For nearly 30 years, I’ve been a member of CEMA (the Corporate Event Marketing Association). During that time, I’ve had the pleasure of serving on its Board of Directors and other committees. I’ve rarely missed CEMA’s annual summit which brings together some of the event marketing industries best and brightest leaders to share their knowledge.
Like nearly every live meeting since the COVID pandemic began, CEMA Summit 2020 was relocated from Nashville into the virtual world. The Event Marketing Partners team and I supported the conference by helping throughout the event.
As a member of the CEMA Content Committee, the EMP team helped expand from the 20 sessions planned for the live event to nearly 80 virtual sessions. That expanded content helped ensure that members received an experience that delivered the same opportunities to grow their knowledge that would have been delivered in alternate formats at the live event.
By offering nearly four times the sessions, CEMA needed additional help that EMP was happy to provide. This included interfacing with the CEMA Content Lead and coordinating pre-show speaker training, dedicating four EMP staff to monitor the live sessions, and assisting CEMA staff in grading the additional sessions.
I also spoke at the summit, presenting ‘3 Simple Steps to Creating a Tremendous Virtual Event – Where to Start and How to Ensure Success.’ Watch our blog in the coming months as we share our real-time experience helping clients create virtual customer and partner conferences. For CEMA, attendee feedback showed that the pivot to a virtual event was well received and the content was fantastic. Personally, I was happy to see CEMA members support an organization that is such a key component of the event industry. And I am really looking forward to seeing everyone in Denver next July!