Power Up – Your Personal Guide to Professional Growth

SCHEDULE

Hailed as “one of the five most inspiring women in America” by NBC Nightly News, Bonnie St. John challenges audiences to question their own limitations and shows them how to re-energize their lives to achieve peak performance.

The phrase “never give up” means something completely different in today’s world of global interdependence and rapidly shifting 21st century technologies. Drawing on her personal experiences and extensive research, Bonnie St. John illustrates examples of useful tips and techniques that professionals can use to adapt their performance when the only thing constant is change. “We need to update Einstein’s famous quote,” Bonnie quips: “In today’s world, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results!”

As an amputee living in San Diego with no money (or snow!) for training, Bonnie needed to apply extraordinary tenacity and flexibility to become the first African-American to win Olympic medals in ski racing. In every stimulating presentation, Bonnie encourages education professionals to persist and adapt at the same time so they can become virtually unstoppable through the ups and downs of funding changes, new review requirements and scarce resources.

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile and Enhance Your Personal Brand Amy Thomasson, Director, Marketing, Congress of Neurological Surgeons

If you’re looking to enhance your professional credibility, visibility, and recruit-ability, there’s no better place to start than on LinkedIn—a platform with 260 million active monthly users. Whether you’ve already tried some profile enhancement strategies and are ready for a deeper dive, or are a LinkedIn novice looking to get started, this presentation will provide you with the tools to help you stand out from the digital crowd in a challenging and competitive job market.

Covid Forced Career Change: How I Reinvented Myself
Moderator: Jasmine Dyson, The Brand Xperience Lounge
Panelists: Jeff Fugates, Travis Peterson, Mariam Ghaussy

COVID-19 has presented some unique challenges for careers in hospitality. Join Jasmine O. Dyson, of The Brand Xperience Lounge as she moderates a panel discussion with hospitality professionals recently impacted by the global pandemic. They’ll discuss tools and resources to adjust to this new transition, ways to reinvent yourself in new industries, and how to future-proof your career plan.

Make the Switch from Tactician to Trusted Strategic Advisor Chris Chambers, CEO, MJM Creative

ELEVATING YOUR VALUE
A tactician can get things done. A strategist can envision the future. Changing the perception of you and your team from just a tactician to a strategic partner within your organization can be challenging. This presentation explores several paths to achieve this elevated status and begin to adjust your and your teams’ value in the meetings and events space.

Power Mapping – A Tool to Advocate for Your Issues and Yourself Erin Prangley, Director, Public Policy, National Association of Councils on Development Disabilities

A power map can be a useful visual tool to help you and your understand power, and see possibilities for advocacy. This tool is mostly used in public policy but can also be used for a person’s professional development. Participants will learn how to use this tool to aid them.

How to bring JOY to your personal life and your virtual events! Carrie Abernathy, CMP, CEM, CSEP, A Woman With Drive

Carrie will use the principles of the science of well-being to talk attendees through what happiness really is and how they can achieve it in their daily lives! She also ties in how to translate JOY through your virtual meetings to your attendees for a more successful event.

The Future is Diverse Aisha Thomas, Leadership & Team Development Expert, We Speak They Speak, LLC

No two people are alike however, in our interactions, we may fall into the habit of auto piloting how we communicate and connect with others, not considering individual differences and backgrounds. The workspace is typically the most diverse spaces we are in and we tend to still function separately versus together. The best way to engage with team members is to modify our “scripts” to fit the audience. This will require understanding the complexities of diversity to prepare us of the future makeup of the workforce. Through interactive exercises and guided processes, you will be equipped with the skills and tools to reap results from this new approach to connecting with others and improving recruitment, retention and engagement.

The Interesting Conversation Networking Game Deedre Daniel

Deedre Daniel founded The Interesting Conversations Company® to help people think creatively, LAUGH, and build stronger bonds with others. Before starting this business, she spent nearly two decades at GEICO, where she rose through the ranks from call center sales associate to head the Affinity Marketing division where she managed a $50 million budget. Her team was responsible for the marketing strategy for members of over 800 organizations. She noticed most people struggled to make lasting connections with others at networking events. This increasing inability for people to connect inspired her to write a training class and a book called How to be More Interesting Than a Cell Phone®. She invented The Very Interesting Game™ (which is five games) to go with her signature talk. It is a card game for sale on Amazon and a virtual experience for team building and other events.

CMP credit pending