Full Schedule

Step into a live leadership simulation where association CEOs debate, design, and decide the future of AI. Guided by expert voices—a skeptic, an evangelist, and a builder—you’ll use AI tools in real time to explore both risks and opportunities. This is not a panel; it’s strategic play for the next era of leadership.

This session is restricted to the senior most staff member at an organization.

• Identify the core elements of a high-quality prompt
• Structure prompts to generate marketing content, training materials, strategic insights, and onboarding flows
• Avoid common pitfalls like vague outputs, hallucinations, and tone mismatches
• Use prompt libraries and templates tailored to association roles

Overflowing inbox. Constant fires. Competing priorities. Endless interruptions. If that sounds like your day, this hands-on session is for you.

Association work often pulls you in every direction, but with the right systems, you can take back control. Through real examples and guided activities, you’ll explore proven tools like the Getting Things Done methodology, the Eisenhower Matrix, weekly reviews, time blocking, Inbox Zero, and the Two-Minute Rule for your inbox—plus discussion on how to use AI to enhance these skills. Learn how to design a personal workflow that fits your style and actually sticks.

Exhibitions are no longer just about booths, signage, or transactions—they are human experiences shaped by how people think, feel, and connect. This session explores the neuroscience of engagement, weaving together insights from psychology, behavioral science, and organizational leadership to uncover what truly captures attention, builds trust, and drives lasting impact.
 

Through the lens of attention, memory, and decision-making, participants will discover how to design exhibition and meeting experiences that resonate across diverse audiences while fostering inclusivity, wellness, and safety. Beyond the exhibit floor, the session will also examine how these same principles support effective change management, empowering associations, exhibitors, and teams to align leadership vision with participant needs.

Walk away with evidence-based strategies to create exhibitions that are not only engaging but transformative—spaces where people feel seen, connected, and inspired to act.

This session is supported by the Greater Midwest Chapter of PCMA.
 

What does it take to rise to the top in today’s dynamic business events industry? This candid conversation brings together C-suite executives and senior leaders from across the industry — spanning meeting planning, destination management, convention centers, general services, and audio-visual solutions. Panelists will share their personal journeys, pivotal career moments, and the lessons that shaped their leadership styles. Participants will walk away with actionable insights, inspiration, and strategies to accelerate their own path to executive leadership.

This session is supported by the Greater Midwest Chapter of PCMA.
 

Discover the secrets behind crafting emails that not only catch the eye but also resonate deeply with your members. Dive into essential design best practices and explore innovative strategies to refine your understanding of member preferences through solid data. Walk away with a design checklist and ideas from association case studies on how A/B testing can revolutionize your email campaigns. After auditing more than 50 association email accounts, the same design and content problems were found in nearly all of them. Learn best practices you can immediately apply to improve your email results. Plus, use the latest strategies that will take your emails to the next level. Walk away with 20 tips that are easy to implement and make a big impact.

Join your colleagues for coffee to get the day started right!

Complimentary coat check services are provided.

Complimentary coat check services are provided.

Join your colleagues for coffee to get the day started right!

Do you wonder which events to attend and which ones to skip? Do you find networking awkward? Are you looking for strategies to get into (and out of) conversations? Join this session with author Diane Darling as she fast-tracks your networking knowledge. You'll leave with information you can immediately implement and can't wait to share with others - even if you're an introvert.

Despite the challenges, there is a way to navigate career pivots with purpose and confidence. This session will describe how to view career changes not as setbacks, but as opportunities to grow and reinvent yourself. Whether it's finding clarity about what’s next, building confidence through change, or recognizing the skills and experiences that make you adaptable, learn to view the question of "What's next?" as an opportunity instead of a source of stress.

In today's complex leadership landscape, what truly inspires people to follow? Based on Gallup's groundbreaking research across 52 countries, this session reveals the four fundamental needs all followers seek from their leaders. Participants will discover how these universal needs transcend cultural boundaries and organizational contexts. Association leaders will learn practical approaches to meet these needs authentically through their unique strengths, creating deeper connections with their teams and members. This session provides a clear framework for developing leadership that resonates with followers, drives engagement, and builds thriving organizations. Whether you lead staff, volunteers, or board members, understanding these four follower needs will transform how you approach leadership and the impact you create.

Discover how one association transformed its professional development strategy by implementing a consistent, scalable content review process. What began as a simple rubric to evaluate existing resources evolved into a full-fledged Content Creator Program—empowering subject matter experts, filling content gaps, and streamlining quality assurance. Participants will explore the power of structured evaluation tools and leave with tools to develop a draft rubric or a roadmap to launch their own creator initiative.

• Defining ethics and understanding its role in professional environments
• Identifying reasons why individuals may act unethically
• Frameworks for ethical decision-making
• Leadership and human resource responsibilities
• Policies you should have in place at your organization

We’ve all been told the same thing: Think outside the box.

But what if the real breakthrough comes from defining the box?

In this high-energy, story-packed keynote, bestselling author and innovation strategist Sheri Jacobs flips the script on everything we think we know about creativity and growth. Drawing on wild adventures (literally—ask her about the polar bear), real-world business turnarounds, and surprising research, Sheri reveals why clear boundaries don’t limit innovation—they ignite it.

You’ll discover how a few intentional rules can transform chaos into clarity, fear into focus, and “playing it safe” into smart, sustainable risk-taking.

This isn’t theory. You’ll leave with a practical, repeatable framework to help your team:

• See constraints as launchpads for creativity
• Unlock hidden capacity for experimentation
• Build momentum by empowering every voice

If you’ve been searching for the spark to move from stuck to strategically unstoppable, this talk will forever change the way you think about boundaries.

This is not a theoretical discussion. It’s a practical, story-driven conversation designed to equip you with the clarity, creativity, and confidence to thrive in the storm and prepare your organization for what comes next. Associations are no longer operating in an age of stability — we’re navigating uncharted waters where disruption is the norm. Governance challenges, shifting member expectations, volatile finances, evolving workplace dynamics, and the reinvention of events have become daily realities for association leaders. The pressure to deliver more with fewer resources has never been higher.

This candid panel brings together senior voices from across the association community — CEOs, CFOs, event strategists, and innovators — to share unfiltered insights about leading through disruptive times. Attendees will leave this session with a clear understanding what’s really happening behind the scenes: the pivots, trade-offs, and bold decisions reshaping governance, membership, meetings, staffing, and engagement in today’s uncertain environment that they can apply to their organizations immediately.