Courtney McNeese is the Head of Strategic Events at United Nations Global Compact. Both her and Kerri have a shared experience regarding the horrors of the New Jersey transit, but also share a passion for events! Courtney is impressed by the advancement in technology and how that can help corporate events better serve everyone. Courtney joins host Kerri Garbis to talk about event planning and provides her wonderful insight on how to make an event successful.     Takeaways: The event industry was waiting for a disruption to happen, and covid came along and did just that. While it provided its hardships, it brought along some new ideas to events. The advancement of technology and live streaming has brought new and innovative ideas into corporate event planning.  “Roadshow model” events have become popular, where you bring the event to where people are, rather than bringing in a large number of people all together to one location. You have to know where you are starting from and what your footprint is on the climate. Think about what the gifts you give to attendees and if it is necessary. Digital models allow you to reach a wider audience for an event as it is more accessible for everyone globally. Speakers could take some pointers from politicians, as they are able to bring in a crowd, share a story and talk off the cuff. Speakers are used to being at home and getting on zoom for a talk, but now people will need to come back and do in person talks.   Quote of the Show 4:16 “The biggest thing is that the advancement of the technology for virtual platforms it's been unbelievable. The platforms that were out there, how the mainstage worked,, how you could live stream, then the networking, the use of video, some of the gamification, it was there. it's unbelievable.” Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-waters-mcneese-61a1821/ Website: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/ UN Global Compact Panel Pledge: https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/our-work/social/gender-equality/un-global-compact-panel-pledge Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a158d222-4beb-4c72-9569-0916e79a80f4/speaking-of-events Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/speaking-of-events/id1611059542 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/699re9JSEnwNXnrNLGLUkz Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3BlYWtpbmdvZmV2ZW50cy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw?sa=X&ved=0CAMQ4aUDahcKEwiI6PWe2o73AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ&hl=en YouTube - https://youtu.be/OWbCFCPZOeU