What makes an event stay with you long after you leave? Reporting from IMEX America 2026 in Las Vegas, Smart Meetings Multimedia Editor Eming Piansay explores that question through conversations about culture, connection, intentional design and attendee well-being.
The episode opens with a floating sound bath hosted by Caesars Meetings & Events, where sound meditation practitioner Svetlana Esposito discusses the importance of giving busy meeting professionals time to pause and reconnect with themselves.
Amy Pfeiffer, director of Disney Meetings & Events at Walt Disney World Resort, shares how storytelling, playful learning and downtime shape attendee experiences. Travis Watanabe, chief brand and narrative officer at Hawaiʻi Visitors & Convention Bureau, and Catherine “Cat” Cambra, island director at Island of Hawaiʻi Visitors Bureau, discuss the people and culture behind the aloha spirit. Valeria A. Ayala Vallejo, media relations coordinator at Discover Puerto Rico, highlights the island’s hospitality and growing entertainment offerings.
Melissa Moten, vice president of experience, event solutions and venue search at BCD Meetings & Events, examines how event experiences can support business goals while making attendees feel seen. Jessie States, CMP, CMM, vice president of MPI Consulting, explores discovery, access and transformation, including designing more intentionally for introverts. Event energy facilitator Megan Nolan offers practical ways to support attention and connection through movement, breathwork and power pauses.
From rooftop reflection to candid conversations on the bustling show floor, this episode explores how meetings can help people leave feeling connected, energized and changed.
Further Resources
IMEX America 2026 Recap: Smart Monday
IMEX America 2026 Recap: Day 1
IMEX America 2026 Recap: Day 2
IMEX America 2026 Recap: Day 3
Eming Piansay How’s it going, Smart Start Radio family? It is I, your hostess, Eming Piansay, coming to you from the rooftop of The Vanderpump Hotel in Vegas for the first night of IMEX America. I got invited to a special press-only event for Caesars Meetings & Events, where we got to float in a pool and experience a sound bath. We got our sleep masks, and we got to meditate. It was very relaxing. Afterward, I spoke to Svetlana about the importance of keeping wellness at the forefront of corporate meetings and events.
EP What is a sound bath, and how does it work?
Svetlana Esposito I usually like to describe a sound bath as a meditation without words. I like to imagine that our body is an orchestra, and each part of you is an instrument. If we are balanced and grounded, the orchestra plays beautifully. But what about if one or two instruments are out of tune? The whole orchestra feels it.
SE We are always so busy. We start our week with emails, texts, calls, presentations and meetings. When you stop, even for five minutes, you can set the tone for the day: How do I want to show up today? Especially with events like this, everybody is taking care of others, but who is taking care of them? Having sound baths and meditation during these meetings, I feel, is essential.
Disney Meetings and Events
Amy Pfeiffer, director of Disney Meetings and Events at Walt Disney World Resort
EP We are on the floor at IMEX America. Amy, what’s new or different that you want to share with our community?
Amy Pfeiffer We are all about intentional event design and engagement. One of the new ways we’re doing that is creating experiences around beloved stories and characters, such as Toy Story. People already have an emotional connection to those characters, so they find it easy to get excited. That goes along with our first offering, which was Star Wars.
AP We’re hearing that clients are having a hard time with soft skills. We came up with an improv offering to help employees build adaptability, flexibility and engagement. We’re still excited about Disney Institute, where clients can hear how we do leadership and quality of service through a keynote or a half-day workshop. We’re also elevating the public spaces and convention center at Coronado Springs Resort with a more modern palette.
EP Are you seeing anything people are asking for?
AP We’re seeing corporate and association planners planning downtime within their programs. Give these people a moment away to decompress, then get back to the meetings. People also want a customized experience. Our culinary teams work with planners to figure out what they need and come up with something interesting. And Atlantic Dance Hall, on Crescent Lake in the Epcot area, is now only for groups. It can accommodate groups up to about 400.
Meet Hawaii
Travis Watanabe, chief brand and narrative officer at Hawaiʻi Visitors and Convention Bureau
Catherine “Cat” Cambra | Island director at Island of Hawaiʻi Visitors Bureau
EP I’m really excited for our next guests, Meet Hawaii. I’m going to throw the mic to Travis Watanabe first.
Travis Watanabe Aloha. It’s my first IMEX experience, and I’m really happy to be out here with our group from Meet Hawaii and our partners across the state. Through our meetings and incentive business, people get to come and feel the spirit of aloha for the first time. What we hope is that that feeling stays with them. Our current mantra is that Hawaii stays with you.
EP For someone like myself who’s never been to Hawaii, what makes the experience for meetings and incentives so special?
TW We have amazing scenery and landscapes, but I really believe it’s our culture and our people that make coming to Hawaii a truly unique experience. We’re an isolated group of islands with such a deep cultural history. You can’t help but feel this energy when you land. The content, you hope, stays with people, but the feeling is tough to describe: the hospitality from local people and the energy from the land and nature, interwoven with the visitor experience.
EP Cat, what do you hope planners learn when they’re here in your booth?
Catherine Cambra I was born and raised on Oahu, known as the gathering place. I currently call Hawaii Island home. To me, that island is alive and growing. Where else can you see the world being made before your eyes? We have a range of hotels from Kona to the Kohala Coast to Hilo, from intimate gatherings to large oceanfront venues. Many on the Kohala Coast have dedicated cultural practitioners who share authentic Hawaiian culture with our guests.
CC Meeting planners are looking for something different. They want that authentic connection, to experience something real and be changed. When visitors arrived at IMEX, they were welcomed with Hawaiian music and hula performers. At our booth, cultural practitioners teach lei stringing and ʻohe kāpala stamping.
EP Is there anything new and exciting coming down the pipeline?
TW We’re excited to get the Hawaii Convention Center back up and running in early 2028. We’ll be ready to welcome larger conventions, events and citywide business.
CC In this age of AI, human connection matters more than ever. Bringing people together, showing up, the energy we feel here at IMEX, it’s testament to the human spirit that we want to share space and experience something real together.
Discover Puerto Rico
Valeria A. Ayala Vallejo, media relations coordinator at Discover Puerto Rico
EP It is day three of IMEX America. One person who brought such joy into my life is Valeria of Discover Puerto Rico. You made me feel so at home on my trip. Why do you think that is?
Valeria A. Ayala Vallejo That is Puerto Rican culture at its core. We’re very family-oriented. We naturally want you to understand our culture, gastronomy, history and musical traditions. It doesn’t feel forced because it’s ingrained in who we are.
EP What’s new for meetings and events?
VA Cirque du Soleil announced a residency in Puerto Rico, designed to highlight Puerto Rican culture and traditions, working with Puerto Rican musicians and choreographers. This will be in February 2027. A new Nobu hotel and a Hard Rock Hotel were announced in Old San Juan, as well as the transition of the St. Regis into a Four Seasons in Rio Grande. I’m excited to see where entertainment will go and positioning Puerto Rico as a musical destination. Music, at its core, is who we are.
BCD Meetings and Events
Melissa Moten, vice president of experience, event solutions and venue search
EP I’m happy to introduce Melissa Moten. How can we make meetings stick, make them memorable and interesting? What are you seeing right now?
Melissa Moten When I think back about some of the most memorable times I’ve had, even at the 15 IMEXs I’ve been to, it’s always been the people. The experiences have to match the company culture, the messaging and the brand. They have to tie in intimately, in a way that measures KPIs for the person attending and the business they work for.
MM A lot of companies have this massive budget line for events, and it’s fragmented and not strategic. Most corporate end users do the incentive because they think they have to, but they haven’t changed it in 10 years. If you’re not finding a way to connect the spend to the attendee experience, that’s where you’re missing the mark. It’s about how you’re using that money. You have employee retention, customer retention, profitability, memories and connection to your brand. That’s not something most companies have taken seriously, especially when you look at what they spend.
MM We have all these beautiful, branded, structured booths here. The booth that stands out is Hello!, with purple velvet drapes. I remember it because it doesn’t look like a booth. It looks welcoming and comfortable. Things as basic as how your booth feels when you walk in are what people remember.
EP Who are events being designed for now, with the ebb and flow of people who’ve been in the industry a long time and people just starting?
MM In most cases, events for event professionals are looking at how to make something experiential and a wow, through the lens of something someone’s never seen before. It’s amazing to have a robot make your coffee, but you remember how you feel. They’re looking at how to make a big splash instead of how to connect to the audience. It’s a competition of who has something cooler each year. It’s fun, but there’s nothing really sticky about that.
EP I feel like people want to feel seen at events. Are events trying to do that more?
MM When I was in my early 20s, I went to a SITE event in Southern California. I had just joined a DMC and knew nobody. Two hoteliers had no benefit in getting to know me. One was Clarence Day, who’s with Rosewood today. He said, “Hey, you want to meet a couple people?” He took me around. I have never forgotten that moment. He saw that I wasn’t feeling seen.
MM It’s about the leadership team and people organizing the event noticing people. We tend to get in cliques. I do it, too. But when you can step outside that space and look around the room, you can tell somebody doesn’t know anyone. That’s the intentionality we should have. At its core, building an event successfully is asking: What’s the goal? What do you want your people to walk away with? We all say it, and then no one does it well. That’s the real gap, because it takes time.
EP What do you hope for the future?
MM I would love to see the C-suite sitting down and looking at the value of these events. Is it checking a box, or is that line item producing value? Is it driving revenue? Do I have amazing employee retention? Are my customers growing with us? If those organizations could sit down and understand why they do these events, the events industry is more powerful than probably most verticals. If we can get it right from the value we could truly bring to attendees, that industry is unstoppable.
MPI Consulting
Jessie States, CMP, CMM, vice president of MPI Consulting
EP I saw Jessie States speak on Smart Monday. Based on these first three days at IMEX, what are you seeing that you’re excited about?
Jessie States More than ever, our focus is on the business of doing meetings, the technology and the tools. When I come in person to an event like this, it reminds me of the human aspect of what we do. So often, we’re focused on the work and don’t take the time to remember that this is about making connections. More and more, we’re in Zoom rooms and Teams meetings, on technology all the time. We don’t connect as humans as much anymore. That’s what our industry does. It’s answering a challenge we all have.
EP How can we make these experiences last longer than the moments they live in?
JS We have to figure out what our human value proposition is. What is the purpose of the experience we’re building, and how do we use that as a lens to make every decision? Three areas I’m most interested in are discovery, access and transformation.
JS Can we design events around discovery, helping people see things that are hidden, maybe even in plain sight? How do we give them access to things they can’t access on their own, can’t Google and find, or their friends can’t experience the next week? Ultimately, how do we help people come to the event thinking, doing, feeling and seeing things one way, then leave transformed, seeing those things differently?
EP How do you think we can get there?
JS How do we make it easier? It shouldn’t be difficult. It’s going to be different for every organization. Too often, we make it really hard to get there. Know what you’re trying to do, then design intentionally around it. It’s easy to make decisions when you can ask: Does this lead to transformation? Does it make discovery easier? If the answer is no, we need to move in a different direction. Having these design lenses helps us make the decisions we need to make about our experiences.
EP On Smart Monday, you spoke about AI. How do we keep humans involved and still produce quality moments without letting AI overshadow the human element?
JS The elements we bring to the table are that we know what humans need and want. We’ve felt it before. We know what our shows feel like. We use the knowledge in our own heads and our teams to deliver experiences that are meaningful. AI can help us do that more easily, but it can’t replicate or understand the human experience.
EP What’s one experience at IMEX that stuck with you?
JS Conversations like this one. I’m an introvert and get overwhelmed easily. It’s generally the one-on-one conversations with people I’ve known for a long time or just met. If we create spaces for those experiences, I think those are the most powerful ones. I’m the person standing on the wall at the reception. I need people to come say hi because it takes so much energy to gather the courage to approach people. How do we design for those people, too? It’s easy to design for extroverts. We have to be a lot more intentional about how we design for us.
EP Is there anything else you want to add?
JS We’re strategists, tying events to organizational goals and measuring outcomes. We need additional design lenses to create experiences that grow the people who come to our events. Add one additional design lens. Decide what you want people to leave with, and intentionally design around that.
Event Energy and Wellness
Megan Nolan, event energy facilitator
EP Now I’m here with Megan Nolan. For folks who don’t know you, tell us who you are and why you do what you do.
Megan Nolan I like to say I keep people awake at meetings and conferences. I prevent that dreaded 2 p.m. slump using movement and breathwork to set the conditions for connection, attention and retention. I’ve been in performance-based wellness for 20 years. A few years ago, I realized there’s a place in business where people sit even more and move even less: events, meetings and conferences.
MN When we prime guests for participation, energy and focus, we’re supporting them at the level of their nervous system. Our guests are humans, yet we put them in chairs and treat them like rocks. We expect big participation and engagement, but we’re not setting them up for that unless we design from a human-first perspective.
EP Where do you fit into an event? In the middle, at the end?
MN Ideally, throughout the process. Most guests don’t arrive at 100%. They’re frazzled from travel or overwhelmed. I love to start with what I call the attentive arrival: giving people a moment to decide how they’re going to show up. Are you present and engaged, or just sitting through?
MN Woven throughout the agenda, ideally every 45 to 60 minutes, have a little movement. It can be as simple as standing, opening the body, taking some breaths and sitting back down. It can be integrated by the emcee or speakers. Before the keynote, panel or sponsor, prime people for participation. At the end, give people a moment to reflect, review and connect with each other. Allow for that full arc of the experience. It’s energy by design.
EP How does that work for trade shows like IMEX? We’re moving around, but I’m already exhausted.
MN It’s nice to have spaces like Circadian Cove where we can intentionally step away. Instead of stacking the schedule from beginning to end, take power pauses, even for a few minutes. When you sit down to eat, actually sit down. Schedule those nonnegotiables. Appointments with yourself support all your other appointments because you’re the one showing up.
MN At the end of the day, take time while it’s fresh to review the meetings you had and people you met. Look at their business cards and make notes. If you like audio notes, turn on your phone and talk it through. Otherwise, it’s wave after wave of information.
EP What does intentional wellness mean in events?
MN Consider how much content we’re blasting at people. Cognitive overload happens quickly. Allow moments of integration, reflection questions or turning to someone and giving a two-minute synopsis of what you learned. Some groups want performance and strategy language; others are open to music and movement. Weave smaller doses into the agenda in a way aligned with how brains work. Make it fun, inclusive and effective, supporting the outcomes of the event.
EP Anything else relevant to this week at IMEX?
MN Begin with the end in mind. How do you want to feel when you leave IMEX? What makes you feel that way, and how can you weave it throughout? The same principle goes for any event: How do we want our guests to feel when they leave? How can we celebrate being here? That’s the essence of wellness for me, supporting yourself so you show up in a way that feels like your favorite self.
EP How can folks reach you?
MN My website is megan-nolan.com. On social media, find me at I Am Megan Nolan. You can also go to takeapowerpause.com. I’d love to connect and support you in making incredible events for your guests.
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