Life Lessons From the Super Bowl of Events

Before I left for IMEX America in Las Vegas, the chatter was loud. Some people were skipping this year and they had their reasons. The buyer and supplier format could be done differently. The programming could be fresher. Fair points, and I say that as someone who adores this show.

I just wrapped my 7th IMEX. (I missed 2025 for a small program in Assisi, Italy. Yes, I know. Cry for me.) After seven rounds, here’s where I’ve landed: the format is the least interesting part of the story. The best parts happen when you’re standing in a room full of people who get it, and no livestream can replicate that.

Presence Is the Skill You Can’t Automate

We’re sliding deeper into the age of AI, inboxes that answer themselves, and a calendar packed with video calls. Real face time keeps shrinking. That’s exactly why showing up matters more now, and not just at IMEX. Local chapter events, industry mixers, coffee with a peer: all of it counts.

IMEX is dubbed the Super Bowl of the events industry, and with more than 17,000 people, it earns the title. This was the biggest one I’ve seen, with a much larger footprint including the hosted lounge upstairs this time. Smart Monday kicked things off, and the three days of sessions after spanned sales, marketing, tech, operations, and professional development.

The Best Education Wasn’t in a Session

Some of my best learning this year happened with no stage and no slides. It happened at the MPI NCC Board of Directors retreat, at the annual in-person meeting of the Prevue Meetings advisory board (the only time all year our group shares a room), at dinners, and in small hallway huddles.

The questions that mattered: What are your pain points, personally and professionally? What have you tried? How do we support each other? Nobody in those rooms was pitching. We were comparing notes, and the same struggles showed up whatever industry people came from.

The AI conversation has matured too. We’re past “what is it” and “how do I use it.” Most of us have the basics, and nobody needs another session on outlining a run of show or polishing a LinkedIn headline. The better questions are about ethics. What counts as written by AI versus proofread or cleaned up by it? Where does your voice end and a tool’s begin? I’d love to see more of that on agendas.

Different Generations, Same Room

This one reaches far beyond events. Every workplace is juggling generations who learn, network, and communicate differently.

Gen X grew up believing that working hard, working late, and giving your all to a company would pay off. Thirty years later, that deal doesn’t always hold, and plenty of people have noticed they’re a number on a spreadsheet. Younger workers, especially post-pandemic, are putting overall well-being first.

I learned that lesson the hard way. In my twenties I was a full-time student, a retail manager by day, an event manager by night, a dance teacher, and a dance group leader, all while starting what would become OmniEra. Sustainable? Not even close. It contributed to heart and health issues in my late twenties. The younger generation watched what that kind of hustle costs, and I think they got it right. (Yes, that’s a wink to the 8 dimensions of wellbeing. Yes, it’s also a plug.)

Communication styles differ too. Older generations pick up the phone, while younger ones would rather text and may break into a cold sweat when a call comes in. Boomers and Gen X tend to be comfortable with PowerPoint and being talked at, and millennials and Gen Z lean toward hands-on, experiential learning. Everyone wants to meet in person, just not in the same way.

We talk plenty about designing for a room of all under-35s or all over-45s. What does it look like when the room is mixed? I’m not done with that question, and it’s shaping up to be an education session during my 2027 program year as MPI NCC’s VP of Education. Stay tuned.

Where AI Earned Its Keep

Confession: I feel like five people, but I’m one human. Every year when IMEX appointments open, I spend several nights combing through exhibitors one by one: who they are, where they’re from, what they do, where they sit on the floor plan.

This year I handed Claude the list of 3,000+ exhibitors with my filters: regions I source in, wellness on property or in the destination, and incentive and small group travel. It came back with about 35, ranked by priority, and suggested which days to book each based on the floor plan, so I wasn’t sprinting from the C section to the F section.

As a hosted attendee, I had a required number of one-on-ones. I booked 23, and had two group meetings, because the list AI created was so good I couldn’t bring myself to cancel any. Doing it by hand would have eaten at least six hours. My own time was about 30 minutes, finalizing the schedule around the education sessions I wanted. People kept passing the idea along all week.

The takeaway: let the tools handle prep so you can save your energy for the part only you can do, which is showing up.

The Hour That Became Two

By Wednesday, I was tired. My hotel room was already warm after dinner, and my energy was low. MPI’s Rendezvous fundraiser, sponsored again this year by Caesars Entertainment, was right across the street. I’ve gone every year I’ve attended IMEX, and I told myself I’d stay for one hour.

I stayed two. I’m so glad I did.

The last couple of years, I’ve felt disconnected. Losing Carlos, a mountain of work, and school all piled up, and I was hoping IMEX would bring back the spark I remember. It did. Standing in the balcony overlooking a sea of invigorated peers, I was reminded that we understand each other, we support each other, and we’re all here for the same reason. It was inspiring and energizing, and it filled a cup that had run so low.

As long and tiring as the week was, it was hugely motivating. I’m back at my desk today, thankful and humbled to belong to this wonderful industry.

If you’ve been on the fence about showing up to something, whether a conference, a chapter event, or coffee with a peer, consider this your nudge. Here’s my challenge to you: put one in-person thing on your calendar before the year ends. A conference, a chapter event, a long lunch with a colleague you only see on screens. Then tell me how it went. I’d love to hear the last in-person moment that recharged you.