TECHYSTALK FAST LANE
May 5, 2021
10am-2:30pm ET
Jump into the FAST LANE and get ready to take advantage of all the opportunities 2021 is bringing to our industry! Join us for this one-day deep-dive into virtual and hybrid strategies, as industry authorities share their exclusive insights that will help better position you in serving your Clients and Teams within the coming months!
This event will be longer-form content and intimate – offering you plenty of time for you to ask questions featuring a hand-selected group of Thought–leaders as our educators.
Unlike a virtual event where you can plan to watch the recording later or keep the content on in the background, this is an event where you’ll want to set the entire day aside, bring your laptop to take copious notes and get excited about transforming your virtual experience!
SPONSORED BY
LEARN FROM TOP PROFESSIONALS IN EVENT TECHNOLOGY
LIZ KING CARUSO
Liz King Caruso is an Event Strategist, Consultant and Speaker. As CEO of Liz King Events and techsytalk, she has helped countless thought leaders grow their audience and sell their products through in-person, virtual & hybrid events. Liz is a big-picture person – passionate about tying events into an overall sales and marketing strategy and being efficient at every point of the process. Technology is her niche and she’s obsessed with helping organizations of every size leverage technology to produce more engaging & seamless event experiences.
In addition to her client work, Liz connects & educates her industry colleagues through platforms she has built – techsytalk GLOBAL, the techsytalk community & IGNITE Consulting program.
Liz has been featured as Eventex’s 50 Most Innovative Virtual Meeting Planners, Successful Meetings list of 25 Most Influential People in the Meetings Industry, Top 5 Women in Event Tech, amongst other awards.
JAMES SPELLOS
James Spellos is the President of Meeting U. whose mission is to help people become more productive and comfortable with technology.
In 2015, Jim was named one of the Meeting Industry’s trendsetters by Meetings Today magazine. He was a faculty member at New York University for 25 years receiving both their Award for Teaching Excellence and their Outstanding Service Award.
Jim is on the Board of Directors for Rock and Wrap It Up, an anti-poverty, anti-hunger organization which recovers excess food from events. Jim co-created their Whole Earth Calculator app. He also speaks about food recovery and sustainability in the industry. In 2018 & 2019, BizBash named Jim one of their top 500 people in events for his work in sustainability.
Jim is an accomplished musician and songwriter who released his first solo album, Stroke of Genius in 2020. He also has a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies, and supports Plant Powered Metro New York in educating people about a healthy lifestyle.
jspellos@meeting-u.com
http://www.meeting-u.com
http://www.facebook.com/meetingu
http://www.twitter.com/jspellos
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jspellos
HEATHER MASON
Heather Mason founded Caspian Agency in 2005, intent on bringing a scientifically-based strategic discipline to white-glove event planning. Her expertise in the innovation and social good business space has led to successful projects around the globe for the Skoll World Forum, Dalio Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Keurig/Green Mountain Coffee, among many others. Prior to launching Caspian, she managed events for Charles Schwab, producing conferences across the country.
Early on, Heather recognized that there was no codified method for creating and executing strategic events at scale. In response, she created the Caspian 10 Essentials of Event Science. This methodology has been taught internationally, and it is featured curricula for the San Diego State University Masters in Meetings and Events degree program where she is a Senior Fellow and also an instructor. Most recently, Caspian released the online course, Thinking Virtually: Virtual Engagements in the Post – COVID-19 Era, which outlines the fundamental elements of successful online events.
http://www.caspianagency.com/
https://twitter.com/
https://twitter.com/
https://www.instagram.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
BRANDT KRUEGER
Brandt is a technical producer and consultant based in Minneapolis, MN, and is the highly acclaimed instructor for the Event Leadership Institute’s Virtual Event and Meeting Management certificate course. He has over 20 years experience in the industry, has spoken at events and conferences all over the world, been published in numerous magazines and websites, and is ranked among the most influential people in the events industry. More information at www.brandtkrueger.com
DAHLIA EL GAZZAR
WILL CURRAN
As the founder of Endless Events, Will Curran has been named one of the most influential people in the meeting & events industry, one of the 40 under 40 event industry leaders, 35 entrepreneurs under the age of 35, and Inc Magazine’s Coolest College Start-up all before graduating college. Will has been producing in-person and virtual events since high school when he started his first company and has now worked in the production of large event clients such as Emerald City Comicon, Anheuser-Busch, Warner Brothers, Morton Salt & Uber. His team’s mission is to simplify the event planning process by creating the equation for an event’s perfect solution. They also relentlessly seek to be the name in customer service in the events industry. From event logistics to business development to technical production, Will Curran has a diverse background in growing events and companies to the next level.
LAWRENCE COBURN
Lawrence Coburn is a serial entrepreneur who lives in the Mission District of San Francisco with his wife and daughter. He is the CEO and co-founder of twine (twine.nyc), a deep networking module for virtual, in-person, and hybrid events that he launched in 2020. Previously, he founded DoubleDutch, the market leader for mobile event apps, which was acquired by Cvent in 2019. When not working, you can find Lawrence riding bicycles with his family, on the basketball court, or reading Science Fiction.
AGENDA
May 4, 2021
| 4:00-5:00pm ET | Virtual Networking Warmup One of the best ways to really experience an event like this is to get to know your fellow participants. So – we’re really excited to give you this opportunity for some Deep Speed Networking where our Sponsor, Twine, will facilitate five minute networking sessions between attendees. We’ll even give you some topics to kick off the conversation so you can head into the main event with some friends in your back pocket 🙂 Sponsored by twine. | All |
May 5, 2021
| 10:00-10:10am ET | Opening | Liz |
| 10:10-10:25 | Fundamentals of Connectivity & Virtual Meetings In this session, we’ll talk about some of the basics. The things you THINK you know, but you really don’t. Some of the stuff you might say in passing and hope no one asks for details, but after this session, you’ll be able to have a great foundation for virtual event planning. |
James Spellos |
| 10:25-11:10am | Your New Normal: It’s High Tech Low Cost & DIY Everyone is talking about the high cost of virtual and hybrid, but in this session, we’ll learn from Jim as he shares some of the tools and techniques he’s been playing with and learning about that will give you a high-tech look for low cost! |
James Spellos |
| 11:10-11:55am | Your Virtual Event Production is SO 2020 Let’s talk about NEXT level virtual event production with non other than Will Curran. He’s going to walk us through some of the things we need to be thinking about to really up-level our production game in a way that’s meaningful and intentional, but really increases our impact and success! |
Will Curran |
| 11:55-12:30pm | Engagement Ideas that Delight Your Attendees Polls, Q&A and Chat, Oh My! In this session, we’re going to talk about how to create happy attendees – the key to happy sponsors and successful events. We’ll talk about engagement beyond the 3 common ways so you can inject your events with energy, fun and memorable moments! |
Dahlia El Gazzar |
| 12:30-1:00pm | Break | |
| 1:00-1:30pm |
Screens are Made for Money! |
Heather Mason |
| 1:30-2:00pm | Cybersecurity: Not Just for Nerds This is a HUGE topic and super important for all #eventprofs to consider whether you’re planning virtual or hybrid. All the data we have access to is exciting and scary so in this session, we’ll talk about what you need to know and why it’s so important. This is one of those topics you can’t just brush off as being “just for nerds”! |
Brandt Kreuger |
| 2:00-2:30pm | Bringing Networking Serendipity to Virtual and Hybrid Events Everyone is talking about the power of serendipitous relationships that we miss from in-person events, but if you think this power is not available in the virtual space – you’d be wrong. In this session, we’ll talk about the power of curation for networking and how facilitating powerful connections will be a HUGE driver for your virtual & hybrid event success. |
Lawrence Coburn |
