The IMEX 2023 Talking Point, “Human Nature,” provides a steer for education and activity at IMEX Frankfurt, slated to be held from May 23–25. Running as a thread throughout the show, the Talking Point celebrates the innate human need to meet face to face and its ensuing benefits, from driving business growth to creating lifelong, global connections.
The result is a new set of education tracks reflecting the way people now live and work—attendees can “pick and mix” across these tracks to suit their skill requirements. Event Marketing is a new addition, while Technology and Innovation, Trends and Research and Experience Design are tracks that are always in demand. A new Business Practices track will include the popular Event Planner Toolkit while a People and Planet track will address diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), professional and personal development, leadership, culture and engagement, well-being and sustainability.
The education programming, which totals over 150 optins, has been crafted in a range of formats, from solo presenters to duos and panels, workshops, co-labs and ideation sessions, all designed to recognize and serve diverse learning approaches. Tangible, practical takeaways encourage attendees to immediately apply what they have learned in their business meetings the same day. The full range of speakers and sessions are live online, and attendees can dive into the diverse listing to plan their learning time at the show.
The day before IMEX Frankfurt (May 22) is dedicated to specific buyer audiences from the global events community.
- The opening plenary session at Association Focus, sponsored by Messe Frankfurt, focuses on taking immediate, practical action towards making events more sustainable. Delivered in association with ICCA, AC Forum, AMC Institute, ASAE and ESAE, Association Focus will bring together industry sustainability experts and associations to share practical ways of reducing the carbon footprint of events.
- Senior speakers from Meta, EY, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce are among the brands spearheading an interactive program for corporate event planners and senior leaders. At Exclusively Corporate, the future of corporate events, digital vs live and the metaverse all top the agenda. Microsoft’s Bob Bejan and Salesforce’s Charlotte Pedersen will go head-to-head in “The tale of two titans – The evolution of event strategy and experience design.”
- This year, IMEX’s Agency Directors Forum will focus on business management issues. Topics include people and talent management; succession planning; business drivers, trends and technology and new business strategies; and new revenue generation models.
- New co-located events for 2023 include MICE Impact Academy, an invite-only education event for German planners, and ELX (Event Leaders Exchange). ELX’s two-year-old community of senior event corporate event leaders from 3,000+ headcount organizations with $3billion+ annual revenue will meet at the show for the first time.
New headline sessions include diverse speakers from all over the world who will share what they have learned from various experiences—expect insight, joy and tales of courage.
Rock Your Business Founder Brian Allan adapted his Choral Singing Workshops to help Ukrainian refugee children all over Poland. To date he has conducted workshops for over 10,000 children to raise funds to open weekend centers around Poland where these children can receive musical therapy through choirs and music workshops.
Eszter Mattiassich-Aszody, head of global events at Siemens Healthineers, joins international crisis leader Thomas Lahnthaler to explore leadership and life lessons from children. Mattiassich-Aszody explains: “It’s interesting to observe the sheer flexibility of their minds … there are no barriers.”
For more information, visit imex-frankfurt.com.
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