Meetings Today Podcast

To celebrate our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters, Meetings Today launched "Trendsetter Tuesday," a podcast series of interviews with the 20 Trendsetters recognized in our July/August issue. Dr. Brandi Baldwin, CEO of Millennial Ventures, has made a massive effort to help companies and industry professionals thrive in their work environments. Dr. Baldwin was named a 2024 Meetings Trendsetter by Meetings Today for her efforts to develop cutting edge strategies that foster equitable and thriving company cultures. Meetings Today's Taylor Smith sat down with this Trendsetter to hear her story and learn more about what it means to make a difference.

To celebrate our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters, Meetings Today launched "Trendsetter Tuesday," a podcast series of interviews with the 20 Trendsetters recognized in our July/August issue. Dami Kim is a wellness warrior who's been practicing how to effectively care for her physical, emotional and mental well-being for 26 years. Now, as director of Body & Brain Wellness, she is helping some of the most stressed professionals in the world do the same. Kim was named a 2024 Meetings Trendsetter by Meetings Today for her desire to educate the industry through innovative and transformative practices fueled by her passion for helping others. Meetings Today's Taylor Smith sat down with this Trendsetter to see how she turned her own life around and found her passion for helping others do the same.

Jim Spellos, president of Meeting U., has always been in the top echelon of meetings industry technology educators and speakers. AI such as ChatGPT has further fueled his fascination of transformative tech. Spellos was named a 2024 Meetings Trendsetter by Meetings Today for his arguably unrivaled understanding of AI as it relates to the meetings industry. Meetings Today's Tyler Davidson sat down with him to get his take on AI and what may lie beyond.

In this Meetings Today podcast for "The Z," Taylor Smith has a vulnerable conversation with Christy Renee Stehle, an award-winning hospitality professional, leadership trainer and professional speaker, about how to increase your magnetic presence to cultivate connections that make people remember you.

On this episode of Fast Forward, host Logan Pratt interviews David T. Stevens, one of the foremost wellness and fitness experts in the meetings and events industry on what the future of wellness looks like in the industry and how planners should be implementing wellness into their event agendas and how they can stay ahead of wellness trends.

To celebrate our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters, Meetings Today is introducing "Trendsetter Tuesday," a podcast series of interviews with the 20 Trendsetters recognized in our July/August issue. In this episode, Meetings Today's Taylor Smith sat down for a conversation with Kristine Iverson, founder and president of CROW Practice, to learn about how she started her own live events wellness company, discovered the leadership techniques that work for her and what it means to her to be a 2024 Meetings Trendsetter.

To celebrate our 2024 Meetings Trendsetters, Meetings Today is introducing "Trendsetter Tuesday," a podcast series of interviews with the 20 Trendsetters recognized in our July/August issue. For our first episode, Meetings Today's Taylor Smith sat down for a conversation with Alicia Jenelle, director of experience design at The Jenelle Group, to learn more about her story in meetings and events as well as what it means to her to be a 2024 Meetings Trendsetter.

Omni Hotels & Resorts Chief Sales Officer Dan Surette talks about how the Dallas-based brand offers a change of pace from other major hotel companies, from its unique ownership model and meetings and events offerings to the new Select Guest Program and dedication to employee growth and retention. Surette also delves into recent and upcoming openings as well as what the hotel sales veteran sees as macro trends impacting an industry getting its stride following the dark days of the pandemic.

A year after taking the reins of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp (NCVC), 27-year NCVC vet Deana Ivey shares her in-depth Music City expertise and what’s new in the destination. With a new NFL stadium and dreams of hosting a Super Bowl, in addition to phenomenal hotel and event venue growth in the last few years, Music City is hotter than a plate of Nashville Hot Chicken. Discover what the NCVC has been up to since the retirement of former bureau chief and industry icon Butch Spyridon retired, as well as what it's like to live in the "Capital of Country Music," where you just may bump shopping carts with a low-key celebrity when out on a grocery run.

And now for something completely different... Association meetings thought-leader KiKi L'Italien, editor-in-chief of Association Chat and VP of marketing and community engagement at Big Red M, has put together what promises to be quite the party bus experience to shuttle ASAE Annual Meeting & Expo attendees from suburban D.C. to the convention in Cleveland, with conviviality and general merriment sure to ensue. Discover how this outside-of-the-box networking road trip came together, and whether any DMOs or association-business craving properties along the way are marketing-savvy enough to provide the 2024 Association Chat Road Trip a reason for a pit stop. L'Talien is joined by association consultancy vet Michael Butera, president and CEO of Association ActiVision, to discuss the current state of the segment, including a significant change to this year's ASAE Annual and some of the major challenges and opportunities ahead. Are you on the bus?