Day 1: Sunday May 2

10:00am Opening Ceremony and Welcome

Take the red pill and enter the Meetings Matrix! Our eyes will be opened to the Matrix and all that it has to offer. We’ll hear from our President and we’ll be officially welcomed to the City of Melbourne by one of the distinguished ‘system programmers’ of the Melbourne Matrix Mainframe.

10.50am What is a Matrix? One Degree of Separation
Facilitator: Toby Travanner

We are all part of many Matrices. We find ourselves in interdependent roles with other people and organisations, especially in the Meetings industry.

In this activity, we will discover how the Meetings Matrix already exists. Every attendee will have a connection with every other attendee through direct or indirect links. “I know someone, who knows someone that you should get to know”, is a phrase common to these conferences. We’ll see how few the degrees of separation are during this mind opening activity.

11.00am The Future, The Mega Matrix
Speaker: Dr Peter Ellyard

We as individuals, as organisations, as an industry, are small parts of a matrix that encompasses the globe. Our decisions and behaviours affect each other locally and on a worldwide basis in the areas of environment, economy and social responsibilities. In this session, Peter will discuss key issues facing us as part of a global economy. These include future areas of business and employment, population and demographics trends, environmental impact and changing gender responsibilities. He will focus on the meetings industry and how it is a part of the global matrix.

Peter’s thought leadership will give you a refreshing and challenging perspective on how business and humanity will interact in the future.

11.50am Matrix Hypothetical
Facilitator: Toby Travanner

This is a panel discussion with a difference! Leaders from our industry will be asked to join a hypothetical panel where each individual plays a different role from what they actually do in real life. For example, a meetings manager may be asked to represent a bureau, an AV specialist could become a PCO!

The topic will be challenging, the facilitator will be confronting and the panellists might be squirming! This is one panel session not to be missed.

1.45pm The Mind and the Matrix
Speaker: Jason Clarke

Everyone says creativity is the survival tool of the 21st century, but no one remembers where they left it. In the current business and meetings environment we are constantly under pressure to be creative. We find ourselves having to create new business opportunities, new ideas for clients or new ways of operating. While there are some people who have a natural flair for coming up with new ideas, many of us spend countless frustrating hours with little return.

Consider the impact of a process and a tool that would allow you to generate more creative options than you could handle. Jason has captured the process of creativity so that we too will be able to gain the outcomes that will give us the edge we’re looking for. He’ll show us how the creative mind works, why the same old thinking produces the same old results. We will learn how to use multiple thinking strategies to creative innovation and be presented with a diverse range of cutting-edge thinking tools and techniques.

4.15pm The Matrix in Action

Here’s a chance for you to meet new people and to improve the links in your own Meetings Matrix. Picture an environment where the attendees are in one space together. We have to find our teams and then create masterpieces that not only link individual team members together but also create a connection with other teams in the Conference Matrix. Here’s a chance to use our new creativity and organisational skills, and networking capabilities to create a strong Matrix.

We’ll get to wear our masterpieces to the ‘Reformation’ welcome cocktail party where the Matrix-in-Action will be continued. This activity is sure to get us in the mood for a fantastic first evening.

Day 2 (Monday 3 May 2004) | Day 3 (Tuesday 4 May 2004)