson has also lead, designed, and implemented several enterprise systems for public utilities, leading internet networking manufacturers, and other private businesses. Mr. Dodson also keeps Certain in step with the evolving e-commerce and PCI data security developments. Mr. Dodson has expertise in advanced security and encryption technologies as well as a degree in Physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
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Session: Online Travel Systems for Meetings
Speaker: Julie Casey, Corporate On Line Account Implementation and Training Manager, Omega World Travel
Julie Casey began her career with Omega World Travel 25 years ago. Her career began in vacation sales and progressed to training and staff development.
Julie early on saw the potential in the emerging E-travel market. She was ready to become a driving force for Omega World Travel in implementing Corporate On Line Booking Systems. Her knowledge and experience is unsurpassed in the industry. She is well versed with Cliqbook, Get There, Travelport and Trip Manager, four of the largest On Line Booking Tools. Her knowledge and expertise allows her to assist in selecting the right system to meet the individual client needs. She remains in high demand as a consultant to clients.
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Session: Database Management Tools
Speaker: Dale Beckles, President and CEO, Arcaneo
Dale Beckles is the President and CEO of Arcaneo. During his 20 years in the software industry, Dale has held a number of senior management and consulting positions with industry leaders. His positions have included: Director, Business Development, Computer Innovations (ComputerLand); founder and General Manager, Lotus Development (Canada); Vice President, Marketing & Sales, Digital Research; Product Development Partner, Software Publishing; Marketing Consultant, Apple Computer; and MSDN Regional Director, Microsoft Corp. Most recently, Dale was President and CEO of Valadeo Technologies Corp., a software company providing web content infrastructure products for the web hosting industry. Prior to Valadeo, Dale also founded Developer's Workshop, a software tools company, and Fusion International, a contract product development company for large software firms.
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Session: eRFPs/Site Selection Tools
Speaker: Deborah Matarazzo, Senior Director, Solutions Consulting, Lenos Software
Deb has held various positions in Event Marketing as well as Travel Management for both Tandem and Compaq Computers, prior to joining Hewlett Packard, where she led the global strategy for Hewlett Packard’s data / spend consolidation by implementing technology to assist in identifying meetings and events expenditures. She also has a broad knowledge in global hotel programs and negotiations.
She has served on several NBTA committees including the hotel and the technology committee as well as being an active member in other local organizations including SVBTA. Deb was awarded Best Meetings Practitioner of 2006.
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Session: Increasing Participant Engagement with Web Collaboration Tools
Speaker: Chuck McPherson Jr. , Facilitate.com, San Francisco, CA
With over 20 years of global business and management experience, Chuck brings an extensive portfolio of expertise in human capital and organizational development results. He has led large and small teams through organizational effectiveness, change management, strategic planning, and professional development initiatives. His consulting focus for the past 3 years has been leading institutions with traditional teams through untraditional planning processes and supports clients in the fields of human resources and customer satisfaction.
For the past six years, Chuck has been using collaborative technologies to create high performance meetings, both face-to-face and virtually. Chuck understands the importance of making the best use of people's time whether in groups of 5 or 500+ and uses web meeting tools on-site and online to increase participant engagement and collective results.
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Speaker: Rich Stone, CEO, ACT Inc. / EXPOCAD
Rich Stone is the CEO of ACT. ACT/EXPOCAD is the industry leading software supplier to the exposition industry. Rich has been with ACT for 20 years and has been involved in the IT field for 35 years. Rich has presented and taught for ASAE, ESCA, and IAEM. Rich has worked within the exposition industry for 18 years, holds multiple US and international patents. Rich is an adventurer and has backpacked many exotic places throughout the globe, holds multiple US and international patents, has served on numerous industry panels and committees and recently recognized by Tradeshow Week ® as a Who's Who in the exposition industry.
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Session: Housing/Room Block Management
Speaker: Dahlia El Gazzar, CMP, Director of Marketing, Passkey
Dahlia has spent her career working in the hospitality/travel and meetings industry. One of her main responsibilities is event planning from special events, user conferences, to tradeshows. Another main initiative as marketing director for Passkey is identifying major housing challenges facing meeting planners, from association to corporate and independent planners, as well as meeting management companies, and arming them with industry best practices to overcome those challenges. Dahlia is a CMP, and previously worked with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, PUMA, and other major hotel brands worldwide.
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Session: Event Marketing Tech Tools
Speaker: Ed Lemire, Executive Vice President Marketing, Acteva
Ed is currently the Executive Vice President at Acteva – Online Registration & Payments. Since joining the company in early 2005, he has played a key role in developing their target market initiatives; setting the company's strategic product directions; and leading the development of new product enhancements. He is a 22 year veteran of the software industry with over 12 years in executive roles in the areas of marketing, product, sales, international operations and business development at companies such as Acteva, FORTEL, TIDAL Software, Unitech Systems, HarrisData and Pansophic Systems. Ed has won awards for his marketing programs and has worked with sales teams to consistently produce results exceeding 100% of quota. He is an accomplished speaker and writer with published papers and articles.
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Session: The APEX Toolbox: Bringing Standards to Event Management
Speaker: E. J. Siwek, CMP, President FLASHpoint Technologies, LLC
EJ is president and founder of FLASHpoint Technologies, a company providing research, training and consulting on technology solutions for the meeting industry. He is the Founder of MeetingMatrix finding the original company in 1986. He has since moved onto leading the development of an industry-wide data standard through his work with the Convention Industry Council where he serves as chair of the Technology Advisory Council for the Convention Industry Council's APEX Initiative, an industry-wide effort to drive best practices on the use and application of technology. He is co-author of the, The Meeting Spectrum, published by HRD Press. Active in the industry for 25 years as a planner, publisher and consultant, EJ has been selected by MeetingNews as one of the Top 25 Influential Leaders in the meetings industry for his efforts in educating and informing meeting professionals on industry technology.
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Session: RFID Lead Retrieval/ Attendance Verification ToolsSpeaker: Karl S. Ludwig, IT Director, Dietze Enterprises, Inc.
As an electronic engineer and licensed Professional Engineer Mr. Ludwig has 25 years of system design and development experience. He has been developing and applying cutting edge identification technology with Dietze Enterprises Incorporated since 1989. Among his developments for use by associations and their trade shows and conferences are advanced badge printing and scanning systems for 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional barcodes, magstripe and smart cards, and now radio frequency identification (RFID). The key to the success of these systems is their ease of use and low cost. Small and large organizations have benefited by using this technology at their events to improve both the attendee and exhibitor experience. Through Mr. Ludwig's efforts and leadership Dietze Enterprises has become the premiere provider of these state of the art systems.
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Session: Web Casting / Video Conferencing
Speaker: Chance Carpenter,
Founder & CEO Essential Event Technologies
Mr. Carpenter has over 20 years of experience in the world of corporate audio visual sales, production management and staging. His professional background also includes the areas of video conferencing and rich media collaboration technologies, eLearning content management solutions, content development and aggregation, commercial and residential A/V systems integration and telecommunication sales.
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Session: Web Casting / Video Conferencing
Co-Presenter: Seth Markowitz,
CTO, Essential Event Technologies and
Founder, Open Step Media
Mr. Markowitz has been actively focused in the IT industry for over 10 years, specializing in audio video communications technology. With stints in New York , London , Hong Kong , Singapore , France , and Los Angeles , he has worked with clients from a variety of backgrounds and industries. During his tenure, Mr. Markowitz spent five years developing solutions for Time Inc., the publishing arm of Time Warner. There, he served as manager of interactive technologies for Time4Media, a subsidiary. His responsibilities included managing the technology aspects of over 30 high traffic content sites, including thisoldhouse.com, popsci.com, and Golfonline.com. In addition, Seth spent several years working on large enterprise level systems for Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs and Capital Group. He is the founder of Open Step Media where his web design, development and integration consulting work has been recognized across a wide spectrum of industries including luxury cosmetics, professional education, new media, and financial services.
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Session: Audience Polling/Response Tools
Speaker: Eric Alzuhn, MSInteractive
Eric has been creating interactive meetings and events for over 14 years. His experience on both the client and agency side leads to a great understanding of what makes a successful event. Eric's philosophy is - 'no one was ever bored into action.' To that end, Eric's methodology is to help identify goals and objectives, creating an event strategy to engage your audience and move them to action. After all, today's audiences expect to be informed, involved and inspired – usually all three at once! Eric's approach has led to the creation of successful events for Freightliner, The North Face, Nike, HP, Intel and Nautilus to name a few.
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Session: Networking/Matchmaking Systems
Speaker: Michael Benson, a2z, inc.
Michael has been providing software solutions to associations, independent show organizers, third party show management companies, and exhibitors for the past 11 years concentrating mostly in software sales and sales management. Michael also has extensive experience in originating and managing strategic alliances and partnerships with other technology and service providers in the industry, including General Service Contractors, Association Management systems, Customer Relationship Management systems, and Registration systems.
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