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In this episode, the Convene editorial team previews the main stage lineup at Convening Leaders 2026 — including The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, organizational psychologist Adam Grant, actress and entrepreneur Tabitha Brown, and comedian and bestselling author Trevor Noah. They explore how these keynotes and their talks will shape the rest of the conversations in Philadelphia.
Links:
· Joining the Dots With Zanny Minton Beddoes: https://www.pcma.org/joining-the-dots-with-zanny-minton-beddoes/
· Register for Convening Leaders 2026: https://conveningleaders.org/
Get News Junkie: https://www.pcma.org/campaign/news-junkie/
Meet the Convene Editors: https://www.pcma.org/contact/
· Michelle Russell, Editor in Chief
· Barbara Palmer, Deputy Editor
· Jennifer N. Dienst, Senior Editor
· Kate Mulcrone, Managing Digital Editor
· Magdalina Atanassova, Digital Media Editor
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Contact Information: For any questions, reach out to Magdalina Atanassova, matanassova(at)pcma(dot)org.
Sponsorships and Partnerships: Reach 36,000 qualified meeting organizers with Convene, the multi-award-winning magazine for the business events industry. Contact our sales team: https://www.pcma.org/advertise-sponsorship/
Music: Inspirational Cinematic Piano with Orchestra
Creators and Guests
What is PCMA Convene Podcast?
Since 1986, Convene has been delivering award-winning content that helps event professionals plan and execute innovative and successful events. Join the Convene editors as we dive into the latest topics of interest to — and some flying under the radar of — the business events community.
Convene Talk, ep. 90/December 19, 2025
*Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies
Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene Podcast.
Welcome to another Convene talk.
Convening leaders is just around the corner. So today we are once again focusing on what the event will offer. Barbara, over to you.
Barbara Palmer: Thank you, Maggie.
The main stage speaker on Monday is Zanny Minton Beddoes, who is editor in chief of the Economist.
And I feel like probably everyone's familiar with the Economist,
but just a little background. It was founded in London in 1843.
It's a global magazine.
You know, it began as kind of finance journalism, but now it covers all aspects of our shared life.
And Minton is the first female editor in chief and she was in fact an economist.
She worked at the International Monetary Fund early in her career,
and then she began covering emerging markets in Africa and Central and Eastern Europe was her first post at the Economist.
And I think she is just a great choice to kind of look at the global picture.
Just because the Economist is not identified as a liberal or a conservative publication.
They describe themselves as being part of the radical center.
And they also have a very interesting way of working that's not. I don't know of any US Based publication that works this way.
But their articles are not signed, they don't have bylines.
Kate Mulcrone: They.
Barbara Palmer: They work on them together.
I'm sure there's exceptions to that,
but I feel like so much of journalism has gone towards kind of identifying with the writers who often have very particular points of view.
I feel like this is really relevant to conferences which are really collaborative mixes of ideas.
So it was fun to interview her. You can always tell a lot about people by kind of how they respond to the invitation,
whether they keep you updated on whether it's going to work out. She'd set a date and she was in motion the whole time. Part of the interview was from the back of a car.
Then she moved to another place and she just, she never missed a beat. So it was kind of a little window into what her life is like heading up this global operation.
I've had very similar interviews with event professionals who start off in the back of a cab on their way somewhere. So just, you know, putting all these threads together,
I worried. I talked to her on September 29th and Kate was saying right before our call,
how much has happened in the world since then.
So I thought, if I'm talking to her on September 29, how much of this is going to be relevant in December or in January?
And she really did take kind of a very big picture approach and focused more on strategy and mindset.
So I felt like it was a real window on what her talk might be, which is called Shifting markets, Smarter Strategy, joining the dots.
The heart of what she had to say was that we are in the midst of three major revolutions.
And she said each of which would be big enough to fill at least one chapter in our grandchildren's history books, if not two.
And one is just the geopolitical shift.
Since World War II, there's been like, there's just been multilateral policy between nations and it was really an order that was underpinned by the United States and that has changed.
She said that 2025 is the year that the old order ended.
And these revolutions,
in addition to the geopolitical shifts,
economically, we are moving away from globalization and open markets.
And then the third one is AI.
We kind of follow the valuations of AI companies and look at like, what is, you know,
is this a bubble? Is AI really that big of a deal?
You know, she's really looking at it big picture.
Her estimation is that AI is a technological revolution that is as big or bigger than the industrial revolution and that every industry will be transformed.
And so I just, you know, I'm really looking forward to this talk.
She's a very big picture thinker, but she's also very much a pragmatist about this. These are the changes and here's how to move forward within them. So I'm. So tell me what you guys are thinking.
Magdalina Atanassova: I love the fact that she's big picture, but she's also such an optimist.
Reading your article and the interview, I just got this sense of optimism and how she's looking at the world, which is pretty cool.
And because she's connecting the dots and that's her topic,
I was thinking of convening the 2025. And Barbara, when you interviewed Kishore Mahbubani and he was giving again the geopolitical sense or view of things, again more focused on Asia just because he was based out of Singapore.
But again, this connecting the dots and connecting with the other main stage speakers we have this year, Adam Grant and I know he is a good friend with Brene Brown who we had last year.
So again,
it's nice how we are kind of evolving from conveniently there is 25 to 26 and expanding on topics we began talk about just a year before.
So it will be interesting to see how these topics have changed and evolved.
Kate Mulcrone: I totally agree.
And I think another reason that Xannie will be a fantastic speaker is what she told Barbara about what she sees as the unique value proposition of live events.
And she said this is in the story that during COVID people thought, oh, well, you can do everything virtually.
And actually it's just not the same when all these changes are happening. It's so important to try and bring people together,
to try and make sense of it and to bring people from different perspectives together.
So we're in this period of, you could even call it poly crisis.
And she seems to recognize that live events uniquely are a great way to address that even before the conversation has started.
You have the right platform.
Barbara Palmer: That's such a great point, Kate.
And one of the things that I thought was really interesting about her career is she started out, she was trained as an economist,
and she started out at the International Monetary Fund,
but then she moved into reporting and writing because she said she couldn't get the whole picture from spreadsheets,
that she needed to go out and talk to people to get those nuances and get this stuff that doesn't show up the spreadsheet. And I feel like that is so applicable to events that, you know, even if you get a transcript of something you're going to miss something you're going to miss who makes these slight movements in their bodies that show they don't agree,
who leaves when something starts to get heated or,
you know. So I feel like it's so true that you need all this information that's not available on the screen.
So I thought that. That's a really great point.
Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. And she makes that comment that it really depends on who you're bringing together.
And I was thinking,
I don't know, Barbara, if you remember what she meant by being careful of who you bring together.
Because then she says, you know, it's important to bring different viewpoints and kind of juxtapose them in the same space.
But I wonder what she meant with that. Being careful who we bring together.
I think it's important that we always have all the viewpoints and not being afraid of putting people with opposing viewpoints in the same room.
Barbara Palmer: That's so great that you picked up on that.
Here's what I thought she meant is that it was a matter of curating and not curating to exclude,
but curating to make sure that you had enough of those viewpoints and also that you had viewpoints that. That you were inviting people into the room that had the expertise that you were looking for and that you thought widely and carefully about that.
Not to exclude,
but just to, like,
maximize the effect of getting these voices together. It's Something that Priya Parker talks about a lot.
That it's important to think, think about who is in the room to make sure that these viewpoints will all come across,
but definitely not excluding.
Magdalina Atanassova: So Zanny sounds like a very interesting main stage for Mondays and on Sunday. Adam Grant is actually the one that's going to kick us off. He's currently a professor at Orton and he's a bestselling author,
a podcaster,
and bajillion other things.
Kate Mulcrone: It's also worth mentioning that before he was a college professor,
he,
first of all, he was the advertising director of let's Go Publications.
I'm sure some of us remember those books very well.
I did a lot of traveling in my 20s and early 30s when you still needed a guidebook. Those are fantastic. And, and he was a junior Olympic springboard diver and a professional magician.
So I definitely think that that very like not buttoned up background is part of what makes him such an engaging speaker. Like I've seen him speak before and he's just like very fun.
Barbara Palmer: You know, he was at Convening Leaders in Columbus.
He was great.
You know what I like about him is he changes his mind.
Like he is not somebody that has picked a position and just stuck with it.
He's a research professor and continually updates what he thinks about things. And he just has this incredible kind of humility.
And I don't know if it's his friendship with Brene Brown that has brought this out in him, but you know, if you read his writing online, he's and his books, he's very open about his failures as a diver,
just failure in general.
And I just find that kind of openness to learning and revising and I just find it super refreshing.
Jennifer N. Dienst: My friend Ta'd for him at Wharton and she has only like good things to say about him. And like she said, it was such a wonderful experience and she really enjoyed having him as a teacher.
And they still email once in a while and she, yeah, she loved being in his class and loved being a student.
Barbara Palmer: I remember his talk in Columbus and because he is a professor that lectures,
his talk was very easy to get stuff out of. Like he's very,
very practiced and skilled at thinking about,
here's how I'm going to transfer this knowledge and share this knowledge. So that's always fun to see a great teacher at work.
Magdalina Atanassova: I have a very favorite podcast with him,
Brene Brown and Simon Sinek. I, I believe it was on Simon Sinek's podcast because all of them have podcasts. So it's kind of hard to keep track of who's going where, but it was a two part series and was just fun.
The main takeaway for me was the idea of the first pancake. You know, how it's never really great and how important it is to start with those first drafts. First idea of a project, whatever it is,
it's going to be half base, it's going to be not edible in a sense,
but it's, you have to start there. That's, that's the actual beginning and then the rest becomes okay.
But that, the importance of that,
not being afraid of that first try. It was really cool.
If I find the link, try to put it in the show notes.
What about the rest? Tabitha Brown and Trevor Noah. I mean, they're both not people that I follow or I'm aware of their work. So I really rely on your knowledge and your excitement about them because I'm just excited to learn about something new.
Jennifer N. Dienst: I love Trevor Noah. I've listened to his podcast several times and I think he's so.
I mean, he's obviously very entertaining. I mean, he was host of the Daily show and he's funny and obviously handsome.
I think he's like the cutest,
but he's really, really, really, really smart. I want to read his book before Seattle. I would put on my list to read it over Christmas because my friend that I travel with who's from South Africa, is from Johannesburg, said it was a good.
Read his book and I feel like that's a glowing recommendation.
I love Tabitha. I think she's hilarious.
She's like big on social media, like Instagram and TikTok and she'll just be like a hoot and a half and she's like infectious. There's like, I don't connect with a lot of the things that she talks about.
I'm not a vegan. Like a big part of her platform is being vegan and like, I think her line at Target right now is like having something to do with being vegan.
I, I'm from the South, I love to eat meat and it's just not my jam.
But like, I could watch her videos for hours. She's hysterical and just completely filled with joy and love and light and yeah, she'll be very entertaining.
Barbara Palmer: My two cents,
you know, she's going to be talking about building a brand.
I can't wait to hear what she has to say about that. Because her brand, I think her brand is herself.
Like she got her start cooking in her kitchen and she just was one of those people who connected and went viral.
So I'm very interested to hear what she has to say about,
you know, how you transfer that.
Kate.
Kate Mulcrone: Exactly. And specifically, her talk is using the power of heart.
And so for me, I feel like sometimes we get the message that our non business self is a liability.
And in reality,
whether it's a meeting audience,
your colleagues, or a stranger,
people respond better to authenticity,
even when it comes to branding.
And I think that she will really be able to unpack that for the audience,
especially because she has these different kinds of businesses. Like, she has her cooking stuff,
she has this hair care line called Donna's Recipe.
And then, of course, she has her podcast.
And so being able to connect all of that together because you're your own brand,
it's something that I think the audience at convening Leaders can like very much benefit from learning about.
And then as far as Trevor Noah goes,
like, Jen,
I think he's very handsome. It would. It would be wrong not to say that I love his book.
I've read it twice.
And also I love his podcast.
And I think,
unlike so many celebrity podcast hosts, he has, like, a whole team of writers.
And I think that's part of what makes that podcast so good and part of what makes our podcast so good, that we have our whole team on here sharing perspectives.
And then I'm also very curious to hear Trevor Noah talk about AI only because he actually seems to know about it and is working on this project with Microsoft in South Africa to train teachers in schools.
And I mean, maybe he won't talk about that, but I hope he does, because I think that's really interesting.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Kate, when you read his book, did you do audiobook or regular?
Kate Mulcrone: I did regular, but he reads the audiobook himself, so I feel like if I had never read it, I would go with that.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Okay. Yeah, I'm curious because sometimes it's so much more engaging when it's the author reading their own work. Like, I'm thinking of Barack Obama's,
you know, memoir. Also, I read Matthew McConaughey's book Green Lights last year,
and it was, I felt, like,
so good in the audiobook version because of what they bring to it, you know, vocally.
Kate Mulcrone: So he said that in the audiobook he'll, like, do the voices of, like, his family and his friends, and that that makes it, like, really okay.
Barbara Palmer: I might.
Kate Mulcrone: So I would go with that. If you haven't read it yet,
it's such a, like, fast book, too, because I don't know I just couldn't put it down when I was reading it.
Barbara Palmer: You know, just as someone who's been going to Convening Leaders for a while,
I am struck by just how global these main stage perspectives are.
Zanny from the UK and then Trevor Noah, born in South Africa.
And it just feels very seamless.
It's not, oh, here's the slot for the international perspective. It's like we understand that our business is a global one and we will have an international audience.
And I just think I'm very excited about the lineup this year.
Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah, I agree.
Sounds very exciting. And also for those that need a little extra to warm up before Convening Leaders,
there are a few workshops you can sign up separately on Sunday.
And they also have an exciting lineup. We have Professor Deepak Malhotra. He'll teach a negotiation intensive,
which I hear is very interesting. We have Princess Castleberry.
She'll be teaching about how AI powered analysis can elevate your events.
Anthony Wade is also up with becoming a strategic influencer by sharpening your business acumen. And our own Tammy Moore will be speaking about making your event crisis ready by strengthening your rapid response skills.
So I feel that those that are excited about the main stage but need a little extra and have the Sunday free,
they can have their hands full with those workshops.
So that's it. I think the rest of the program is also shaping up to be very exciting with a lot of things happening and I'm certain that those that are still considering, should they sign up or not,
maybe. I think we convinced them. Well, thank you all for the discussion and let's hope we we see a lot of our listeners at Convening Leaders because we're also celebrating our 40th anniversary and on that we'll speak more in the next episode.
So until next time.
Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.