Joint Leadership Meeting at the 2025 SGMP National Education Conference

As Government agencies are challenged with downsizing, staffing shortages, and lesser resources–Government administrators and employees have now been asked to do more with less—and with more stress.  Therefore, the time to create a positive work environment while injecting fun, energy, and humor into the workplace has never been more important.  People are tired of being stressed.  People want to be happy, be appreciated, and enjoy their jobs as much as possible.  The incredible impacts of a positive work environment include improved recruiting, less stress, higher morale, lower turnover, greater teamwork, creativity, and especially increased service levels–accomplished with LITTLE or NO costs.  Join international Author/Keynote Speaker Andy Masters in this timely and entertaining program which illustrates inexpensive ways to create a positive working environment, while sharing success stories of how other organizations have RE-ENERGIZED their culture during challenging times.

This interactive training equips event planners with essential skills and tools to proactively manage crises and support event safety. Participants will be guided through a five-step framework to anticipate, respond to, and recover from emergency situations that can impact live events.

Kelli J. McCrary is a dynamic and results-driven leader with over 25 years of experience spanning law enforcement, corporate security, school district operations, and nonprofit leadership. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Downtown St. Louis Community Improvement District (CID), where she leads a multimillion-dollar organization focused on enhancing public safety, cleanliness, and quality of life in the downtown area.

The difference in success or failure in life, work and business are hidden within habits. Habits are the essence of what separates people who achieve greatness and those that don't. In this powerful program based on the book, "Made For Greatness: The 7 Habits that Unlock Greatness Within", leadership keynote speaker, Adam White delivers the 7 Powerful Habits every Individual can develop to master these leadership challenges.

This session demonstrates how leadership principles can be applied through customer service techniques to build trust, communication, and problem-solving skills essential for government leaders. By exploring key aspects of empathy, patience, and trust, attendees will learn how to enhance both internal team relations and external client satisfaction, building stronger, more effective relationships.

An interactive blend of insightful perspectives and practical demonstrations. Jon showcases various AI platforms that not only save time and costs, but also open new horizons in marketing, branding and more.

Want to have your cake and eat it too? The Yellow Cake Principle will show you how.  Packed with practical strategies and sprinkled with humor, this session delivers the key ingredients you need to connect, communicate, and improve relationships—without the usual stress.  Ready to deepen relationships with clients and colleagues, boost employee engagement, and gain agreement more easily? Unlock the secrets that will transform your approach and satisfy your hunger for success. Warning: The Yellow Cake Principle has zero calories but will boost business performance!

Everything is going along swimmingly with your meeting until, “uh-oh,” something you didn’t anticipate threatens to disrupt or derail it. Using scenarios that address real issues like construction and remodeling, dishonored reservations, conflicting groups, force majeure situations, and more, we’ll discuss what you should have in your contracts to prevent the issue from occurring or mitigate the damage if it does occur. Groups will have a chance to review scenarios and discuss in small groups before sharing solutions.

Many conversations about meetings start with the logistics: “What are the dates? How many room nights?” However, some event professionals are missing the mark when it comes to setting goals for a truly successful event - one that will “WOW” the attendees (and client). Jan Spence will provide participants with a game plan to transition from being “just” another meeting supplier or planner to becoming an indispensable strategic partner to their industry counterparts. Attendees will learn her step-by-step process for more effectively designing an event, from theme development to all the way to post-event analysis to ensure stakeholder expectations were met.

In this fun and interactive program, U.S. Memory Champion, Chester Santos - "The International Man of Memory," will help you to develop life changing memory skills that you can immediately apply to better retaining and recalling valuable information from conference sessions, training classes, and other professional development activities. You'll also learn how to become a master at remembering names to get more out of the wonderful experience of networking at business events. In addition, you'll find out how to leverage how human memory works to make your company's messaging and event programming more memorable.