Insights From IMEX: Smart Monday

With IMEX America underway at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas from October 7-9 (with educational day Smart Monday, powered by MPI October 6), four Meetings Today reporters–Tyler Davidson, Rob Carey, Taylor Smith, and Jeff Heilman–are on the ground covering the educational sessions, exhibit-hall happenings, social events, and other elements of North America’s biggest meetings-industry show.

Each day, the team delivers useful insights based on what they’re seeing and hearing around the show.

Here’s a sampling of what our editors took away from the October 6 educational day known as Smart Monday, powered by MPI:

Tyler Davidson, Vice President & Chief Content Director

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  MPI keynote speaker Rob Lawless is on a mission to meet 10,000 people, with 7,204 currently logged in the books as he took the stage. “Every human connection has the possibility to change a life,” Lawless told the audience. “Open the door to people around you because you never know what it will lead to. One chance interaction can change your life. Relationships are the biggest predictor of your long-term health and happiness.” A networking ice-breaker tip: “Specifics will move the conversation; generalizations will kill it.” 

• Leading up to the MPI keynote, MPI CEO Carina Bauer took the stage to announce that this year’s IMEX America, which carries the Talking Point “Impact 2.0,” will boast the largest number of exhibitors in its history: 3,700 exhibitors from more than 100 countries.
   
• The morning “Streamlining Event Logistics” session delved into AI applications for meetings and events, with a focus on PCMA’s SPARK AI offering. Key highlights and tips: Check your security setting for any AI program and set it to private so it doesn’t share your personal information with the universe; use AI develop your prompts, before even entering them, to ensure they’re more specific; use AI to generate speaker bios using publicly available information and then share it with speaker for them to approve, saving turnaround time; AI can crunch years’ worth of event history data to inform upcoming programs, including attendee feedback and key learnings, which then can be used to create an agenda; AI tools such as Suno can create royalty-free music for background music and other applications at events, and Sora is a prompt-to-video solution that can instantly generate shortform videos for TikTok or Instagram.
   

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  In her “Better Terms, Greater Outcomes: Negotiating Group Sales Agreements in 2025” session, industry attorney Melia Preedy, from law firm Foster Garvey, provided the following tips to attendees: Always provide a remedy in your contracts, such as “If this, then that”; if information security is important, provide a bulleted list of your organization’s competitors to the meeting venue to ensure they are not booked at the same time or allowed in your spaces; always be very specific, avoiding terms such as “at the sole discretion of” or “making every effort”; make sure that any “junk fees” such as resort fees are included in the room rate, and detail exactly what it includes (such as Wi-Fi, parking, swimming pool and fitness center use), and make sure the total price is fully commissionable, if applicable; consider splitting cancellation clauses dealing with resale and rebooking into two separate clauses; consider including the clause “Hotel may not reassign function space without Group’s consent”; an emerging issue is whether ICE enforcement activities could qualify as force majeure or other cancellation/attrition remedies.

• The doggie corral is ALWAYS a convention winner, with attendees clamoring for some cuddle time with the adorable canines available for adoption. Take it to the bank!

Rob Carey, Content Manager, News & Features

• “When I planned meetings, I went on some site visits where I wondered whether the property team even knew I was coming that day.” So said Ciara Feely, veteran sales consultant and trainer, in her session titled “Art of the Unforgettable Site Visit.” Her point: Hotel salespeople must prepare every department on property for a planner’s visit. But for that to happen, planners must provide details in advance about their event’s objectives and the critical elements they need to see and experience while on property. In short: Be proactive and persistent to get the site visit you need.
   
• In the Smart Monday prefunction area, Meeting Professionals International used a fun activation to introduce more planners to the organization, and to keep current members connected. After providing a business card, planners could step up to MPI’s “Mystery Envelope” board and choose an envelope containing a prize: A Yeti tumbler or other swag item, or a discount on a new or renewed MPI membership, or a certificate to attend an online educational program for free. 
   

• “I know of a few planners who were fired recently because they did not understand the audiovisual component of their events well enough, and the final bill for AV was tens of thousands of dollars higher than what was expected.” So said Scott Frankel, president of Animatic Media LLC, in his session titled “Avoid Hidden AV Costs: A Practical Guide for Planners.” Some of his best advice for planners: Know exactly what equipment you need when you send proposals to in-house or outside AV firms; ask for separate rates for AV, electric, internet, rigging, and other elements; investigate hotels’ “AV service standards” provisions, which include fees that many planners do not account for; negotiate everything before you sign the contract–nothing is off the table.

  

• One exhibitor used the allure of AI to generate a crowd at its stand in the prefunction area. Planners lined up to have a headshot taken, which was then transformed into an image of a superhero action figure of their choosing.
   

• To provide a few moments of relaxation for attendees while creating something that enhances the atmosphere at hospitals around the world, the nonprofit organization Foundation for Hospital Art set up several tables in the prefunction area featuring paint-by-numbers sketches for attendees to complete. 

  [Related: IMEX America 2025: All of Our Event Coverage in One Place]

Taylor Smith, Content Manager, Destinations

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  “LinkedIn is not a content engine, it’s a relationship engine,” said LinkedIn Top Voices Influencer Richard Bliss during his MPI Smart Monday session, “Social Selling With LinkedIn,” which drew such a large crowd, two rows of people lined the breakout room walls. “By participating in other people’s conversations, you demonstrate interest in them. When you demonstrate interest in other people, you become interesting to other people. That’s where the human algorithm kicks in. That’s where LinkedIn almost mimics real life.”

• In the morning “Going Global - What Factors Are Affecting International Meetings Around the World?” session, Katja Sukale, senior marketing manager conventions at visitBerlin - Berlin Convention Office, highlighted a new initiative from Berlin to help strengthen the city’s standing as a hub for major international business events and streamline the planning process called the Berlin Event Board. “We worked with the government to establish a traditional one-stop-shop institution to help, especially with large-scale events, to make it easier for meeting planners to reach out to foreign leaders about any restrictions, time constraints, etc.,” Sukale said.
   

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  This year’s Incentive Travel Index (ITI), a joint report by the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) and the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), was released during Smart Monday and unpacked on the show floor via a live panel discussion featuring panelists Anesa Martin, director, intermediary group sales, incentive third parties, Hilton; Justin Myers, VP, client development, Bishop-McCann; and Genevieve Castleberry, director of sourcing, Brightspot Incentives and Events. The survey included numerous new lines of inquiry, with specific questions geared toward the preferences and values of NextGen incentive travel qualifiers. When it comes to what today’s young professionals are looking for out of a rewarding incentive travel program, the experience may just be more important than the destination, and this year’s ITI respondents agree: “39% of respondents think younger generations of qualifiers would rather see Taylor Swift than Hawaiʻi, and 30% are unsure,” said Padraic Gilligan, head of research and consultancy with SITE.

• “There’s social capital that comes with [those experiences],” said Justin Myers, VP, client development at Bishop-McCann, during the ITI panel discussion. “It’s not enough to just be a destination or a beautiful hotel. It’s, ‘What is the experience I am going to get that makes me get to say, ‘I was there.’ Incentive travel has to be more about the experiences we’re creating.”
   

• If SITE’s Padraic Gilligan could leave attendees with one massive ITI takeaway, it’s this: “We all believe that incentive travel works, but 75% of us believe it’s a really, really hard industry,” Gilligan said. “I think that’s a bit exaggerated. I love the industry that we’re in. I don’t deny that it’s hard, but anything that’s worthwhile is hard.”

  

Jeff Heilman, Senior Contributor

• Scientist, professor, and author Dr. Paul J. Zak has devoted 25-plus years to measuring brain activity to predict when an experience will induce an emotional reaction. “The brain has a strong tendency to return to baseline,” said Dr. Zak. “Changes to that baseline means that something valuable and important happened.” From his neuroscience research he created Immersion, a platform that tracks a unique brain state of attention and emotional resonance. Using smartwatches and a mobile app, Immersion predicts the market impact of experiences with 90% accuracy, driving actions, social sharing, and strong memory retention.
   
• Clients include global events leader Bishop-McCann. Underpinned by Immersion, the company’s proprietary JOY Index, introduced in 2024, uses AI to quantify attendee engagement and experience in real-time. Planners can understand in the middle of an event what truly resonates with their audiences to create more impactful and joyful events.
   
• “Authentic storytelling” is one reliable way to “wow” attendee brains from baseline and create an emotional connection that leaves lasting impact. 
   
• Why is wow important? “I would rather wow my attendees and clients than have to spend the money to get new clients,” said Zak. “When you wow clients, you drive up their lifetime customer value. They becoming raving fans that always want to renew with you and come back for more.”

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• Set to open in 2027, Hard Rock Las Vegas will offer over 200,000 square feet of versatile meeting space for meeting and convention groups of all sizes as the luxurious Guitar Tower takes shape on the Strip. According to the website, the property is currently accepting RFPS for group bookings in 2028 and beyond.

Read more IMEX content from Meetings Today.