Award Winning Event Strategist Driving Growth and Transformation For YOU | Plug-and-Play Project Manager | Technology Enthusiast | Always Curious

Shaping the Future of International Meetings | Collaborative Growth | Event Transformation

Curiosity - Innovation - Storytelling

As the Regional Director for North America at ICCA, I am passionate about driving growth and fostering collaboration within the global meetings and events industry. ICCA has stood at the forefront of shaping the future of international association meetings since 1963, and I'm honoured to be part of a team that champions innovation, sustainability, and advocacy on a global scale.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of strategizing, planning, and executing transformative events—from intimate gatherings to international conferences. My career has been built on an unwavering commitment to innovation, creative problem-solving, and a collaborative approach to ensure that every event exceeds expectations. Along the way, I've been fortunate to be recognized with honours such as "Planner of the Year" by Smart Meetings and a spot on the "40 Under 40" by Connect x BizBash.

But more than accolades, it's the connections I've built and the stories we've shaped together that truly inspire me. It was the Guinness World Record attempt to host the largest online event gathering, GMID Goes Virtual, in 2020, which connects almost all the industry associations across the globe. It was #EventprofsBreakShit that I co-founded in 2021, seeking an honest, authentic, but joyful way to explore event technology. 

These are the real rewards of our work, and they underscore the power of collaboration in our industry.

At ICCA, we're not just organizing meetings—we're creating spaces where ideas flourish, communities grow, and the future of our industry is redefined. I'd love to connect if you're interested in exploring how we can collaborate, build meaningful partnerships, or simply share ideas. Let's work together to amplify the value of international meetings and create sustainable, innovative solutions for the future.

Are you ready to shape the future of international association meetings? Let's connect and make an impact together.

Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng

Leanne Velky, Inc.

Leanne Velky, Inc. is a consulting firm focused on helping clients in the corporate meetings industry building Cvent registration sites and managing their accounts. I've been using Cvent since 2008 and am quite well-versed in the platform. I am a unique mix of meeting planning/logistical brain + tech and systems obsessed to help bring a site to life.

Reach out anytime if I can be of assistance to you in streamlining your business or building out a new piece of it (or if you just need someone to wholeheartedly believe in you and your ideas!).

Cvent Specialist

ONEHOPE Wine

Cause Entrepreneur

Leanne Bakes Cakes

I've been baking for fun most of my life but started to take my cake decorating up a notch when my kids were born and started having birthday parties. In April 2020 I decided to increase it once again by officially launching a cake/cupcake business, forming Leanne Bakes Cakes!

Owner / Baker

Biogen Idec

Analyst, Meeting Information Technology

Mentor Planning & Consulting, Inc.

Administrative Lead, Meeting Operations

Hey there - I'm an Entrepreneur, self-proclaimed Registration Nerd and go-to Cvent guru with 15 years of intensive expertise in the platform.

Founded in 2015, Leanne Velky, Inc. specializes in providing white glove registration site build and support services to corporate clients, with a particular focus on crafting complex registration sites.

Driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, I've most recently set out to explore various other platforms and the entire event tech ecosystem to remain knowledgeable of emerging trends and innovations. My commitment to this research will enable me to offer valuable insights and guidance to fellow event and SaaS professionals.

Feel free to check out www.leannevelky.com or connect with me here! 

I post here mostly about event registration but sometimes I offer life/entrepreneur tips and share my love of numerology. Most of my network here are event professionals, on purpose. If you're in the events network, feel free to follow & connect!

Leanne Velky

Resoundingly, last week, there was a hard sentiment of "ugh ai."

A LOT of conversations I had included this to some degree. We're OVER IT. Even the techies, creators & founders.

And we're over it because it's become a thing that's complex but also really means nothing all at the same time.

People asking for ai "for the sake of ai."

People adding it to their features list.

Companies plastering "powered by ai" on banners, websites, signage etc etc etc. The list goes on.

Session upon session on "how we're putting ai in _____" (fill in any number of subjects) while not actually providing that content.

So now it's gotten to a point where everyone's just sick of it and tuning it out.

I, for one, will not sit in on a single session that includes ai anywhere in the title/description etc.

Is that hindering my growth and my learning? ABSOLUTELY. I know it is. I know I'm holding myself back.

But I really just can't be bothered, tbh. It's sheer overload for the masses, I think.

When every time it's "explained," it's complicated and goes over peoples' heads. It's talked about in an existential way, not something tangible. Or if it does happen to have a tinge of tangibility, it's loaded on way too heavily and there's no way to write all those notes and circle back to it all.

And then the tech companies... ohhhh the tech companies.

TBH, this is not from what *I* personally see because - again - I can't be f*ed to care that much (I'm just a girl trying to survive over here). But from some of the very, very honest conversations I've had, it sounds like a cluster out there of people saying they're powered by ai when they're really just using ChatGPT by loading your data into it to make it look like they're ai but really they aren't doing anything at all for you. Did I get that right?

We even had a hilarious conversation of "should we just go back to the old way? Charge people an extra fee to do things WITHOUT ai" which made us all chuckle a whole lot.

Seriously... what are we even doing anymore??
Can we be honest about what we're actually creating?
Can we create better education around what this tool is actually doing for us?
Can we please NOT get on a sales call and say "I just need it to have ai" without ANY context as to what that statement even means?? (true story - this really happened... stay tuned for another post about coming to demos PREPPED... maybe tomorrow I'll post that rant)

Honestly... if the product works and is being enhanced and the teams behind the scenes are utilizing ai, why does it have to have a "powered by ai" label on it to be sellable? Can we all just chillllll tf out already?

I dunno about you but I'm in no rush for the robots to take over 😜 


Ok I'm done for now...


PS - be mad that I didn't capitalize ai. It was intentional. I didn't feel like it and don't feel it deserves it 😂

This post was clearly not powered by ai 🤣

taplio

The Battle

Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng

Leanne Velky

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taplio

The Battle

Shawn (Yih-Hsiang) Cheng

Leanne Velky

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Leanne Velky's LinkedIn Performance

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