Travel Plans

You should plan to arrive on Wednesday 11/15 by midday or early afternoon. Have some lunch and chill by the pool or the spa. Our program begins at 4:00 pm in the main ballroom of the SLS. We finish on Friday at noon. (We are not arranging transport to and from the airport.)

If you haven’t made hotel reservations, please do so now as the hotel is nearly sold out. For booking assistance, contact Brittany Marrero brittany.marrero@sbe.com.

Remember, this SLS hotel is the SLS Brickell in downtown Miami, not the SLS on the beach. (As a guest of the SLS Brickell, you can go to the beach/pool at the sister hotel in South Beach. It’s about a twenty-minute car ride.)

Format and Speaker Prep

Please find the agenda here. It will be a fast-paced series of fireside chats, small panels, and rapid-fire talks. The format is being organized by topic/theme and sectors. Speakers will bring their POV and vision to the microphone. We will be “looking around corners.” We want to be forward leaning and aspirational. The awesome “faculty” includes Ashley Swartz, Matt Spiegel, and Tracey Scheppach. The moderators will arrange conference calls with their panelists in advance. We will also share updates via email. And there will be on-site “huddling” on Wednesday. More on this to come next week.

Video Interviews

We hope to interview most of the speakers in our studio near the ballroom. We will begin interviews at 2:00 pm on Wednesday through Friday at 3:00 pm. Katy Charles will arrange the schedule. She is katy@beet.tv.

Doing most of the interviews will be Steve Ellwanger, a writer for Beet.TV. The topics of these interviews will be different from the panel conversations. They should provide you with an opportunity to share news, company updates, etc… So, this is more of a conventional Beet type segment. It would be great if all the speakers would share topics/news for their interview with Steve in advance. Steve Ellwanger is steveellwanger@gmail.com.

Agenda

Wednesday

Sessions from 4:00 – 6:00pm in the main ballroom.

Transportation pickup at 6:30pm for dinner at
La Mar by Gastón Acurio, Mandarin Oriental.
Transportation back at 9:30pm.

Thursday

Networking breakfast at 8:00am by the ballroom.

Sessions and working lunch in ballroom 9:00am – 1:30pm.

Transportation pick-up at 2:00pm for
Networking Event:
Catamaran Cruise and swim in Biscayne Bay.

Return at 5:00pm

Pool deck reception at 6:30

Transportation pick-up at 7:45pm for dinner at Kiki on The River.

Transportation pick up from Kiki at 9:30pm for Ball & Chain, Little Havana.

Return to the hotel at midnight.

Friday

Networking breakfast at 8:00am in the ballroom.

Session 9:00am – noon followed by pool-side lunch as event concludes.

Hair and Make-up

We have hair and make-up for the ladies who will be on stage. Katy is booking that.

Attire

For speakers, please wear business attire. For gents that means slacks, collared shirts, and sports jacket. Ladies, you know what to wear. Some of the panels will be full body shots (legs!!). Attire for the dinners and the salsa party in Little Havana can be a little dressy/tropical. Oh, and swimwear!

The temperature should be around 78 during the day and 68 at night.

The conference room will be chilly so bring a sweater.

Spouses/Partners

We always welcome spouses and personal partners to the Retreat. If you are bringing someone, please let us know asap.

We are not streaming live. We are recording the sessions for future publication. You are welcome to tweet/share the sessions. Some sessions will be noted as off the record and those are not to be shared. Follow us on Twitter @Beet_TV and use the hashtag #BeetRetreat

Please Remember: This is Your Very Special Time

This is not a conventional conference – it’s an intense two and a half days of learning, sharing, and networking. So please be part of all of it all. Here are some suggestions:

Try to disconnect from your work as best you can.
Don’t book calls during the sessions.
Try to stay with us for all the sessions.
Please, don’t do any one-on-one meetings during the sessions.
Please make sure you are with us for the dinners and the sailing. If you can’t join, please let us know as we are holding spaces.