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The Conference and Hospitality Show officially opens

Conference and Hospitality Show

The Conference and Hospitality Show (CHS) 2017 has officially opened its doors to more than 800 event buyers from across the UK. PA Life is proud to sponsor the showโ€™s PA-focused seminars, which are due to take place throughout the day on the PA Life Stage.

The show will feature two stages: The Event Management Stage with educational topics designed to encourage and inform event organisers and venue bookers, and the PA Life Stage with speakers specifically chosen to inspire and educate PAs and EAsย (full programme for each stage below).

The two stages are within the exhibition hall, which will house a showcase of more than 200 venues, destinations and suppliers. Exhibitors include venues, hotels, technology providers and many other national meeting industry suppliers. Venues confirmed to date include Titanic Hotel Liverpool, Horizon Leeds, Feversham Arms Hotel, Elite Hotels, Lincolnshire Showground and The Lowry Hotel. Groups represented include Q hotels, Marriott and Pride of Britain, while suppliers include Venues.org and Cvent.

The VIP Rock Star Bar is sponsored by the Taylor Lynn Corporation and Escapade Bars and party planner extraordinaire Liz Taylor willย โ€˜openโ€™ the VIP Rock Star Bar at 11am with a short presentationย about room dressing.

Now in its eighth year, CHS is one of the UKโ€™s leading events for venue finders, event organisers and PAs; the one-day show connects more than 200 national suppliers with over 800 event buyers from across the UK.

PA Life Stage
How to Make Your Career Soar (9.45am-10.15 am)
Stuart Powell, management consultant, The Compass Partnership
This session explains what a stakeholder is and gives you the tools to successfully identify who โ€˜your stakeholdersโ€™ really are, so that you can understand how they assess their experience of working with you. Delegates will learn how to engage in dialogue, not just debate and identify development opportunities to enhance your stakeholdersโ€™ experience of you and your team and thus enhance your ability to create greater personal impact with stakeholder experience.

Kind Hearts Give Back: The inspiring tale of bouncing back and giving back (11.45am-12.15pm)
Victoria Eames, entertainment and events director, Pastiche
Victoria has been an event professional for more than 16 years, but while being treated for cervical cancer in her early 30s, she took the decision to focus on giving something back โ€“ and the โ€˜Kind Hearts Give Something Backโ€™ annual charity ball was born. Now in its fourth year, this amazing event has raised more than ยฃ60,000 for cancer charities. Victoria shares her inspirational story of how she survived, bounced back and is now running a successful events management agency and looking forward to the next chapter of her life โ€“ getting married and having a child with her best friend as a surrogate.

The Not So Accidental PA (1.15pm-1.45pm)
Abigail Jones, EA to the managing director for American Express Global Business Travel
How many of you have โ€˜fallenโ€™ into being a PA? ย Was this always your career plan? Do you still want to do it, and if so, what are your next steps? How do are you going to plan and take charge of your career? Abigail talks us through her PA journey and shares some hints and tips on how to refocus yourself as a โ€˜Career EAโ€™ โ€“ how to take control of your working life and get to where you want to be, and how to reinvigorate your career planning.

The Changing Role of the 21st Century PA: Developing a Managerial Mindset (2.00pm-2.30pm)
Adam Fidler, principle and founder of Adam Fidler Academy
In his usual inspiring and thought-provoking style, Adam Fidler shares his perspectives on the new role of the personal and executive assistant, and why job holders will need to foster a managerial mind-set if they are to stay ahead of the game and meet the demands of todayโ€™s executives and business organisations.ย He argues why a shift in working style for both leaders and their assistants is crucial if both parties are to work effectively.ย Littered with examples from his personal career history, Adam encourages PAs/EAs to โ€˜step upโ€™ and take charge of their professional development.

The Event Management Stage
Being MONT BLANC: The mindset for performance in and out of the business arena (10am-10.40am)
Jamie Edwards, performance coach at Trained Brain and founder of People Network
Jamie Edwards is called upon by some of the very best sports stars and businesses to help them think differently in and out of the arenas they perform in daily. In this session you will go away with very practical tools, ideas and concepts that can be applied immediately in sports, business, or the biggest arena of all.

Data Protection and Events Registration (11am-11.40am)
Simon Clayton, chief ideas officer, RefTech
Good data protection practice in event organisation starts at the source: the event registration process. EU data protection rules will become dramatically stronger in 2018 with the introduction of the EUโ€™s new data protection regime โ€“ the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Simon Clayton outlines the main changes this will bring and sets out the facts that you need in order to stay on the right side of the law.

The sales secrets that everyone in your team needs to know (1pm-2pm)
Nicola Cook, entrepreneur, author and sales growth accelerator
The landscape of sales and marketing has changed beyond recognition and most businesses are ill equipped to understand or manage a buyerโ€™s needs as they engage. During this high energyย and practical sales acceleration workshop Nicola will discuss the true reasons why people buy from you โ€“ and also why they donโ€™t. She shares a simple five-step process for managing the buyerโ€™s customer journey that should be shared with everyone in your organisation and walks you through the key meta-principles of Sales Secretsยฉ, the sales training methodology that has added an average of +140% to the net profit of her clients.

If youโ€™re visiting the show, be sure to stop by the PA Life Stage to pick up a copy of the latest issue of the magazine and meet the team. And be sure to stick around at the end of the day for the After Show Party in the first direct arenaโ€™s Black & White Lounge sponsored by The Jockey Club.