Tom Pasha has been recognized as one of the top event planners in the planning industry. Starting in hotel operations positions as a caddy, bellman, bartender and cook, Tom began his management career as a Hyatt management trainee in Chicago. He held sales management positions throughout the Hyatt organization, working in 12 Hyatt hotels over 20 years. Tom was director of sales at Hyatt hotels in Greenville, San Antonio and Chicago O’Hare, and as director of sales, he started the National Sales Office for Hyatt hotels in Omaha. He won sales manager of the year, sales director of the year and the Donald M. Pritzker Award for Excellence.

Tom went into meeting planning and founded CONTACT Planning, a national meeting planning company with headquarters in Orlando, Florida. Pasha’s company books over 100,000 room nights annually, working with corporate and association clients.

In addition to his planning responsibilities, Pasha teaches “Meeting Planning Mastermind,” a two-day class that focuses on teaching meeting planners every aspect of a hotel that delivers 15 hours of continuing education credit.

Please contact Camille Moore with any questions about this session.

Naomi R. Angel is a partner with Howe & Hutton, Ltd., a law firm that specializes in the representation of individuals, firms and organizations in the travel, tourism, hospitality, incentive and meetings industries, as well as nonprofit organizations, including trade associations, professional societies and other related organizations.

Angel works with individuals and organizations in the meetings, travel and hospitality industries, including corporate and independent planners. Additionally, she serves as general counsel to national and international trade associations of manufacturers, suppliers and professionals, providing guidance in the areas of antitrust, intellectual property, standards development, certification and accreditation, governance, contracts, international business and organizational issues, product liability, and risk management.

Angel has appeared before federal and state agencies and worked with national research laboratories, advocating positions on behalf of client associations. She is a trained mediator with extensive commercial litigation experience at state and federal levels and is admitted to practice before Illinois Supreme Court; the Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois; and the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th and Federal Circuits.

Angel is a member of the American Society of Association Executives and serves on ASAE’s Associations Now Law and Policy Committee; the Association Forum of Chicagoland; and The Chicago Bar Association, where she was chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Trade and Professional Association Committee. Angel is a graduate of UCLA and DePaul University College of Law.

**Please contact Camille Moore with any questions about this session.

Alex Plaxen, president and founder of Little Bird Told Media, began his career in events while studying at The George Washington University. While studying, he worked with the Capitol Concerts events team producing mega events in Washington, D.C. He also worked with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and RedPeg Marketing.

After graduating with a master's degree in tourism administration, Plaxen was the director of marketing for EventRebels. In fall 2015, he left EventRebels to start his own company, Little Bird Told Media, a consulting firm focused on social media strategy and implementation for conferences. He has been recognized as a top social media influencer at Inbound 2015 and 2016, Dreamforce 2015 and MPI WEC 2016.

In addition to his industry work, Plaxen has been an active member of PCMA and MPI. He currently sits on the Potomac Chapter of MPI's Board of Directors. He has been honored locally and internationally as an emerging leader in the events industry and was recognized as a Connect Association 40 under 40 in 2017.

**Please contact the editor with any questions about this session.

Meet Your New Nerdy Best Friend, Beth Ziesenis—author, speaker and nerd. Although the only real trophy she ever won was for making perfect french fries at McDonald’s in high school, Ziesenis has been featured on best speaker lists by several industry publications. Since her first Commodore 64 computer, Ziesenis has made a verb out of the word “nerd.” She helps computer users all over the country filter through thousands of apps, gadgets, widgets and doodads to find the perfect free and low-cost technology tools for business and personal use. She does this through presentations and penning books like her latest, “Nerd Know-How: The 27+ Best Apps for Work and How to Use ‘Em,” available on Amazon.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

During his 20-plus-year career building high-performing marketing and biz development teams at variety of nonprofit and for-profit companies, Keith Chamberlain has found best successes come from aggregating teams and resources, while simultaneously building collaborative relationships. Chamberlain is also president of KEROSENE Marketing, a consultancy providing strategic marketing services to organizations.

The original bad boy of ops, Garth Jordan is an energized and insightful leader-of-leaders. He guides teams through thick and thin, bringing out the best in people and ensuring organizations reach their full potential. Jordan serves as senior vice president of corporate strategy at Healthcare Financial Management Association, where he has brought design thinking and experience design to the forefront of the organization's strategic planning and execution.

Scott Frankel is president of Animatic Media, a full-service event production company, and a leader and speaker at many industry events. Frankel founded Animatic in 1996 with the idea of offering agency-style service without the agency price tag. Frankel and his team have produced thousands of events for clients of all sizes, from Fortune 500 conferences with thousands of attendees to smaller road shows. Frankel insists on perfection and is an innovator in the event technology business. In 2010 he started Conference-On-Demand, a leading platform for on-demand conference video, and recently launched MeetingLeader.com, a content management, web registration and audience response web platform for corporate event planners.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Michael J. Lyons is an author, professional speaker, actor, entrepreneur and former hospitality industry executive. Lyons spent more than 40 years in senior-level management roles in the meetings/travel industry, including stints with CIGNA, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Global Events Partners and EGR International. Before going out on his own in 2014, he was exhibition director of IBTM America, a premier trade show organized by Reed Exhibitions—the world's largest trade show management company—based in London.

As a prolific and experienced professional speaker, Lyons delivers talks in the U.S. and abroad on how to achieve goals, pursue your passion and enhance your personal brand, among other topics. His easygoing style and humorous anecdotes, coupled with fun exercises and interactive group involvement, keep audiences engaged throughout his presentations. In 2017, Lyons released his book "Set Yourself Free: Daydream it... Believe it... Achieve it!" to widespread acclaim.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Robyn Mietkiewicz, CMP, CMM, is senior director of global meeting services at Meeting Sites Resource. MSR is a global strategic meeting management solutions organization with a 23-year track record of meetings excellence. This includes global hotel sourcing, custom contract negotiations, meeting project management and SMM consulting.

Mietkiewicz contributes articles to trade publications and speaks at many industry events. She also presents custom strategic education for planning and procurement teams. Mietkiewicz has served on many hotel and CVB advisory boards, is a past president of the MPI Orange County Chapter and was recognized as the 2014 MPI RISE Award–Member of the Year.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Janice Anderson uses her corporate background in communications, marketing and public relations to equip leaders with a strategic approach to organizational growth and expansion. Anderson has supported hundreds of leaders from myriad arenas. Her clients include pastors, ministry leaders, corporate and nonprofit leaders, C-level executives and entrepreneurs. She helps leaders identify and overcome the growth barriers in organizations by implementing strategies that allow them to build, brand and expand their visions.

Anderson and her team have created powerful mentoring, coaching and consulting programs, workshops and products that equip leaders with the tools necessary to increase their influence, impact and income without compromising their message or their mission. Meet Anderson at moruwa.com.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Simone Morris is president and founder of Simone Morris Enterprises LLC. Her company offers employee engagement consulting, leadership training, career management coaching and speaking services. She is an award-winning diversity and inclusion leader who has been recognized by Diversity Best Practices, DiversityMBA and Diageo.

Morris previously spent two decades in corporate America. She has extensive leadership experience and holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut. She also holds the Associate Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation, as well as the certified Project Management Professional distinction from the Project Management Institute. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member for the American Management Association.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Carolyn Browning, CMP, CMM, is chief solution strategist at MEETing Needs, LLC. She began her career in the meetings industry on the corporate side, handling customer events and sales meetings at both Sprint and GE Capital. She then ventured out on her own and never looked back.

Passionate about meetings and education, Browning seeks to share her knowledge and experience with others by leading prep classes for CMP certification, speaking to planners about how to improve their meetings to engage and inspire audiences, and helping clients design and execute impactful events.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Larissa J. Schultz, CMP, MHA, is an advocate of continuing to grow through learning and forward momentum. She has been actively involved in the meeting management industry for more than 19 years and is the founder and owner of LJS Meeting Strategies, a meeting management, training and consulting company based in Los Angeles. Her background and experience as a meeting planner includes working with corporations and associations planning both domestic and international conferences and meetings.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

At 17, Austin Johnston started an event lighting company and scaled it into his first business, X Events, which he then left to work for an enormous theme park lighting company. He started design, management and production company AKJohnston Group in 2008, and despite launching during the Great Recession, his company has grown 300 percent every year for the last eight years. Part of that success may be attributed to having technical production and custom fabrication capabilities under one roof. He manages a talented team of designers and engineers who push the envelope when it comes to design and materials, and meld them both with out-there technology. Though based in Orange County, California, Johnston has worked in seven countries and 20 states for the likes of Gucci, Keurig, Rolls-Royce, Toyota and Vitaminwater.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Tyra Hilliard is a speaker, writer and coach, as well as a professor of business, hospitality and event management. She has been honored for her professional achievement as an educator and uses her diverse and unique background to reach learners young and old, from college freshmen to seasoned professionals.

Tyra is one of the only people in the world with a law degree, a Ph.D. in hospitality and a CMP. Her industry experience includes working as an attorney, a meeting planner, a catering manager and a CVB sales manager.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Jared Beard has been a super nerd from the minute he and his evil twin brother hacked away at the innards of their Commodore 64. With more than 20 years as a youth leader, educator, paradigm shifter and IT mega-geek, Beard has been at the bleeding edge of all the good and bad the Internet has offered. As a Web/media business owner, information technology director and instructor in MBA and MSIS programs at Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Beard entertains and challenges audiences while sneaking in just enough theory and real-world knowledge to help planners hash out their next steps into this brave new world.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

Dean Savoca, M.Ed., BCC, spent his early career in the hospitality industry as a travel director and account manager for Maritz for nine years, and as a general manager of a Colorado-based destination management company. Now a performance management and results expert, Dean works at the company and association level as a keynote speaker and conference facilitator; at the team and department level as a management and sales trainer; and at the individual executive level as a coach. Whatever the format, Dean guides people through processes that focuses their attention on core issues and rallies them to action. The result is a better bottom line that’s boosted by improved performance, higher productivity and more cohesive teamwork.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.

A speaker, consultant and hospitality and events industry trainer, Tracy Stuckrath, CSEP, CMM, CHC, is president and chief connecting officer of Thrive! Meetings & Events. Her firm specializes in educating the meetings industry to reduce risk, maximize budgets and improve customer experiences through safe, delicious and healthy F&B, specifically with special dietary needs.

Based in Atlanta, Stuckrath serves on the Slow Food Atlanta board of directors and recently chaired the FARE Walk for Food Allergy Atlanta and the 2015 Allie Awards.

Stuckrath has been named one of the top 25 women in the meetings industry and a 2014 meetings trendsetter. She also has won awards for best corporate/association event and best public fair or festival.

**Please contact the editor to receive your certificate of attendance for this session.