Intentional Event Design Our Professional Opportunity

Then this happened! 

From one page on sustainability (just do it!) through the seven intentions of people-centric, purpose-driven design to embracing technology, designing our immersive and experiential spaces, designing flow and choosing the 'best' seating options to drive conversations, creating food and beverage programs and learning environments to be people and brain-friendly, and wellness for participants and those of us working in the industry, it is a comprehensive deep-dive into future-forward events. 

The reviews so far, humbling and exciting - we can continue to create even more worthwhile and transformative events, together. Let's do this! 

There are real books and e-books available. Amazon US and other countries too.
Amazon Canada

I am often asked, "How long did it take?" Three years of thinking about it, and then In April I was looking for an article I had written, and realized I had done a terrible job keeping track of all the writing I have done, and maybe it was time to put what I was thinking about events into one place. It turns out, not surprising to anyone who knows me, I had a LOT to say - about 81,000 words if you were counting! There are lots of examples, questions you can work through in your own design thinking, and a ton of references from others working in spaces from happiness to event technology. Enjoy!

The Power of Not Yet

Have you ever caught a fish? Just now.

Motivation is a tricky sport. Carol Dweck has been studying it for years, and in her TED talk I enjoyed recently on my commute home, what struck me was the idea of the power of "Not yet."

How often do we say "I can't"...

• dance, sing, play an instrument
• climb a mountain
• draw, paint, sculpt
• race a car
• ride a horse, or a llama
• play soccer, basketball or golf
• grow a garden
• win a snowball fight or build an igloo
• run 10k, or wheel 1k
• snowboard a black diamond run
• master a paddleboard
• write a story or even a haiku
• present to a group, or try improv theatre
• solve that math problem

What if...

Instead of saying "I can't", we said, "Not yet."

Instead of saying "I failed", we said "I tried."

We remembered that none of us are masters of anything the first time we tried.

We forgave ourselves when things don't go exactly as we had planned.

The power of positive thinking, of reinforcing that learning is a process, and there is more reward in effort put forward than in getting everything right is measurable. It is measurable because when we offer the opportunity to try a little harder and to approach a problem in a different way, and to step up and meet a challenge, we start to see results. We see personal betters, we see organizational improvement. When the lowest ranked schools, the ones with the highest numbers of marginalized students were told, you can do this, just not yet, in the course of a year (one year!) the students believed their efforts could pay off. They wanted to try harder. Time after time, they went from the lowest ranked in a district to the highest.

If we apply this to our own organizations, not just saying "you have to do better" but really looking at how you can apply positive reinforcement for trying, learning, and trying again, you will see innovations and improvements. You will see teams working more collaboratively and you will see individuals keen to rise to new challenges. You will see them enjoying the process.

When we produce events, we have the opportunity to let people try new activities in safe environments. We can provide incubators for ideas and hypotheses to be tested, to see what sticks and to see what may need to be adapted. We can do this in a group of peers who can go from "we're close" to "we got this." 

Let's change our language. As parents, educators, and #eventprofs. We got this.

Defining Ready

We have all been here, in the throes of preparing to open your event. In this case I had arrived to register six hours after registration was open to find the signs still being painted. Days later speaking to some members of the organizing team it became clear why - this was an event with a reported 15,000+ attendees, and one of 4 events being produced globally, and they don't have an event planner on their team of eighty people.

Shades of the Fyre Festival which had a similar decision making process, and ultimate catastrophic ending were surfacing around this same time. We know there are more than 1.8 million events annually in just the US, and the same amount in just the UK, and let's extrapolate that to the other 190+ countries in the world, and it is stunning to me that events of this magnitude can think it makes sense to bring together thousands of people and not have any sense of organization around the logistics.

Let's face it, it's complicated bringing people together. They have to travel across time zones and with international documentation. They needed places to sleep and eat, and they want to learn and network. Their safety and enjoyment is reliant on our planning.

I know we have an industry with low barriers to entry, with a dearth of formal education, and with clients who don't understand the value that the experienced event professional brings to an event - but examples like this continue to surprise me. When will the world wake up to the value of what we bring across the board? Event professionals who have an ounce of common sense and often years of experience don't just make your event more beautiful and more fun, they make it happen on-time, safely, deliciously, on budget and with strategic outcomes in mind. They give meaning to your brands and ensure your participants leave with more than they arrived with in terms of knowledge and context and memories and often a positive shift in mindset. Intentional event design doesn't mean the painting will be done, it means we are taking all we know about feeding the brains and nourishing the bodies of our guests and creating experiences and environments that are transformational. Don't you want that for your next event?

IMEX16 Full of Nice Memories

When you go to your boss with a conference program in hand, you sell your attendance based on the content available which you promise to return to your organization with, bringing new tools and ideas to your work and your team.

For participation in an exhibition you are selling the possibilities of sales, at the show and in the future as the supplier. As the planner we like to attend because when we meet people face to face in dedicated B2B meetings we have the opportunity to exchange real information and to build trust in those who would deliver the event in our selected destinations and venues.

Why you return a second, third or in the case of IMEX a sixth time it is because of the connections you make. Through hosted and planned meetings to serendipitous aisle-way meet-ups to the many evening events that take place, both hosted and buy-in (often supporting a variety of initiatives), the people you meet and the conversations you have will always bring a new perspective. 

It is also a friendly event, and this is important because most of us have some level of introspectiveness, some anxiety of meeting new people and some level of effort required to maintain momentum over a multi-day event of meeting new people, and when there is a friendliness inherent in the overall event - it makes it easier. This may sound trite, but it is not, and requires a conscious effort in the planning and community building which happens year-round. Don't underestimate "nice" - the world could use more of it!

It is a place of connecting

1. In-session actionable learning with both general sessions and sector - specific sessions including corporate, association, future leaders, sustainability, and faculty (to name a few!) which is relevant, current and can be applied when you return.
2. To destinations that understand meetings and incentives and can speak intelligently about how theirs fits your needs - and with 157 destinations on the floor this is truly the place to find where you could take your events.
3. To the latest trends in all areas with knowledge gained in the Inspiration Hub, the Playroom, in group meetings in the various booths, in tours conducted to experience event technology and innovation, and even the fabulous meditation room. By seeing what is being shown and how it is being shown in ways that are useful to your clients we all take away new, actionable ideas.
4. To sustainable thinking, the list of initiatives keeps growing and many of these ideas can be easily implemented at any event.
5. To global thought leaders across all sectors. In the pictures above there are meeting planners, event producers, company owners, faculty, event tech leaders, sustainability experts, and those working in sales, procurement, venue management, hybrid events and creating learning environments. In all cases these are people I can turn to when I need key information on any subject related to our industry, and really these are just a few of the people I connected with over the course of IMEX16!
6. To leaders and their successes. The Convention Industry Council Hall of Leaders and Pacesetters recipients were and are all amazing, hard-working, humble and kind. Leaders indeed.
7. To business. Ultimately every investment of your resources must lead to this, and when you bring the world together, business happens.

As always, I return home full of ideas I can implement, and wrapped in the warmth of friends, collaborators and colleagues from around the world, looking forward to returning again to continue the growth. 

Events with Purpose...Because it Makes Sense

Events with Purpose. Meetings with Heart. Sustainable Meetings and Events. These are all the articles we see now, as our industry collectively shifts to keep up with what our consumers, our event participants are demanding.

Welcome to the Night Circus. This net-zero event in 2014 saw 1,200
dancing the night away to local performers bringing a story alive.
Produced by Kelly Aleda while we were at Cantrav.

Perhaps I am naive, or perhaps I was lucky enough to have my event roots in Vancouver, and that my "anchor" events, my first two large-scale events where I did my most rapid growing and deepest learning - had these values embedded. We started working on both of these in 1993, and the first was GLOBE 94 - "Global Opportunities for Business and the Environment" which was and still is one of the largest events focused on cleantech and sustainable thinking as a core business value, across all sectors. From waste management to recycled paper, and recycling everything, thought was given to all we produced and end-to-end use.

In 1995 we worked with the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD), the Vancouver Convention Centre and several local chapters of the major meeting and event planning associations to write the first Green Meetings Guide for the city. With the Vancouver Convention Centre now being a LEED Platinum Building and Vancouver working towards being the Greenest city in the world by 2020, sustainable living, and by extension meetings - well, it's just how we roll.

In 1996 I was part of the incredible team that brought the XI International Conference on AIDS, with the overarching theme of One World, One Hope to life. From planning for simple, nutritious meals and a medical centre for the 1,500 participants living with HIV/AIDS to the process for ensuring the highest level of education for the 13,000+ medical practitioners who attended from around the globe - no stone in inclusive planning was left unturned. This was a feat accomplished by hundreds, and included technical groundwork such as laying new T1 lines to broadcast the information to a wider audience - the early days of "hybrid"! We spent days educating the many who would touch the lives of our participants during event setup, operation and dismantling - and were scared in doing so they would catch AIDS - they would not. 

When I think of these and so many other associations, topics and forward thinking corporations I have worked with to create sustainable, stunning, experiential events that have led to new knowledge imparted, collaborations strengthened, deals made, and friendships built, I know that we have always considered the objectives and created spaces that allow these to happen. Meet with purpose... yes. Let's keep doing this.

So You Think You Can

Brian Dennehy captured this amazing
moment at an I event I produced while
working at Cantrav

So you think you can be an event professional? Well you can. But it won't be what you expect, and it definitely won't be as easy as you imagine it will be. 

Five years ago (!) I wrote a post on 23 areas you need to be an expert on to be a meeting professional. If anything this list has grown, with an even greater emphasis on both risk management and technology in all its forms. This ranges now from business management to data acquisition, privacy and data analysis for your own business and your clients and ultimately the event and of course, event participants. 

There is a reason that Career Cast lists event professional in the top 5 most stressful jobs, right after military officers, police officers, firefighters and airline pilots. I would like to point out that rarely is our actual life on the line, but we do have numerous stakeholders from C-level executives and their direct reports, marketing teams, sponsors, exhibitors and participants; and an environment which we imagine and then rely on often dozens of supplier partners we can inspire but don't control, a team of staff, volunteers, performers, presenters and yes, participants to bring our event to life. We do this all in the immediate view of anyone attending our events live PLUS all those following their perspective of our events as shared in visual content on multiple streams of social media or traditional media. We now have to please live participants and virtual attendees in many cases, and all have their own needs. EVERY person attending has made an investment in our event, and everyone deserves the best we can deliver.

So what does it take? It is a combination of attitude and aptitude, hard-won experience and yes, education. Since this post I wrote - also in 2011 - about education  vs experience I have recertified my CMP, obtained my Digital Event Strategist (DES) and am working towards my Certified Event Designer (CED) designations. Why? I recognize that to continue to deliver what our clients demand, we have to stay ahead of the curve, defeat the status quo, pay attention to the changing consumer, and continue to LOVE what we do. Do I think you need certifications to be a skilled, savvy, fantastic event professional? Of course not - there are many people who have entered this industry from a variety of backgrounds and who understand experience creation, branding, client service and are creative or logistic geniuses with excellent careers and clients. Do I believe if you are starting out or desiring you should take the (precious) time and take advantage of the education available both formal and informal, through universities and associations? YES. 

Is it daunting? Often. Is it do-able? Heck YES. Do you have to truly, deeply, madly want to deliver unequaled experiences that change people's lives? YES. 

Please, share what you LOVE about being an event professional, I would love to hear!

Heat Map vs Hot Lead

Kiki L'Italien streaming #assnchat from the trade show floor.
The sign is powered by LEDs and requires human power from the bike!

I appreciate we have access to a plethora of resources available to provide information and ideas that make us think, reflect and grow - with ideas to improve and adapt our events to our changing stakeholder needs. After listening to an #EventTech podcast today with one of my favorites John Federico aka Gadget Boy I am finding myself thinking about how we consider stakeholders, in this case exhibitors. During this show the guest's approach to meeting exhibitor expectations using event technology, specifically in this case, beacons and their ability to create a heat map surprised me. 

A heat map provides a digital visualization of where people are traveling through your event. It shows by colour or density higher volumes of traffic, and each beacon can indeed tell you exactly how many devices (presumably with their people attached) have gone past any specific area. This is useful for understanding flow, for managing in real-time movement of participants and allows for adjustments that can positively impact the guest and exhibitor experience. When combined with smart gamification strategies, push messaging and 'near me' tech, the possibilities become very interesting.

The suggestion from this guest was with a heat map and its data "we can show unhappy exhibitors how many people walked past their booths and provide evidence we have 'done our job' as organizers and provided them people to talk to". The conversation continues to note that any lack of success of a particular exhibitor at a show could be attributed to any of the following -  if their booth staff wasn't good / were on their phones / talking to people they already knew / were understaffed or had uneducated staff, etc. 

Anyone who has been an exhibitor knows how many resources - human and financial - are invested in participating in a show. Nobody takes this lightly, and while not all booths are visually stunning, and not all exhibitors stand out front with a smile waiting for the next guest to come and talk to them - there are many factors at play on both sides - flow, timing, placement of food and beverage, time of day, competing events within the overall program, and reasons the participant has attended and may be interested in talking to or meeting with as examples.

For exhibitors, trade show success is often judged on hard leads returned to the office and shows focused on buying with both buyer and seller understanding this purpose will deliver this. Often these shows include hosted buyers, across all industries and not just events / meetings because if your show is being judged on "hot leads" then bringing buyers who have business to do and can do this in the most expedient way is good for everyone.

Other shows will deliver success based on conversations which build or grow relationships; others when show education offers a way for thought leadership from the exhibitor to be shared. "Success" requires thoughtful activation and a responsible investment - understanding which shows get a tabletop and a banner with limited staff, vs. the shows where you bring out the big booth and a significant portion of your team, and focus on demonstrations, opportunities available and conversations.  For busy people attending a show where the majority of the suppliers they are interested in meeting are also in attendance makes sense from a resource perspective - time and financial. As organizers we need to ensure we allow enough time on the show floor at defined times for there to be adequate traffic flow for both exhibitors and guests - it is more than just a numbers-passing-by game.

To put this in perspective if you don't regularly follow or otherwise know me, I believe deeply in the power of technology and its ability to benefit human interactions. I have been actively using all types of #eventtech for some time. I have been a planner, producer, trade show designer and exhibitor; I have been the organizer and the client and I have also been responsible for spending tens of thousands to create memorable on-floor activations for multiple clients. I have also worked at QuickMobile and been behind the scenes where beacons have been used to heat map entire shows and tracked traffic patterns through a venue, a city and even back to origin airports. This data is used for real-time adjustments as well as future planning by many organizations working with a variety of savvy vendors and analysts to interpret and apply recommendations driven by the data. There are great success stories from PCMA, CES and SXSW who all used beacons in ways that made a positive difference to the experience.  

Ultimately success is defined by each person who attends, and perfomance is not defined or defended by a heat map. We need to consider the technology we implement - why and how it is applied to achieve interaction, knowledge retention, contact exchange and data collected within the realm of what is most useful - and take advantage of this ability to measure more clearly the impacts of face-to-face business events.

Powered Couches and Secret Notes

Powered couches!

These are two things I remember clearly from attending 11 events for meeting professionals over a 12 week period last summer...one year later. Why do I remember these? The Power of Positive Surprise. This is not easy to achieve, but when it works-BAM! you are set on a course for your attendees to return and to tell others why they need to attend.

Imagine the joy of sitting down in a general session on a couch, conveniently placed in a chevron format for easy viewing, to find out that each couch had an arm with plug-ins, both electrical and USB ports. Comfort means knowing i don't have to worry about powering up devices; I won't miss an important email, text or call from a client, or potential client, or my family. For the meeting organizer, having guests with powered devices means they are more relaxed, focused on learning and sharing ideas. If you are using a meeting app you now have the ability to have every participant become more participatory through live (anonymous) feedback,questions, polls and more and they aren't worried about having one more thing open draining their battery. If you add in wi-fi, especially for non-local guests, your chances of positive social sharing from participants creating more buzz about your event also goes up exponentially. As a highly connected, NON-millenial, the powered couches were even better than the ubiquitous charging stations, aka the new "water cooler" of the conference.

Secret notes were another positive surprise when my neighbour on the next couch over would pass me funny notes every time there was interesting tidbits, or even things that didn't make sense from the presentations. Eventually I leaned his name, more about his thoughtfully run company, and endlessly appreciate to this day his great humour and event savvy. This is not something as an event producer or meeting planner you can replicate, plan for or even encourage, but it is the kind of serendipity that makes me want to return to this event again. 

What else do I remember? Moderating a panel where I had the presenters answer a question in "freeze tag" format familiar to improv lovers. Why? Because it forced the panel members to pay attention to and build on the answers of their co-presenters, and engaged them and the audience who were keen to see how this would all work. I recall meditation rooms which allowed 15 minute reprieves from the pressure of being always ON during busy events offering a deeply embedded sense of peace. A burger and a milkshake with great company being as fulfilling as any gala dinner and gala dinners where the accomplishments of friends were celebrated. Ultimately it comes back to creating emotion - accomplishment, peace, joy, comfort, anticipation, surprise, delight. Using our environment, content, creative deployment of messaging and designing thoughtfully to deliver so much more than what is listed in the program.

In addition to program, logistics, risk management and so much more, it is incumbent upon us as meeting planners to leave space in our programs for these types of connections to be made. Things to consider include white space; interactive elements that increase reasons for conversations to begin; spaces, facilitators and presenters to encourage meaningful dialogue and thoughtful reflection; music that is at a level that can be talked over; visual elements that spur emotion, and build memory; anything else you might imagine - after all you are the creative professionals your clients rely on to deliver beyond objectives and create outcomes that have reach beyond the conference space. When you do this, and see the reactions during your event, it will be worth every minute of the planning energy you put into this.

What have you experienced or created that is rocking your events right now?

A Kite Dancing in a Hurricane #IMEX16

What makes IMEX the go-to meeting for much of the MICE industry in both Europe and America? It is a place to do business, learn about what is new and as always it comes back to the sheer amount of opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations with people from around the world.

No Rog Simons you take the pic - your arms are longer!
Also with Maarten VanNeste

With Padraic Gilligan and IMEXDale Hudson

Nothing beats face to face.I am currently midway through the DES – Digital Event Strategist Certification – where we learn all there is to know about the development, management, and delivery of successful virtual and hybrid programs from experts across the industry – a great program, and I was able to connect with fellow learners from the EU while at IMEX - from chat room to chat! 

Mike Lyons pleads for the defence, my "counsel" Padraic and I listen raptly,
Jon Howell presides above

IMEX offers several adjunct programs including Exclusively Corporate Day for these planners and also an Association Day, among others. Exclusively Corporate was ably hosted by the SoolNua team of Padraic and Patrick and began with some fun polling, a journey through new thinking from Kaihan Krippendorff, and moved through a variety of topics which offered ideas and suggestions for challenges these planners face. We ended with a Mock Trial presided over by the legendary Jon Howell and ably facilitated with the help of Mike Lyons and  and our expert “witnesses” Deborah and Peter. While we did not come to a final conclusive end to our arbitration we certainly shed some light on important topics for our industry. Once again IMEX offered a day to these planners which tapped into their needs before they moved into their time at the show. 

In the #EventTech area

As always for those of us who are either new to or have spent time in the industry the show floor navigation is full of information, smiles, hugs and engaged conversation with friends and colleagues from around the world – we all become kites dancing through the hurricane. I was able to discuss job progressions with Jessie States of MPI; the future of strategic and engaging design with Ruud and Roel of the Event Model Generation Canvas; to be inspired about the importance of embedding sustainability into our meetings especially during the FRESH Dinner with Dale Hudson, Claudia and BabsNijdam; to be inspired by our future leaders including Courtney Stanley, Magdalina Atannasova, Rosa Garriga to meet, see and spend time with luminaries including Olga Novarro, Terri Breining, Julius Solaris of EventManagerBlog, (my first post linked here!) and Maarten VanNeste from the Meeting Design Institute, Eling Hamso, Mike Van de Vijver, and many more. IMEX as always is about the people.

Hanging out at MPI with Jessie States and Ruud Janssen

The floor was buzzing with announcements, hospitality and fun activations on the floor and once again the IMEX team maximized social, always adapting to the changing social media as our relationship to mobile and digital evolve. Again Miguel Neves and Gerrit Heijkoop are a formidable team, creating, curating and sharing across platforms to engage those on-site as well as those watching from around the globe - and they do it smiling for four days. (link takes you to a great post from a new member of the IMEXSocial team)

IMEX is a place where business is done with people we meet live and have come to trust and as always I can’t wait to return.

The Lost Art of the Question

Asking questions is a lost art. Yes, I just said that. 

As humans, we are good at asking questions that don't mean much ie "How are you?" or "How are things going?" - often not waiting for the answer. What we need to get better at in developing events is asking questions both in developing the event and in delivering the event. Imagine if in the table above you sat down, and were unfamiliar with the art of Dali - you may question why everything is the way it is... a little "off" and always interesting. You may also be shy to ask, or worried that you may be the only one. In events we need to make sure there are safe ways to create comfort for questions - it is often in the search for answers that innovation is found.

Questions allow you a safe way to look at new solutions from different perspectives. Imagine if instead of presenting the (creative, out of the box, on-target) idea for an event, you instead were able to put your stakeholders in a room and instead of saying "here's the plan for our conference" opening up the door to them to potentially rethink the approach to the event by asking questions that get to the heart of objectives. 

At the Exclusively Corporate Day at #IMEX16 the first presenter of the morning Kaihan Krippendorff shared with the group the importance of questions and creating space for disruptive thinking. Kaihan is truly an expert on "disruptive thinking for future expansion" and to be introduced to this concept even briefly made me want to go out and buy at least 3 of his 4 books to better understand how to increase our mental agility using the patterns our brain responds to, and how to use various narratives to better understand and tell our own stories. It always comes back to starting with questions - to ensure you are on the right track and to open up to new ideas and ways to approach what we are doing.  Check out his website, and begin your Question Journey.

Now back to comfortable learning spaces for your participants. We have SO many ways to ask questions, including using apps where the question can be typed in with a name or anonymously and the group can up-vote, making it easier for the moderator to choose in what is always limited time to continue the conversation between presenters and audience. (yesterday we used Sli.do all day, while ICCA's session used another tool from Corbin Ball, and there really are an endless array available to try). There is the "old-fashioned" microphone, and the new tossable Catchbox which is a million times easier (no runners needed) and so much fun it encourages questions from the floor. However you do this - bring back the questions! 

Digital Disruption is Alive and Well at Events

Our BCIC Robot Sheldon
tours the show floor at the
#BCTECH Summit

Digital Disruption has already happened. Our meetings and events will never be the same again. Digital disruption has seen the majority of the global population having a device or two in hand most of the time. At its simplest iteration we now have nearly ubiquitous mobile event apps and an ability for everyone at your event to socially share what they are experiencing across multiple platforms, at their discretion and not yours!

During the planning process our clients are googling their way in - requiring videos of all the acts we recommend, often rejecting these based on quality of video vs. our quality of known experience; sending us their Pinterest boards, Instagram shares, TED Talks and links to speakers they like or gorgeous event environments found on-line which may or may not be realistic for their budget, location, type of event and theme or environment being created. Don't get me wrong - these shares can provide valuable insight into what will please your client and (potentially) their stakeholders but it does require more management at times as you edit or adapt based on what is shared.

We have seen social revolutions started on-line, which begs the question - how do you use the tools available to connect and strengthen your own communities? We have the opportunity to use a myriad of tools to build communities online including LinkedIn forums, Facebook events and groups, virtual chat rooms and lounges attached to hybrid software (MediaSite, Inxpo, Kubi and more), internal forums and discussion boards on your association website as simple examples. These allow us to connect to our own meeting and event communities, our associations, and even festivals where 100,000+ are having a "shared" experience. This new digital age can be your best marketing tool at the same time it can be your biggest challenge as your audience become your storytellers - you have to set the "stage" and the "performance" - comfortable environment, thoughtful and thought-provoking speakers, food, beverage and entertainment that makes sense for the showcase to wow those there live and sharing virtually. 

With technology omnipresent in our lives and at our events, we need to be aware of how mobile technology can benefit our experience.  When we set a room we consider how the space design will influence behaviours and enhance learning, and now we need to extend technology from the main stage AV into the audience. As a short list, we can add in

• flipped learning (watching a video prior to the session for knowledge-based discussion)
• watching a second screen in-hand with an ability to take notes, ask questions and share
• avoid the in-room mic runners and the inevitable, awkward wait with the ability to ask questions directly from a device with a plethora of text-based, moderated tools or 
• CrowdMics where every phone has the potential to be a microphone
• taking notes and images and sharing these with at-home or remote teams in real-time
• post ideas and photos direct from devices to a virtual audience 

We no longer live a life outside technology, our connection to the outside world is with us at all times and in the hands of our participants as well. As meeting professionals we need to stay focused on lifelong learning and adapting to the curve balls the world will continue to lob our way. This digital integration of f2f and virtual participation can indeed change the world, one meeting or event at a time.