Navigating International Meetings & Incentives – Agenda

Thursday May 11 | Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria

Attendee arrivals

3 p.m. Registration

3:15 – 4 p.m. Site visit of Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria

5– 6 p.m. Welcome and New Zealand supplier presentations

6 – 8 p.m. Opening Reception at ARA, hosted by team New Zealand

Friday May 12  l  Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria

8:30 – 9 a.m. Continental breakfast

9 – 9:05 a.m. Welcome

9:05 ­– 10 a.m. Team building & Icebreaker led by Air New Zealand’s Maori cultural group.

10 ­– 10:45 a.m. Navigating The Top Potential Legal Pitfalls

Tyra W. Hilliard, PhD, JD, CMP

Which areas of international meeting and incentive planning pose the greatest legal risk? How do you protect your organization contractually when political and social unrest, attendee emergencies and other unforeseen circumstances arise?

10:45 – 11:05 a.m. Roundtables

Attendees will break out into roundtable discussions based on the legal topics discussed.

11:05 – 11:20 a.m. Break

11:20 – 12:05 p.m. Beware of a False Sense of Security Kevin Iwamoto, Senior Consultant, GoldSpring Consulting & Theresa Thomas, Senior Vice President of the Powered by iJET Business Unit, iJET International      

Companies might have the best-laid plans in place for their corporate travelers, but meetings and events are a totally different animal. What threats are unique to meeting attendees and how can you be better prepared? Kevin Iwamoto brings years of group experience as Senior Global Category Manager in the Hewlett-Packard Global Travel & Meetings Team and iJet helps clients protect their people, facilities, suppliers and information around the world.

12:05 – 12:25 a.m. Roundtables

Attendees will break out into roundtable discussions focused on risk management.

12:25 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch

1:30 – 2:15 p.m. Global Meeting Trends – Long-Haul Destinations

Kristel Nesrallah, Head of Business Development – Strategic Meetings, North America – ‎American Express Global Business Travel

When it comes to planning global events, it’s important to understand the landscape. To do so, we have turned to the experts at American Express to share a snapshot of meeting activity and trends in key long-haul regions around the world from their 2017 Global Meetings & Events Forecast.

2:15 – 2:30 p.m. Roundtables

Attendees will break out into roundtable discussions focused on trends and developments they are seeing at these key destinations.

2:30 – 3:15 p.m. Ask the Panel

Virginia Mampre, CFEE, President & CEO Meetings and Incentive Travel; Lynne Tiras, CMP, President, International Meeting Managers, Inc.; additional panelists TBD

We will poll attendees beforehand to gather their top questions surrounding global meeting and incentive planning, to be answered by our panel of experts.

3:15 p.m. Wrap-Up: What were your biggest takeaways of the day?

Performance by Air New Zealand Maori Cultural Group