Lessons Learned at PCMA

PCMA's Convening Leaders never disappoints. The annual meeting for the Professional Convention Management Association is always exciting, educational, and fun. That's not to say that everything goes off without a hitch-- but that's not the idea. PCMA is all about being an incubator for new ideas in the meetings industry. The organization tries new ideas, so meeting professionals can learn from their experiments.

This year's theme was "Meetings Deconstructed". They showed attendees what happens behind the scenes. They explained what was going on, and made the meeting transparent. It worked liked a charm. As an attendee, I felt engaged, educated, and entertained.

PCMA also knows how to take risks. They had an idea for a "Learning Lounge", which included six theatres with speakers all happening simultaneously before the general session. That was scheduled to happen at 700am.... in Vegas. Who gets up at 700a in Vegas? Well... apparently, everyone. It was a huge hit. The amount of energy in the Learning Lounge surprised everyone. I have a confession, we were producing PCMA-TV, and thought we would include the Learning Lounge as a small section of the news headlines that day. Boy, were we wrong. The Learning Lounge WAS the news that day. The energy and buzz was indescribable. The place was packed-- at 700a in Vegas! Even more people were watching virtually as part of the live audience on PCMA 365. Fortunately, we were smart enough to shift gears, and tape our entire news headlines from the Learning Lounge, and interview as many people as we possibly could. It's an idea that meeting professionals will no doubt take back to their own events.

I commend PCMA for involving the right people to ensure success-- Kelly Peacy was a driving force behind the Learning Lounge for PCMA. Freeman Creative made it a reality. Jeff Hurt and Dave Lutz from Velvet Chainsaw booked the speakers. When you put people like that in charge... great things are bound to happen. I also commend PCMA for not being scared to take risks, and try new things every year. This was one experiment, that turned into a wildly successful experience.