On September 10th, 130 professional and supplier members of PCMA's New York Area Chapter gathered at the Hilton New York for the chapter's annual Education Day, which began with a continental breakfast sponsored by MGM Grand at Foxwoods. Other event sponsors included Hilton New York, PSAV, Pulse Staging and Events, Sonic Foundry, the Hawaii Convention Center, Tourism Quebec, and Sol Melia Hotels.
Breakfast and opening remarks were followed by an hour of rotating "Ask the Expert Roundtables," hosted by various chapter members. Topics included "Identifying Leadership," with Roger Rickard, REvent; "International Meetings 101," with Stuart Ruff, CMP/CGMP, International Trademark Association; "Partnering With Vendors in Challenging Times," with Deborah Richardt, CMP, American Thoracic Society; Healthy and Cost Conscious Menu Options with Fun Lee, Cardiovascular Research Foundation; Integrating Social Media into Events with Jessica Levin, MBA/CMP, Seven Degrees Communications; Technology Tips on a Budget with Leigh Cook, PSAV; A Case for Sustainable Meetings with Midori Connolly, Pulse Staging & Events; and Can CVBs Really Simplify Your Life? with Christine Shimasaki, empowerMINT.com.
Two concurrent breakout sessions: "Creating Event Engagement," with social-media evangelist Jessica Levin, CMP, and "Face Time. It Matters: The Case for Face-to-Face Meetings," with Roger Rickard rounded out the morning program.
The main event, which began after lunch, was a "State of the Industry" panel moderated by Gregg Talley, CAE, president of Talley Management Group and featured industry expert panelists including PCMA President and CEO Deborah Sexton; PCMA 2010 Chairman Kati S. Quigley, CMP, Microsoft; Gus Vonderheide, Hyatt Hotels; and Monisa Cline, Continental Airlines. One-hundred fifty attendees watched the panel discussion online and responded to questions posed by Talley, along with live attendees, administered by hardware-free audience-response company Poll Everywhere.
One of the first questions Talley asked the panel was, "What does the immediate future look like for the meetings industry?" On the whole, panelists were, as Cline put it, "cautiously optimistic," with Vonderheide predicting modest increases in "upper-upscale" room rates and Quigley seeing a growing investment in content. "We've seen an uptick, but only an uptick," Sexton said. "We're not out of the woods yet."
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