Meetings and hospitality professionals across North America will send a powerful message on April 16 when they advocate the substantial economic and business value of trade shows and exhibitions, conventions, conferences, business meetings, and incentive travel.

Meetings Mean Business (MMB), a cross-industry coalition, is spearheading the first annual North American Meetings Industry Day (NAMID) throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Through this grassroots initiative, industry professionals will engage with policymakers and business leaders to underscore the impact of meetings at all levels of business.

“We will encourage our chapter leaders to work with other associations’ chapters to plan local events – from a luncheon to educational afternoon programs and discussion panels,” said Paul Van Deventer, president and CEO of Meeting Professionals International. “And while we picked April 16th as the day, we want groups to promote the industry that entire week.”

The concept expands on an initiative first created 20 years ago by MPI Canada. Its three objectives were: to define and shape the meetings and events profession in the future; to help raise the industry’s profile; and to discuss the economic impact of meetings with people who are outside the industry. “These objectives remain consistent with our goals for events all across the continent this spring,” said David Peckinpaugh, MMB co-chair and president of Maritz Travel.

“It seemed like a natural synergy to take what the MPI chapters had built in Canada for their National Meetings Industry Day and make it an industry event in North America,” added Van Deventer.

The Professional Convention Management Association is encouraging its chapters to get involved with ideas to maximize the day’s impact: stage a rally with local organizations, get a “Meetings Day Proclamation” from local officials, host an educational event about the impact of meetings, make a video, and present an award to a community leader who has supported the meetings industry,

A toolkit with guidelines, templates, and ideas at meetingsmeanbusiness.com makes it easy for associations and their chapters, companies, meeting planners, hospitality professionals and individuals to plan and take action that day:
• Talking points for use in event communication.
• A high-resolution logo.
• A digital advertisement that can be resized upon request.
• Button for digital placement on a website, serving as a link to the NAMID page at MMB.
• An advance press release template for customization. It can be used to promote the day’s planned efforts to local communities, vendors and partners.
• A local event advisory template for announcing the day’s planned activities, with time, location, speaker and attendee details.
• A press release template to bring attention on the day of the event.
• Social media support. This includes Twitter handle @MeetingsMeanBiz, and hashtags #MMBusiness and #NAMID.

Participants on that day are encouraged to use the hashtags, tag MMB and retweet the content. MMB will retweet participants’ content. A series of tweets have been prewritten for participants to tailor to their own events or activities that day. Organizations can register the day’s agenda and their lead contact person by clicking here. — Maxine Golding