 Hey folks, I am back from IMEX America 2019 and here to share with you all the things Fabulous about IMEX so stick around and we're gonna go through the show together Conference source net and I spent last week in Vegas for the IMEX America show glad to be home as is Farley who's sleeping behind me? But it was such an incredible show. I wish it was actually a day longer. It was such a great experience So I want to share with you some of the amazing things that I experienced at IMEX last week First off as most of you know IMEX America is one of the world's largest trade shows for the meetings and events industry We are there to make business happen Event planners and meeting planners are there to meet with hotels Destination and other service providers and this is done through a one-on-one Appointment scheduling system. It's what makes IMEX work They're qualified appointments You're meeting with the partners you want to meet with and business actually gets done And I think that's one of the biggest differentiators when you look at IMEX America and some other shows that might be in the marketplace So this is what I love about IMEX America is I go in there with a focus and I get business done And if you want to start with I should say I was a hosted buyer Now most meeting planners are hosted buyers Which means there is a parent group Hosting us and paying for our airfare into the region our hotel night stays And of course some of the catering with the different events that we attend I was a hosted buyer of the Marriott Hotels brand So I had the great opportunity to attend some of their Events that were for their hosted buyer groups only including a Magnificent reception at the Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas It was a ton of fun the Pointer sisters were there Taylor Dane was there family Houston Just an incredible event with really good food really great people and just a really great way to kick off IMEX There were also other opportunities to visit with other partners And I did visit Pacific World DMC for a breakfast and boy am I glad I did They are sure upping their game in the DMC world by creating this sustainability initiative called bring change with me I did one of my videos from IMEX about bring change with me And you can also find that in the description for this video It was a fantastic breakfast and I'm really excited about the things that Pacific World is doing with their clients Okay, so then you get to the show and the first thing you're going to do is probably go into the hosted buyer lounge Where you can grab a cup of coffee or a cup of tea? Maybe a little snack kind of get yourself set for the day with some free Wi-Fi and then head out to the trade shore floor Love the hosted buyer lounge. It's a great way to just kind of decompress and go over the notes that you've taken They had some artists in the room sponsored by song division This guy was incredible. He just made my day He was so talented and the music just kind of set the tone for when I was going back out on the floor So thank you to song division for providing some entertainment in the hosted buyer lounge On the trade show floor So much to see Okay, so you've got your hotels and your destinations and all your partners and They're literally row upon row upon row upon row. You've always got your map with you You better be good at grade two math or you're never going to get from a one to e 3000 it's a massive floor So you plan accordingly and you're walking the floor back and forth all day long But then there's all these other things that you can do They had the discovery zone and all these different activations that you could do in the discovery zone my favorite activation of course was the brand and business activation which was hosted by my good friend Dahlia and She helped me optimize my LinkedIn profile. She also took a quick look at my website and she can do this for anybody She doesn't have to do it at I'm actually she does this for a living So if you're not familiar with Dahlia and her agency Dahlia plus I highly encourage you check her out But she was at the show which was great. I got to catch up with her and of course leverage off off of her knowledge Thank You Dahlia There were also a number of seminars and education sessions I'm not gonna lie. I couldn't attend any of them I had a busy schedule, but there were so many I could have attended and I next did a really good job in their show planner in identifying the education by Stream so they had a general education stream. They had a trends and research stream Sustainability stream. I would have gone to those Marketing and social media another one. I would have gone to so it was easy to find education sessions that you wanted to attend and You could go to them when you had holes in your schedule. That's the problem It's finding enough time to do it, which is why I could have stuck around for another day There were other great activations kind of scattered throughout the trade show floor There was this connector activation which was really tactile in nature, which I really enjoyed There were things on the floor kind of planted throughout the trade show floor almost like Questions you should ask yourself as you're walking around and anyways They really got you thinking and I really enjoyed that activation And of course my favorite activation was Sustainability village where they talked about all of the sustainability initiatives that I'm X was doing and things that we can do as individuals as Meeting planners as meeting delegates to keep our meetings as green as possible trade shows and conferences consume So much crap and so these are just little things that we can do to cut down on our consumption of crap and Keep our meetings as sustainable as possible So love sustainability village. I really hope that it's back next year I'm X also had donation bins set up all over the floor so you could Not only recycle some of the things you may have collected and decided that you didn't need after all But you could donate school supplies That's such a great activation and a great reminder that we have excess of everything And so this is one way that I'm X was going to give some of that excess back There was also the I'm X run on Wednesday, which I usually do but this year I had a breakfast and just could not map it out where I could get my hair done in time to do both the breakfast and the Run, so I'm hoping it was a successful run. I love the I'm X run It was also hotter than Hades in Vegas last week So kind of thankful I didn't do the run this year But if you run and you don't have to be a runner runner It's like 5k so go out there next year do the I'm X run such a it's such a great time and Finally and I do mean Finally because it took me three days to get around to experiencing the wellness lounge So Lee Papa was there with mindfulness training and she was doing a number of meditation classes throughout the week I finally got an opportunity to do a 15-minute meditation with her on Thursday afternoon Literally as I'm heading to the airport and it was such an incredible way to wind up I'm X for me It really centered me If it focused me on now What was the task ahead and that was you know battling the airport to get back home? She she was great. I really really enjoyed it Lee and I'm really hopeful that you come back to I'm X next year So that is my recap of I'm X America It is such a fun week such a busy week such a productive week And it really is about getting business done in our industry and I wouldn't miss it for the world So I hope to see you next year September 15th of 17 at I'm X America in Las Vegas at their new venue the Mandalay Bay We'll see you next year everyone. Bye for now