The Programme

Four Days In Nashville.

Here's what we can tell you.

Mark has big things planned for every day of Backstage Nashville. Some of it we're keeping secret until you arrive. What we will say is this — you will not be bored. You will not stand alone. And you will not want to leave.

🔒

Some Of This Is A Secret.

Mark has things planned that he's not announcing in advance. Not because he wants to be mysterious — because the surprise is part of the experience.

What we can tell you: every day has been deliberately designed. The 4th especially.

Show up. Trust the process. You will not regret it.

The Famous Icebreaker Party happens on Sunday 4th. Everything else — you'll find out when you arrive.

Live band performing under purple stage lights at The Maddox Hotel
Conference by day. Live music by night.

DAY ONE

🎂Mark's Birthday. Your Arrival Day.

Sunday 4th October

From 3:00 PM, we meet at The Maddox. We get checked in.

Check into your named suite. Meet your roommates. Explore the building. The Skyline. The Honky Tonk. The Elvis Penthouse. The Backstage Bungalow. Nine suites. All yours.

4:00 PM — we have a meet and reception, and we walk down to Music City Center as a group to get registered and checked in to VRMA International.

5:30 until 7:30 PM — the Welcome Reception at VRMA International. Meet all the delegates. Meet all the vendors.

Then 8:00 PM, you'll get the bat signal message to say: "Get back up to The Maddox for the Icebreaker Party!"

The Famous Icebreaker Party — sponsored by Hostaway, who are helping make this night happen. Hosted by Mark Simpson. Up to 100 operators in the room. Mark has some surprises lined up — if you were at the Icebreaker in Manchester or London, you know exactly what that means.

Arrive as strangers. Leave as crew.

Pack your cowboy boots. You're going to need them.

Official VRMA Programme — we work around it

Official VRMA — Sunday 4 October (Music City Center)

  • 11:00 AM – 7:30 PMRegistration
  • 12:00 – 4:00 PMLearning Labs (Pre-Conference Sessions)
  • 4:30 – 5:30 PMNew Member / First-Timer Attendee Reception
  • 5:30 – 7:30 PMWelcome Reception📍 Expo Hall
  • 8:00 – 10:00 PMIcebreaker Party + Mark's Birthday Drinks — Invite Only · Major surprises lined up📍 The Hitchcock Tavern · The Maddox Hotel

Source: vrma.org/events/vrma-26-nashville/schedule. VRMA conference ticket purchased separately.

🎟️ Buy your VRMA tickets now

The Hitchcock — where it all happens.

The Hitchcock is a $600,000 art deco cocktail lounge on the ground floor of The Maddox. Glitzy, dimly lit, run by Nashville's finest bartender. Specialty cocktails. Original 1893 floors. Not Broadway. Better. Sunday night it is entirely ours.

hitchcocknashville.com ↗

DAY TWO

VRMA In The Day. Party At Night.

Monday 5th October

7:00am–8:00am — Penthouse breakfast. All 70 delegates · Suite 700 · Skyline Penthouse · 7th floor. Prepared by our private chef team. Breakfast is included for all delegates on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings — the Penthouse Experience sponsor puts their brand on this room.

Then we walk to VRMA as a group — 12 minutes on foot. You do not walk into VRMA 26 alone. You walk in with your people.

Mark's daily briefing lands every morning: who to find, what to attend, what to skip, and where the evening starts.

VRMA runs all day at Music City Center. Expo opens 7:30am. Opening General Session 8:30am.

Come the evening — Mark knows where every vendor party is before the official schedule drops. You will not miss a single one worth attending.

VRMA conference ticket purchased separately. Buy your VRMA tickets now → https://www.vrma.org/events/vrma-26-nashville/registration

Official VRMA Programme — we work around it

Official VRMA — Monday 5 October (Music City Center)

  • 7:30 AM – 5:00 PMRegistration
  • 7:30 AM – 5:00 PMExpo Hall Open
  • 7:30 – 8:15 AMBreakfast📍 Expo Hall
  • 7:45 – 8:15 AMNetworking Break / VRMA Hub Sponsored Session
  • 8:30 – 9:45 AMOpening General Session
  • 9:45 – 11:00 AMNetworking Break📍 Expo Hall
  • 11:00 AM – 12:45 PMBreakout & Sponsored Sessions
  • 11:00 AM – 1:00 PMVRMA Hub Sponsored Sessions
  • 12:30 – 1:45 PMAdvocacy Luncheon📍 Tickets sold separately
  • 12:30 – 2:30 PMLunch📍 Expo Hall
  • 2:30 – 3:30 PMVRMA Knowledge Collectives
  • 2:30 – 5:00 PMVRMA Hub Sponsored Session
  • 3:45 – 5:30 PMBreakout & Sponsored Sessions

Source: vrma.org/events/vrma-26-nashville/schedule. VRMA conference ticket purchased separately.

🎟️ Buy your VRMA tickets now

DAY THREE

VRMA In The Day. Final Party At Night.

Tuesday 6th October

7:00am–8:00am — Penthouse breakfast. All 70 delegates · Suite 700 · Skyline Penthouse · 7th floor. Prepared by our private chef team. Breakfast is included for all delegates on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings — the Penthouse Experience sponsor puts their brand on this room.

Back to VRMA for the final day. Closing Happy Hour at the venue 5–6:30pm. Go. It's the last chance to catch anyone you missed.

Evening — Pre-drinks at The Hitchcock. Post-VRMA. Pre-Broadway. The Hitchcock downstairs.

Then the final night in Nashville. Broadway is five minutes away. The Hitchcock Tavern is downstairs. The building is yours until Wednesday.

Mark has the final night sorted. That's all we're saying.

VRMA conference ticket purchased separately. Buy your VRMA tickets now → https://www.vrma.org/events/vrma-26-nashville/registration

Official VRMA Programme — we work around it

Official VRMA — Tuesday 6 October (Music City Center)

  • 8:00 AM – 4:30 PMRegistration
  • 8:00 AM – 4:00 PMExpo Hall Open
  • 8:00 – 8:45 AMBreakfast📍 Expo Hall
  • 8:15 – 8:45 AMVRMA Hub Sponsored Session
  • 9:00 – 10:15 AMGeneral Session
  • 10:15 – 11:30 AMNetworking Break📍 Expo Hall
  • 11:30 AM – 1:15 PMBreakout & Sponsored Sessions
  • 11:30 AM – 4:00 PMVRMA Hub Sponsored Sessions
  • 12:30 – 2:30 PMLunch📍 Expo Hall
  • 2:30 – 5:00 PMBreakout & Sponsored Sessions
  • 5:00 – 6:30 PMClosing Happy Hour

Source: vrma.org/events/vrma-26-nashville/schedule. VRMA conference ticket purchased separately.

🎟️ Buy your VRMA tickets now

DAY FOUR

This Is Where You Get Sh*t Done.

Wednesday 7th October

OPTIONAL — WE UNDERSTAND

Most people fly home from VRMA with a notebook full of ideas and the same problems they arrived with.

Wednesday morning is different.

The AI Buildathon runs from 9am to 12pm in the Skyline Penthouse. Groups of 6–8. Mixed operators and tech people — deliberately curated by Mark. Each group picks one real problem from their business and builds an AI-powered solution in 90 minutes.

Not a workshop. Not a presentation. A build.

At 11am, each group presents what they built. The room votes. The best build wins something worth winning.

You leave Nashville on Wednesday with a working AI tool or process you built yourself — not a slide deck of ideas you'll never implement.

Optional penthouse breakfast from 7am before the Buildathon starts. Checkout by 12pm.

This is the morning that makes the whole trip worth it.

"You don't just leave with ideas. You leave with a crew, a plan, and a story worth telling."

🍽️ Food

All group meals — welcome party dinner, daily penthouse breakfasts, and the final Wednesday breakfast — are provided by our private chef team. Restaurant-quality food cooked fresh in your space.

📍 Getting To VRMA

Music City Center · 201 5th Ave S · Nashville TN 37203
12-minute walk from The Maddox. Mark coordinates group walks each morning. No Uber needed.

Official VRMA Programme — Day 3

Full Tuesday VRMA Schedule

Tuesday 6 October 2026 · Music City Center · Nashville

The full official VRMA 26 Tuesday programme, published verbatim from vrma.org. Backstage Nashville is built around this — penthouse breakfast lands before registration opens, group walk to the venue, and we regroup at The Hitchcock after the Closing Happy Hour.

TimeSessionLocation / Notes
8:00 AM – 4:30 PMRegistration—
8:00 AM – 4:00 PMExpo Hall OpenExpo Hall
8:00 – 8:45 AMBreakfast📍 Expo Hall
8:15 – 8:45 AMVRMA Hub Sponsored Session20-minute talk on a hot topic, in the Education Hub inside the Expo Hall.
9:00 – 10:15 AMGeneral SessionMain stage
10:15 – 11:30 AMNetworking Break📍 Expo Hall
11:30 AM – 1:15 PMBreakout & Sponsored SessionsChoose your track
11:30 AM – 4:00 PMVRMA Hub Sponsored SessionsRolling 20-minute talks in the Expo Hall.
12:30 – 2:30 PMLunch📍 Expo Hall
2:30 – 5:00 PMBreakout & Sponsored SessionsFinal track block of the conference
5:00 – 6:30 PMClosing Happy HourLast chance on the Expo floor

How Backstage Nashville works around it

  • • 8:00 AM — Penthouse breakfast in Suite 700 before VRMA breakfast even closes.
  • • Group walk to Music City Center — 12 minutes on foot, arrive together.
  • • 6:30 PM — Regroup at The Hitchcock downstairs for pre-Broadway drinks.
  • • Mark's evening plan kicks in — the final night in Nashville is sorted.

Source: vrma.org/events/vrma-26-nashville/schedule. VRMA conference ticket purchased separately.

🎟️ Buy your VRMA tickets now

Ready to get in the room?

70 spots. One application. Reviewed personally by Mark.

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