Oct. 21–24, 2015
Tampa Convention Center
Tampa, Florida

IEC will welcome nearly a thousand electricians from its 53 national chapters to Tampa for IEC Con (formerly the Annual IEC National Convention & Electric Expo). Some will attend the full program, which includes education offerings, receptions, and general sessions, while an even larger number will come to explore IEC Con’s 35,000-square-foot Expo floor, featuring approximately 100 exhibitors.

CHALLENGES

IEC’s major challenge is finding peer-to-peer speakers for its education sessions, which are chosen and ranked by a member-driven committee. “Members are the best source on the pressing issues facing the industry,” said Kristen Keenan, CMP, IEC’s director of meetings. “This year, we asked the committee to focus on the quality and relativity of the session topics and speakers. Instead of trying to fill in a particular number of sessions, we chose the sessions based on their ranking.”

INITIATIVES

In the interest of improving the attendee experience, IEC has shortened the Expo hours and shifted all committee meetings to the last day of the conference. Organizers are also upping the ante on sponsorships. At IEC Con 2014, held at the Baltimore Convention Center, company logos and booth numbers were prominently displayed and digital Twitter screens were branded. “This year,” said Joseph Cephas, IEC’s vice president of public affairs, “we are going to continue to build on that momentum and offer more valuable, digitally based sponsorships.”

Convene’s Pre-Con/Post-Con series asks meeting planners about their challenges and how they intend to address them (Pre-Con), and then circles back around after the meeting has occurred (Post-Con) to see how well they worked out.