Sponsored by Highgate Hotels

Sponsored by Destination Vancouver

Sponsored by IHG Hotels and Resorts

Sponsored by Marriott Marquis New York

Sponsored by Marriott International

Sponsored by 360

ATTIRE: Business Casual - Streets of New York City theme

Sponsored by Destination Vancouver

Speaker sponsored by Speak Inc.

There will be successful companies in 2023 and beyond. What's one thing these teams will need to have in common? A willingness to venture into uncharted territory. In the midst of professional and personal change, teams who take action on bold, resourceful, and never-before imagined solutions are the ones that will find growth. As a boundary-pushing around the world pilot, Amelia Rose Earhart knows exactly what it takes to venture into uncharted territory; now she's sharing her one of a kind perspective and strategy with the world. With the odds stacked against her, Amelia brought her own bold idea to life in 2014, piloting a small plane (Pilatus PC-12NG) 28,000 Nautical Miles around the globe. To accomplish this, Amelia self-funded her private, instrument and commercial flight training, went through open-water survival training, crafted a strategic business plan to design, fund and market her around the world attempt, help to design and build a custom auxiliary fuel tank for the trip, grew a large and passionate social following to spread the word, raised close to $2 million in partnerships with 28 corporations, founded and ran a charity organization to send numerous teenage girls to flight school, and more.

In Amelia's keynote, she shares 3 non-negotiables that she used in her successful, uncharted trip around the globe, which is directly transferrable to the business world. Whether the attendees are CEOs/leaders, a sales team, or an entire team of an organization, Amelia's talk contains actionable takeaways that people can start implementing immediately.

Sponsored by Banff Lake Louise Tourism

Learning Lab sponsored by Oman

Whether you’re a buyer or supplier, do you have what it takes to succeed in delivering or receiving your next pitch?

The real answer might surprise you.

Join pitch master, presentation pioneer and events specialists Jason Thomson for the secrets, process, resources and "stop this right nows" of attracting and closing the business you want, and thinking about pitches from the buyer side.

In this high energy session, you learn:

• What actually wins pitches (hint: it's not just your idea)
• Why (and how) to build a pitch "campaign"
• How to use collaborative and consultative selling to increase your potential win - How do evaluate and choose great pitches
• What should (and shouldn't) go in your pitch deck

Plus more than 30 ideas on building trust, and winning that next event, incentive, recognition or conference program.

Learning Lab sponsored by Meet In Ireland

In this engaging session, Jennifer uses the wisdom of martial arts to provide a framework for professionals to enhance their confidence and leadership skills. Through her six "belt levels", you will be given the tools to build resilience, block negativity, master your mindset, elevate your energy and unleash your leadership skills. You'll walk away feeling unapologetically confident and ready to take on any challenge that life throws your way!

Learning Lab sponsored by Abu Dhabi

This session is a panel discussion between a corporate end user, a 3rd party agency and Global DMCs. 3 panellists engage in an open conversation on the future of pricing models for the DMC industry. Especially over the last few years, it has become incredibly apparent that DMC earning models are not sustainable. Management % fees, project time calculated fees or combinations of both? Do planners accept potential changes in the way DMCs charge for their work? What are the pitfalls and what are the upsides? Can DMCs globally align or will DMCs find themselves divided. Let’s find out!

Learning Lab sponsored by Destination Canada

Join Oprah’s favorite community builder for this inspiring and actionable session that will help planners cultivate a stronger sense of community across their events. New disruptive business models, new flexible work arrangements, and new high tech innovation are all part of the future of incentive travel and events. Shifting perceptions of hospitality and moving beyond tech-fuelled hype, Shane Feldman will help you re-focus, re-connect, and elevate your impact.

Having researched community leadership and human behavior on the ground across 6 continents, Shane will take you on a journey, illustrating the lessons learned interviewing leaders across the globe. Shane will decode how to empower human connection, future-proof your programming, and optimize people, planet, and profit through real-world examples and clear strategies you can apply right away.

*This will be an interactive session with ample Q&A, ensuring you leave with relevant take-aways and action items.*

Andy Romeo is back and ready to workshop with YOU a plan for retalenting your business and our industry. What are the attitudes, traits and skills we need? What is nature, what can be learned or nurtured and where do we find them? There are many questions we continue to answer post-pandemic and as we rebuild, this toolkit will give you things to consider and blocks to build your talent pool on.

Helping the hospitality industry to better thrive and flourish through a circular economy and understanding sustainability from a global standpoint is key to our recovery. Integrating inclusivity and accessibility and incorporating best practices in the planning and execution of your events will enhance and differentiate your company’s brand, increase your clientele, reduce your costs, and deliver exceptional experiences. Join us for a great and fun conversation!

Join this topic tournament of rapid idea sharing to discuss employees' new expectations and behavior patterns and the role that each team member plays on fulfilling the clients' expectations. Get a big-picture view of current trends that are affecting our industry in terms of employee engagement, new priorities, values and capabilities and discover their expectations and how to actively react on these new terms.

The SITE Crystal Awards are regarded to be the Oscars of the global incentive travel industry. The prestige of a win, the enhancement of the credibility it brings, and most importantly, the morale boost it achieves can be very exhilarating. But win or not, the mere thought process of taking your program to a level that makes you feel proud & confident enough to apply for an award is a professional journey worth taking. Listen to self-proclaimed Crystal aficionado, Rajeev Kohli, share his learnings that have helped him produce incentive programs that have exceeded expectations.

From building the best future-proofed RFP to negotiating mutual wins, the stakes are higher than ever and our demand and supply is ever shifting as we settle into 2023 and beyond in a re-opened world. In this facilitated session a hotelier, a sourcing agent and a planner will bring their perspectives and invite your questions and ideas on creating wins.

It is not always easy to step into a conversation with a stranger, and events can feel a bit overwhelming. In this smaller dialogue-based session you will learn more about SITE and have the chance to meet in small groups and learn a little more about the humans here. So begins the friendships that will extend through the industry.

Join the After Chat with Amelia if you still need to know more about how you can soar!

The supply chain, the staffing, the exponentially rising costs. The struggle is real. In this DEEP DIVE Dialogue we are inviting you to share your struggles, your wins, your ideas and collectively look at how we best feed our participants in this new world.

Sponsored by Abu Dhabi Convention & Exhibition Bureau

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

Hear from the leader of Hilton’s data and analytics team responsible for preparing their CEO and CFO for the Wall Street quarterly earning calls. Becky will walk you through the recovery by global travel verticals, 2023 forecast, the real driver and impact of inflation, and traveler expectations.

Learning Lab sponsored by Meet In Ireland

Balancing work and life while staying positive during the chaos of running an incentive can be tough. Getting mentally fit provides us with the capacity to handle these challenges with a positive rather than a negative mindset. Positive Intelligence is how we will manage the next 50 years of challenges in the Incentive Travel industry. By learning to quiet our saboteurs we can more quickly tap into our creativity, innovation, and big-picture thinking to create experiences that truly impact people's lives - without stress and anxiety. Bring your free saboteur assessment results to this interactive session to learn how to navigate away from what keeps you from peak performance and well-being.

Learning Lab sponsored by Destination Canada

Traveling means creating a link between cultures, where prejudices might affect or even compromise any relationship.

We have approached the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) era, thus aiming to ensure the fair treatment, access, equality of opportunity and advancement for everyone. I have invited Stefano - the most famous Italian crossdresser- so that he shares with us his experience as a professional traveler: which difficulties did he have to face? and, which is more, how did our industry help him overcome it all and set new positive and inclusive trends?

I believe we are the greatest world trendsetters, and it’s about time we encourage our clients to create change beyond our own walls.

Learning Lab sponsored by Abu Dhabi

The world is uncertain, but when a crisis happens at your next event, you custom image don’t need to be. Discover best and next practices for preparing your team for security or safety risks—be they natural or not. Review what aspects you need to consider when conducting your risk assessment, what you need to prepare for onsite, how to unfold your crisis plan and the ways you can communicate out to your attendees. Review several best-in-class, real-life case studies of how meeting professionals and venues have responded to crises. Then, deep dive into several “fire drill” scenarios and work with your peers on what your response and critical path should be in the case of an emergency onsite.

Do you believe in and champion yourself as much as you should? This session has been designed by those who grew their careers the ‘hard way’ to help you on your fast track. If you are just getting started in the industry or are part of a younger generation, this session will provide tips and tricks from Incentive Travel experts to help you get the results you want in your career.

Learning Lab sponsored by Oman

As in-person events have roared back, no one has been spared from the environmental headwinds of talent turnover, supply chain issues, inflationary pressures, accelerated event timelines and more. These challenges, however, emphasize the need for transparent, collaborative and empathetic partnership among buyers and sellers — the foundation for Financial and Insurance Conference Professionals’ (FICP) One Community perspective.
In this special FICP session, hear from a panel of industry leaders — two meetings professionals and two hospitality partners — who radiate the One Community mindset and will share best practices and practical recommendations regarding:

• Building new, powerful relationships in a high-pressure environment
• Managing environmental factors (e.g., inflation/pricing, staffing) that impact the decision making
• Communication and expectation setting, including service delivery transparency

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

Events create a footprint on our environment and in our communities. Very often, it’s not a positive footprint. This session will blend a strategic and holistic approach to sustainability, event design and how we positively impact the communities where our events take place. We must design better events for the future of our industry. With real event examples, we will showcase how we can move the needle towards NetZero carbon and zero waste events. We will provide a pathway to success through a strategic design focus that will ultimately make the implementation of these strategies more consistent and seamless.

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

Over the last 50 years, we have been through wars, market crashes, recessions, natural disasters, technology introductions, and more! But each time, we come back a bit different, and even stronger. Join this expert panel as they discuss 2023 (and beyond!) projections, as well as ways to become more adaptable with the ever-shifting market conditions we live in.

Learning Lab sponsored by Destination Canada

In this panel discussion focused on Program Design and ROI, we’ll get down and dirty with connecting client goals to Incentive Travel success. This panel of experts will show you how to connect key expectations, audience demographics, desired behaviors, and excitement about the Travel Reward. You’ll also hear about how to track and communicate your programs in order to provide the best business results.

Learning Lab sponsored by Oman

In this 50th year conference of SITE Global there will be a lot of focus on “legacy”. Us four, being 2nd or more generation of business leaders, will discuss what it has meant to inherit a legacy, how we've come to define it, how much we've (failed to) re-shaped it. We'll have a frank discussion about the emotional and professional implications this "legacy" has brought forth and how we've come to deal with it. The goal would be to bridge the gap between generations of owners and employees, help facilitate a dialogue and inspire the upcoming leaders. Our session will be cautious to keep the conversation at an executive level hope to be an inspiration to all those who work for legacy brands.

Learning Lab sponsored by Abu Dhabi

Although there is a shorter/faster decision-making period for the execution of incentive trips, the clients' expectations are rising, the budgets are shrinking, and our vendors are taking longer to respond, we still have a commitment towards our client to provide the most appropriate proposal that encompasses with their expectations and budgets, and that outshines our competitors. But how should we do it with "only" an 8-hour work day?

Sponsored By Meet In Ireland

Experiences and time are the new currencies and when incentive travel becomes transformative travel, we have magic. Ireland is a country that delivers majesty and magic and leaves a person different than they arrived. Creating transformative experiences is part art and part science and Ryan will bring his knowledge freshly honed from his recent visit to the College of Extraordinary Experiences to build the bridges to understanding. When participants leave they will understand how our hearts and minds when touched with meaningfully designed experiences can forever alter our loyalties and our perceptions and how you can use incentive travel experiences to create this magic for your organizations.

50 is a big number. We must start 10xing our thinking so our best years are ahead of us not behind us. To grow and survive in our industry we have to change the traditional ways of thinking. We have to daily re-charge, re-energize, and re-engage ourselves all while re-building our teams. That means celebrating the small wins with the big wins. Learn from your favorite rock stars how celebration fuels your success. We will flood your bodies with the feel-good chemicals dopamine and oxytocin and unleash your inner rock star. Walk away with 4 rock solid success principles that if immediately applied will change the trajectory of your business. Plus receive your very own SITE Global Drumsticks.

Sponsored by PRA Business Events

ATTIRE: Gatsby Theme - Think black, white, gold

Sponsored by Hard Rock

Sponsored by Silversea

Sponsored by Destination Vancouver

Experience Andre Norman’s journey from an illiterate child to a high-ranking gang member in federal prison. While in prison, he had an epiphany that he was the "King of Nowhere" and from that moment forward, set his mind on becoming successful and going to Harvard University. Learn the authentic leadership and genuine connection that kept Andre thriving no matter the circumstance. His story will help you excel in adapting to change in difficult times and become successful in every aspect of your business and life.

Sponsored by Monterey County CVB

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

We have more power than we think - unlocking that power is key to creating a positive impact within incentive travel programmes. This session explores the power of our choices when sourcing, designing and executing incentive travel programmes. It will challenge the audience to review its business practices, and it will highlight the many ways that incentive travel excellence can be used to support destinations, businesses, communities, individuals, and even the physical and mental well-being of programme attendees. It will ask the audience to adopt a social and environmental sustainability perspective throughout their work to promote flourishing within and outside the industry.

Learning Lab sponsored by Abu Dhabi

Demand for Incentive Travel as a reward is at an all-time high, but much of this is in response to unprecedented limitations over recent years. Together with our experienced panel of Incentive Agency and DMC practitioners and acknowledging inSITEs - the SITE Foundation research - let’s create a path to future-proof our industry.

Learning Lab sponsored by Destination Canada

Site visits are a critical piece of our business. There are different ways to approach a site to make it the most productive for all parties. You want everyone to walk away saying "that was 100% a good use of my time." Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. We're bringing together a panel of experts to discuss successful strategies in building site visits that are engaging, informative, and productive. You'll be able to interact with the panel to discuss best practices, avoid common-place pitfalls and learn tips to make the ordinary site visit - memorable.

Learning Lab sponsored by Meet In Ireland

With global economic challenges on the horizon, how do you ensure the value of incentives is seen in the clients' minds, and how do you practically mitigate against rising costs?

Learn from leaders in the sector from a client, agency and supplier perspective to ensure that your incentive programme still runs. To open the session, we will ask attendees to answer a client cost concern about their upcoming incentive and present this back. Then we will open the debate to the panel, who will share their practical learnings and thoughts.

Learning Lab sponsored by Oman

The purpose of incentive travel is to incentivize people. This session shows you how to make any trip as much as 8X more appealing by tapping into the hearts of your participants and giving them more of what they value most of all. Because the more people see their own values – in the choice of destination, the activities, and how it is described – the more excited they will become. They can’t help it, we are neurologically hard-wired to chase our values. It’s what being human is.

The Glamour and Prestige of cruising was paramount back in the 40’s and 50’s. The desire and ability to cruise back in those days was one of luxury and prestige. The thought of planning, packing your trunks and suitcases and pulling up to the gangway of your cruise ship was an exhilarating experience, and still is today! In today’s world – this exact same excitement continues. The announcement and combination of receiving your award-winning information and or meeting destination, all the way to the arrival at the ship, still provides that feeling of ‘we did it and I made it’ for a pure experience for the Highest of an Incentive Quality Experience! A lot of time has passed, and we find ourselves with all manner of cruise options and possibilities at our fingertips. The industry is now evolving to “the next level of cruising” not only for pleasure, but for the multi-billion-dollar travel and incentive industry where every option for the very best ROI is paramount. Join us as we pioneer the way we used to cruise > we then took a “break” > now onwards to the future of cruising in the language of groups and charters. With high emphasis being placed on the Glamour and Prestige that one felt decades ago being translated into those “Ah – HA” moment of today and tomorrow. From leisure luxury – to meetings – to events – to groups and charters, we will present the ever “changed” world of cruising and how this industry is bringing a “next level” platform for new experiences / design and their approach to making those magical moments – Memorable.

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

This new study produced by the Incentive Research Foundation and Questex LLC examines how ready the industry is to meet this renewed demand for incentive travel. 'Open for Business' explores how staffing shortages, service levels, and cost increases impact the planning and execution of incentive travel programs. The study also reveals the expectations of the suppliers and incentive planners as they navigate the current realities of the industry. The session will include Q&A focussed on stimulating feedback from the audience.

A Hilton study recently concluded that 98% of leisure travelers are incorporating wellness into their travels, so why aren’t event planners doing a more thorough job incorporating wellness into events? Is it a lack of ideas, a lack of understanding what participants want around wellness or are we presenting the ideas and not getting stakeholder buy-in? This conversation goes beyond yoga or a traditional early morning fitness session to take a deeper dive into what wellness truly looks like in an event and how to convince event stakeholders that Return on Wellness directly impacts ROI. Combining scientific and philosophical research, incentive and wellness industry knowledge, engaging hands-on activity, we will provide ideas to integrate wellness and overcome common objections in event design. By being intentional and addressing the physical aspects (ie. food, movement, location, spaces) to the more intangible aspects (ie. senses, emotions) of event design, it is possible to reach the objectives of the program and reach attendees on a whole new level.

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

If there is one thing we’ve all learned in the past years, the future is impossible to predict. Knowing that, how do we build teams that thrive in the weeks, months, and years to come? The answer lies in one-degree shifts: small, consistent changes that enable teams to build trust, remove friction, and build a culture of innovation. In this engaging discussion, workplace expert Eric Termuende shares what years of research and insights uncover about the one-degree shifts leaders use to adapt to an ever-changing world around them and build incredible teams. Discover how the consistent application of small, incremental changes improves camaraderie, belonging, psychological safety, and engagement. While the future of work is certain to be uncertain, there is nothing to say we can’t still thrive in it.

What are all the ways we can reimagine safe and engaging experiences for everyone? What are the attitudes and beliefs we need to keep our participants feeling safe and included? This is not only an opportunity to hear ideas, it is the time to bring your own.

The generations, changing space use, revised expectations, and a desire for transformative experiences. Oh, my what is a planner, or hotelier, or DMC to do? This facilitated session will bring out the best from all of you as we look at what we need to be thinking about today to design the experiences of tomorrow. Led by presenters working on designing for space stations and meeting planners, there is no idea too wild to share!

The biggest successes come from collaborations and there is no better place than SITE to build global relationships that last a lifetime. This is a time for candid conversation and questions about what it takes to build a career as we grow forward together, the mistakes made and the moments that changed us.

In this Ride and Talk Dialogue you will learn how to take your ‘escalator pitch’ and make it snappier, targeted and all about you, all in the space of going between the 6th and 7th floors. 13-time National Pitch Champion Precious Williams is on the ride with you giving you tips and tricks that will change how you sell. Do not miss this opportunity waiting just around the corner, literally!

Stop the merry-go-round I want to get off. Oh, I am off but have to get the kids, walk the dog, make dinner and lunches and…. Wait a minute! Taking care of ourselves has never been more critical or seemingly more difficult, so what can we do? Come and share your questions with our facilitators and your tips and tricks with each other. And yes, for those comfortable with it, we will probably end this with a hug.

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

"Busy" should not be worn as a badge of honor, yet here we are still ranking in the Top 5 Most Stressful Jobs in the world. Life events have caused us to become reactionary, when we should really be setting the gold standard in time management, planning and proactivity to achieve our goals. By continuing to allow clients to make their lack of planning our emergency we a perpetuating this practice and it's going to take a lot of raw conversations and hard work to come together and combat this together, but it's doable. Let's begin.

Learning Lab sponsored by Meet In Ireland

Incentive programs of the future will challenge us to impress travelers whose values range from Experience Seekers to Sustainability Heroes and this session looks at how we are designing for the human needs of the future. This session will bring together a seasoned travel writer with a designer of innovative hotel experiences and the next space station. Learn about how you sleep through 16 sunrises in a 24 hour orbit and the moon shots being developed now. How will you include these in your future programs?

Learning Lab sponsored by Abu Dhabi

Engagement is the Holy Grail of the whole event industry!

Exploiting and celebrating the last 50 years of discoveries and the collective wisdom of neurosciences, marketing, advertising, art, cinema, and - of course - the meeting industry, you will explore the 6 Principles of Engagement and learn how to maximise their impact in your work.

Highlighting best practices, ideas and dozens of case studies from all over the world, you will enjoy a dopamine-loaded journey that will make you also explore the latest trends and technologies (including AR, VR and the bespoken metaverse), so to create remarkable interactions, motivate people, establish meaningful connections and inspire people to act!

Learning Lab sponsored by Oman

Join these Eventtech leaders as we delve into events in the Metaverse, what is the impact of Web3 and how are we going to use cryptocurrency, NFTs and other digital rewards into the future of reward, recognition and brand forward events.

Learning Lab sponsored by Destination Canada

As the incentive landscape becomes increasingly competitive, how do you set your destination/product apart from the rest? Who is your audience and why? What is the best way to reach your audience in a broader more focused way? This interactive discussion will share ideas on strengthening sales strategies within this industry.

Toxic acts have no place at events, yet too often, people experience harm. Without the right mindset, leaders and planners overestimate or struggle to connect with the problems their attendees face. Preventing harm takes more than only focusing on the most severe behaviors. Unaddressed, violations at any level foster isolation and drive disconnect.

Your attendee's unfiltered opinions and creative ideas are your greatest assets in reimagining engaging experiences. How can you be sure they feel safe enough to speak up? Explore a systemized approach to label rooted issues, identify tools creating attendee buy-in, and reinforce organizational efforts that build more welcoming spaces for all.

The industry stage is sponsored by Accor

There are countless data points, reams of evidence, and theoretical debates, discussions, and best practices for eager incentive leaders to sift through and learn from, as they shape and manage their teams. What actually works though, to meet the day-to-day realities we're all facing in our workplaces today? Building on recent SITE Foundation research, this expert panel will continue a conversation about how incentive travel leaders are putting their own Leadership inSITEs into practice. Speakers will share how they've used SITE Foundation research findings to retain and recruit top talent, expand the use of incentive travel beyond sales teams, and add new creative elements to their own incentive offerings.

Join a very special session hosted by a cohort of esteemed Past Presidents during which we’ll consider SITE’s contribution to the Business Events industry via a dozen milestones that have made SITE the unique organisation that it is today.

Crystal Awards Sponsored by IMEX Group

Evening Reception Sponsored by Hilton, New York Hilton Midtown, Broadway Plus/Empire Force Events, Encore and BBJ Linen 

ATTIRE: Black Tie optional