Conference Agenda

Roundtable: Marketing | Speaker, Organization | Islander
Connect with fellow destination marketers to swap ideas, share what’s working and what isn’t, and dig into how AI and other emerging tools are changing the way we promote our places.

Roundtable: Meetings, Groups & Sports | Speaker, Organization | Governor’s Room
Join peers focused on bringing meetings, groups, and events to their communities to compare notes on sales strategies, talk through shifting group travel trends, and swap ideas on what’s actually moving the needle.

Roundtable: Executive/Leadership | Speaker, Organization | Ambassador/Executive
A candid peer conversation for destination leaders to connect and reflect on what’s top of mind, from funding and advocacy to the evolving role of the DMO in your community and beyond.

SEO Isn’t Dead (It’s Just Evolving): Navigating Modern Search, AI Visibility & Hard Truths | Kyle Huff, Tempest | Islander
The rules haven’t disappeared — they’ve changed. AI has already reshaped how travelers find destinations, and most DMO websites haven’t caught up. This session cuts through the hype and the noise to show what still works, what’s shifted, and what you need to do right now to stay visible in a search landscape that looks nothing like it did two years ago. You’ll leave with a clear picture of how AI search is reshaping discovery and what that means for your organic traffic. You’ll walk away with a practical framework for making your content relevant, extractable, and trustworthy to both humans and AI systems. And you’ll have actionable starting points ready to bring back to your team the same week.

Title TBA | Speaker, Organization | Governor’s Room
Session Description TBD

Title TBA | Speaker, Organization | Ambassador/Executive
Session Description TBD

Title TBA | Speaker, Organization | Islander
Session Description TBD

Stronger Together: How Nebraska Is Winning Sports Tourism Through Collaboration | Sports Nebraska Council | Governor’s Room
Sports NE is a cooperative of 14 convention and visitors bureaus and sports commissions working together to bring more district, regional, national, and international events to Nebraska. Join us for a look at how this collaborative model strengthens the state’s economy, image, and quality of life, and what it takes to attract and retain high-impact sporting events. Whether you’re building a sports tourism program from the ground up or exploring how regional partnerships can expand your reach, you’ll leave with practical insights and a clearer sense of what’s possible when destinations work as one.

Weird Wins: Harnessing Your Destination’s Unique Identity | Dylan Does, Meet in Marshalltown  | Ambassador/Executive
Not every destination can be world-class in every type of conference & competition, but every destination can be world-class in a conference or competition. This is all dependent on finding what makes your destination different and capitalizing on that. We will focus on what I learned from taking a 30,000-person community without a convention center or sports complex, and becoming the “Kart Kapitol”, a national scholastic esports destination. Marshalltown is home to a national powerhouse collegiate program, a world-class AV/VR company, and a committed community focused on making “an event” into “the event”. We have been featured at the TEAMS Esports Travel Summit and the National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors (NAECAD) National Summit. We host the Iowa High School Esports Association State Championships 3 times a year, hosting the 10th Annual NAECAD National Summit in 2027, and many other events throughout the year.

Title TBA | Speaker, Organization | Islander
Session Description TBD

CPMs Lie: How DMOs Can Buy Attention Instead of Impressions | Steve Maly, Maly Marketing | Governor’s Room
Tourism marketing has an attention problem, and most of the proposed solutions make it worse. Bigger digital buys, more platforms, more dashboards: none of it matters if the destination never lands in the visitor’s memory before booking time. This session uses hard data on CPMs, attention seconds, and the multiplier effect to rebuild the way directors think about media. AI is in the conversation, but as a tool, not a strategy. You’ll walk out understanding why slower, “”old”” media is often the smartest place to put your next dollar, and where AI can make that dollar stretch further.

Every Activity Counts: Turning Daily Effort Into Measurable Impact | Brent Foerster, Tempest | Ambassador/Executive
Site visits, FAM tours, media tours, tradeshows, follow-ups – the work that drives a destination forward happens in dozens of small touchpoints every week. But without a clear way to connect that effort to outcomes, the story gets lost, especially for lean teams wearing multiple hats. Join us as we explore why tracking these activities has become a best practice for high-performing DMOs of every size, how it links daily work to results, and what it takes to give leaders the accountability, ROI clarity, and compelling narrative they need. Includes practical tips and a real-world case study showing what’s possible when activity and impact come together.

1:45 pm – 2:00 pm | Networking Break & Refresh

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm | Concurrent Sessions

Title TBA | Speaker, Organization | Islander
Session Description TBD

Title TBA | Speaker, Organization | Governor’s Room
Session Description TBD

Title TBA | Speaker, Organization | Ambassador/Executive
Session Description TBD