Gallery: Convening Leaders 2018

Outgoing president and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association, Deborah Sexton, is leaving in order to pursue her own consulting business. 

On Sunday, January 10th, PCMA volunteers helped fill backpacks with school supplies to support LP PENCIL Box. The organization makes sure students have supplies and teachers don't have to provide them with funds from their own pockets.

Incoming president and CEO of PCMA Sherrif Karamat, CAE, (center) with Claire Smith, vice president of sales and marketing, Vancouver Convention Center, and David Peckinpaugh, president, Maritz Global Events Inc., at the PCMA Town Hall.

Clare Bowen from the hit TV show "Nashville" sang at Sunday's opening night reception, which featured a 125-foot bar inside the Music City Center.

Innovation expert David Owens lead one of many sessions that were oversubscribed and livestreamed: Everyone Wants Innovation, but No One Wants to Change.

Grammy Award-winning songwriter Brett James, who wrote Carrie Underwood’s chart-topping hit “Jesus Take the Wheel” and Kenny Chesney’s “Out Last Night,” performed with his guitar in the PCMA Green Room.

Meetings Mean Business Coalition’s new co-chair, Julie Coker Graham, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Richard Harper, MMBC co-chair and executive vice president at HelmsBriscoe, hosted the 2018 update full of good news. Harper announced, "The meetings economy has never been stronger than it is today, we drive $330 billion in GDP a year."

The retired general and international studies lecturer at Yale, took to the main stage to discuss what inclusive leadership means in meetings. His strategies included a daily briefing every U.S. soldier in Afghanistan could dial into, and recognizing and responding to changing enemy tactics.

Attendees at Party with a Purpose had a good time at the Cannery Row Ballroom, Nashville, raising money for PCMA’s Giving Good and the W. O. Smith Community School of Music.

Mary Pat Heftman, executive vice president of the National Restaurant Association and PCMA board member, got a laugh at the celebration lunch.

Attendees enjoyed artisanal hotdogs and other tasty bites from more than 20 local restaurants with tables at the final-night party at the Musician's Hall of Fame & Grammy Museum.

Little Big Town performed at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Grammy Museum during PCMA's final-night party.

Next year's PCMA Convening Leaders will take place in Pittsburgh.

Bill Strickland, president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, closed Convening Leaders 2018 with his inspiring story about changing lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh. He said, "People are born as assets, not as liabilities.”