The CX Live!

In this episode, Elizabeth Simpson, President of ABPM, and Candie Hurley, Coach, Trainer & Consultant at GoProBriefings.com, share key insights from our 2022 episodes dedicated to the main categories of the ABPM’s Characteristics of World Class Briefing Programs document and give a “first look” into recent changes to this aspirational guide that briefing programs reference to achieve world class.

Episode Highlights:

• An understanding that this document offers the foundational principles that briefing programs reference for each of the five categories: Customer Experience, Analytics, Management, Operations, and Multi-Center Programs
• The importance of the characteristics within each of the five categories, how they continued to guide briefing teams through the pandemic, and remain applicable for programs
• Key insights from each of the five thought leaders who were interviewed along with examples they shared for achieving world class
• A review of the process for making changes to the document, a “first look” at those changes and the thinking behind them
• Inspiring words of wisdom for briefing programs as we move into 2023

Episode Resource:

• ABPM’s Updated Characteristics of World Class Briefing Programs

Guest Thought Leaders:
Elizabeth Simpson
President, ABPM
Elizabeth has been with ABPM for over 20 years and took on the role of President in 2018. She works closely with Briefing Program teams to understand their challenges and to provide resources that will help them successfully meet those challenges. She has been instrumental in strengthening services and evolving ABPM as an organization.
Candie Hurley
Trainer, Coach & Consultant, GoProBriefings.com
Candie supports briefing professionals in benchmarking their programs across the briefing industry. She also delivers training and coaching to help briefing programs create more impactful customer experiences that strengthen customer relationships, uncover new business opportunities, and accelerate the sales cycle. A frequent session leader at ABPM conferences, she is also very involved in facilitating ABPM advisory board discussions to continue advancing the briefing profession.

Description

In this episode, George Astacio Jr., Sales Manager of Client Experiences at Jupiter Systems explores how audio visual (AV) technology can elevate the customer experience and increase engagement at Briefing and Experience Centers.
Highlights:

• How AV technology supports meeting equity and brand messaging
• What new and innovative AV technologies are emerging and how they’ve impacted briefing centers
• How AV technology is a tool that organizations can use to increase employee retention, improve productivity, add excitement to their program and encourage guests to visit in-person
• Key considerations to keep in mind when evaluating if you need to introduce new AV technologies or upgrade existing ones in your program
• Ideas for maintaining a strong relationship with your AV Partners to stay informed about technology to align to your short and long term needs

Guest Thought Leader:
George Astacio, Jr.Sales Manager of Client Experiences, Jupiter Systems

George has over 25 years of technical marketing and customer experience success, having focused on providing thought leadership, strategy and growth for enhancing the way you engage with your customers. Implementing leading edge customer engagement techniques, especially when it comes to integrating technology to create immersive brand experiences, George has the ability to grasp the technical and human side of technologies. George has contributed to many beautiful yet innovative Briefing Centers including McAfee, Boeing, and SAP just to name a few. Currently, George is the Client Experience Manager for Enterprise at Jupiter Systems, a 40-year-old innovation company focused on real-time collaborative visualization technology.

Description

In this episode, Jennifer Anthony, BSc (Hons) Therapeutic Radiography and Customer Engagement Manager at Elekta explores how many professionals find success in the briefing industry by connecting their previous technical background to interactions with customers, further strengthening relationships and accelerating sales closure.

Highlights:

• How previous technical knowledge can be valuable in the corporate world by supporting product releases, testing hardware and software for efficiency in the field, educating other employees and finding new solutions
• The importance of speaking the customer’s language to build trust and tell a story that evokes a feeling that makes your briefing experiences memorable
• How to use expertise to have empathetic and insightful conversations with customers while facilitating conversations between customers and discussion leaders
• Ideas for building genuine spaces within a physical center based on one’s technical knowledge and deeper understanding of what will resonate with your guests

Guest Thought Leader:
Jennifer AnthonyBSC (HONS) Therapeutic Radiography and Customer Engagement Manager, Elekta
Jennifer was qualified as a Therapeutic Radiographer in 1997 and worked clinically treating cancer patients in prestigious hospitals in London for 10 years. In 2004, an opportunity came up to work at Elekta in new product development for radiotherapy projects. While there, Jennifer led a team of radiographers working on Elekta’s product portfolio. In 2018, she moved into Global Marketing to manage Elekta’s first Executive Briefing Center and is currently a Customer Engagement Manager.

Description

In this episode, Jan Mark Holzer, Senior Distinguished Engineer at Red Hat Inc. explores how having a data-driven approach in your briefing strategy can help gain insights to further customize your briefing program and deepen your relationship with customers.

Highlights:

• How data enables us to get a holistic view of the customer lifecycle to identify the best opportunities to engage
• The importance of visualizing data in an accessible format to make it valuable to a variety of stakeholders, including tracking account activity for the sales team
• How evaluating pertinent data supports briefing program teams in building more impactful agendas that achieve customer objectives
• The way tools and technologies can be useful in receiving alerts or subscription updates around new engagement and activities
• How the use of data can inspire a data-driven approach in other departments of the organization, streamlining various processes

Guest Thought Leader:
Jan Mark HolzerSenior Distinguished Engineer, Red Hat Inc.

Jan has been with Red Hat for over 16 years when the company had about 400 employees. It now has over 20,000. His role in Red Hat covers many areas and organizations with a focus on emerging technologies and bringing customer/partner input into the various product/engineering groups. Jan is also the lead for Red Hat’s Executive Briefing program, focusing on strategy and continuous innovation to uplevel the experience. He consults on many of Red Hat’s executive programs and initiatives. In his role as a member of Red Hat’s CTO office he was also the architect for Red Hat’s relationship with Boston University and the creation of the Red Hat and BU Collaboratory. He works closely with many of Red Hat’s largest accounts and partners to help them deliver innovative open source solutions to solve their business challenges.

In our second “Icons of Impact” episode, Barb Anderson, shares insights from her 33 years at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, including her time as Director of Customer Engagement for Boeing Defense and Space Systems. From her experiences building the award-winning Boeing Briefing Program and Collaboration Center to important advice for becoming leaders who “cast long shadows”, Barb offers critical strategies for achieving your vision.Episode Highlights:

• Building the award-winning Boeing Briefing Program and Collaboration Center in DC
• How leaders have a vision for the future and continue to deliver great value
• The power of the ABPM World Class Characteristics - timeless and flexible
• The importance for leaders to “cast long shadows” by empowering and involving their team
• Strategies for creating memorable experiences that focus on the customer first
• Advice for today’s briefing professionals - Be Bold, Speak Up, Say YES to new opportunities

Guest Thought Leader:
Barb Anderson
Formerly Director, Customer Engagement with Boeing Defense and Space Systems
Happily Retired

Barb joined McDonnell Douglas in 1984 and was involved in Communications activities for the next 20 years – through the 1997 merger with Boeing and beyond.

In 2004, Barb became the Director, Customer Engagement for Boeing Defense and Space Systems. She had a team of 70 people located at a dozen sites across the US, who’s number one job was the flawless planning and execution of senior customer meetings, special events and Air & Trade Shows. She reported to the VP of business development who reported directly to the President of Boeing Defense.

In 2011, Barb began a four year journey to design and build the Boeing Collaboration Center at the new Boeing Headquarters in Washington, DC. She led her team to achieve World Class status – winning 3 ABPM Awards including World Class Management in 2016 plus World Class Center in 2016 and World Class Planning in 2017. Barb served on the ABPM Advisory Board for 3 years from 2015-2017.

After 33 years with McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, Barb retired in 2017 and has continued to stay active with the ABPM often volunteering at Conferences and Workshops, ensuring that new and experienced members alike continue to gain valuable insights from our briefing community.