How ETHOS Brought Purposeful Planning to IMEX America 2026

From singing yacht rock to packing hygiene kits for Las Vegas students, here's how we turned one of the meetings and events industry's biggest weeks into an opportunity to give back.

From yacht rock singalongs to supporting Las Vegas students, here's how ETHOS turned one of the meetings and events industry's biggest weeks into an opportunity to make a difference.

If you've ever attended IMEX America, you know there's really nothing quite like it.

Thousands of meeting and event professionals descend on Las Vegas for a week of back-to-back appointments, educational sessions, networking events, reunions with industry friends, and the occasional moment of wondering how you've managed to walk quite so many miles without ever leaving a convention center.

Somewhere between the meetings, the handshakes, and the comfortable shoes, though, something pretty remarkable happens. New relationships form, ideas are exchanged, and an industry built around bringing people together gets to experience the value of those connections firsthand.

That's what makes IMEX America such an important event for our industry. It's a chance to learn from one another, discover new possibilities, and think a little bigger about what we could accomplish together.

At ETHOS Event Collective, we also see it as an opportunity to put our philosophy of Purposeful Planning™ into practice. Because when you bring this many people together in one place, why not find a few ways to make that gathering mean something to the community around us, too?

This year, we found several.

Yacht Rock, Sound Waves, and a Little Something Good

Let's start with a question you probably weren't expecting to answer at an industry networking event. What's your go-to yacht rock song?

Our team partnered with AE&ES to create an entirely custom activation that put attendees' musical tastes to the test. And yes, actual singing was involved.

At SITE NITE 2026, guests stepped into the booth, sang a snippet of their favorite yacht rock song, and watched as technology transformed their voices into visual sound waves. Those sound waves were then turned into personalized artwork they could take home, giving everyone a one-of-a-kind keepsake of their performance (whether they hit all the right notes or not).

It was interactive, a little unexpected, and the kind of keepsake that comes with a story attached. After all, how often do you leave a networking event with a piece of art made from your own singing voice?

But there was another reason we loved this concept.

Each song helped generate a donation supporting Foundation to Assist Young Musicians (FAYM), giving participants an opportunity to contribute to a charitable cause simply by joining the fun.

It's a great example of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) can become part of the guest experience rather than a separate activity competing for attendees' attention. When giving is thoughtfully woven into an event's theme and entertainment, participation can feel effortless.

At SITE NITE, guests walked away with a personalized keepsake, a fun memory, and the knowledge that their participation contributed to something good.

We'd call that a pretty good encore.

Supporting the Industry That Brings Us Together

Of course, the communities that host our events aren't the only ones worth investing in. There's also the meetings and events industry itself.

During IMEX America 2026, ETHOS was proud to support the MPI Foundation through Rendezvous, an industry gathering where networking and giving back go hand in hand.

What makes the MPI Foundation's work so important is the opportunity it creates for the people behind our industry. Through scholarships, educational grants, and industry research, the Foundation helps meeting and event professionals access the resources they need to learn, advance their careers, and contribute to the future of our profession.

That might mean helping an emerging planner attend their first major industry conference, giving an experienced professional access to specialized training, or supporting research that helps all of us make more informed decisions. And considering how many careers in this industry began because someone offered guidance, made an introduction, or opened a door, it's a mission we can certainly get behind.

Supporting Rendezvous was one more way for ETHOS to invest in the people who make this industry what it is, and those who will shape what it becomes.

A Look at the IMEX Show Floor Through the Next Generation's Eyes

For students preparing to enter the hospitality and events industry, there's only so much a classroom can teach you about what happens when thousands of professionals gather under one roof.

That's why we were especially excited to have Founder and Principal of ETHOS, Joe Fijol, spend time with hospitality students from Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, walking them through the IMEX America show floor and sharing a firsthand look at the industry.

For students, an event like IMEX offers a chance to see the scale and variety of opportunities available in hospitality, meetings, and events. From destinations and hotels to event production, destination management, and the many businesses that make a successful program possible, there's an entire ecosystem of careers to explore.

Having an experienced industry leader help make those connections can turn a busy trade show floor into a valuable learning experience.

For Joe, it was an opportunity to share insights from his career, introduce students to the industry from a different perspective, and spend time with young professionals who may one day be leading the very events we're attending today.

We believe there's real value in making space for the next generation, especially at gatherings where so much industry knowledge and experience is concentrated in one place.

After all, someone once took the time to show each of us the ropes. There's something pretty special about getting to do the same for someone else.

Fifty Hygiene Kits, One Local Mission, and a Very Purposeful Lunch

By Wednesday, we'd spent plenty of time connecting with industry friends and colleagues. But we had one more opportunity to bring people together, and this one was especially close to our hearts.

ETHOS hosted a giveback luncheon at Border Grill at Mandalay Bay, inviting meeting and event professionals to step away from the busy IMEX show floor for an hour or two for some good food, conversation, and community impact.

We partnered with Project 150, a Las Vegas nonprofit that provides free support and services to homeless, displaced, and disadvantaged high school students. For teenagers navigating housing instability or financial hardship, access to everyday essentials isn't always guaranteed. Project 150 helps remove some of those barriers so students can focus on their education and futures.

When we connected with the organization to discuss how our group could help, we learned that full-size hygiene products were among their most needed items.

Not travel-size toiletries. Not miscellaneous supplies collected simply because they were convenient to donate. Full-size hygiene essentials that students could use in their daily lives.

So that's what we built our giveback around.

Over lunch, attendees worked together to assemble 50 bags filled with full-size hygiene products for Project 150 to distribute to local students.

We were also fortunate to welcome a representative from Project 150, who joined us to share more about the organization's mission and connect with our guests. While the 50 completed bags were a tangible outcome of the afternoon, hearing directly from the organization gave attendees a better understanding of the students their contributions would support.

Because there's a difference between knowing you're donating supplies and understanding why those supplies matter.

It's also a reminder of something we've learned through years of developing corporate social responsibility activities for events: the best giveback experiences start with asking what a community actually needs.

It can be tempting to start with an activity that looks exciting on an event agenda and then find a nonprofit that might benefit from it. But reversing that process often leads to something far more useful.

In this case, it meant 50 bags of practical essentials and an afternoon that gave industry colleagues a chance to connect while learning more about the community hosting us.

Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday lunch.

What Purposeful Planning Looks Like in Practice

We talk a lot about Purposeful Planning™ at ETHOS Event Collective, but we know words like purpose, impact, and meaningful experiences can start to lose their buzz when you hear them often enough.

So what does it actually look like?

The experiences we helped create during IMEX week offer a few different answers. It can look like a guest singing their favorite song to support a charitable cause, an industry gathering that invests in professional development, a founder sharing his knowledge with hospitality students, or a room full of event professionals assembling supplies for teenagers in need.

Different experiences, different beneficiaries, but the same underlying question:

"How can we use the gathering that's already happening to create an additional layer of value?"

That's the thinking behind Purposeful Planning™. It means considering the people, places, and communities connected to an event and finding opportunities to make the experience more meaningful.

And importantly, it doesn't require every event to become a fundraiser or every attendee to spend hours volunteering. Sometimes the most thoughtful additions are the ones that fit naturally into what the event is already trying to accomplish.

The Real Value of Coming Together at IMEX America

It's easy to measure certain aspects of an industry trade show. Appointments booked, new contacts made, educational sessions attended, and business opportunities identified are all important reasons why IMEX America continues to be such a valuable gathering for meeting planners, destination management companies, hospitality partners, and event professionals from around the world.

But some of the best outcomes aren't quite so easy to put into a spreadsheet.

It's the conversation that introduces you to a new way of thinking. The industry colleague who becomes a future collaborator. The educational session that changes how you approach your next program. Or the hospitality student who leaves the show floor with a clearer picture of where their career might take them.

At ETHOS, our commitment to Purposeful Planning™ extends well beyond IMEX America. Throughout the year, we look for ways to connect the events we create with opportunities to support local communities, strengthen industry partnerships, and make a positive difference.

Our experiences in Las Vegas were another chapter in that ongoing commitment.

We're grateful to the teams at IMEX, SITE, MPI, Project 150, our industry partners, and everyone who helped bring these experiences to life. We came to IMEX America 2026 for the connections, education, inspiration, and opportunity to spend time with the people who make this industry so special.

We left with all of those things, along with a few more reminders of what can happen when we look beyond the immediate goals of a gathering.

Because the value of an event isn't always limited to what happens inside the room.

Sometimes, it's what happens because we were all in that room together. Follow along with our team to see how we continue to weave purpose into everything we do.