Meetings Mean Business, the industry coalition that advocates for the value of meetings, has set some big goals for 2016:

Meetings Industry Day. At the first “North America Meetings Industry Day” in April 2015, 88 events across the United States, Canada and Latin America engaged grassroots communities and policymakers on the ground and online, promoting MMB’s mission through 3.2 million social media impressions. It has grown into “Global Meetings Industry Day,” scheduled for April 14, 2016. Work on the day has already begun, with new planning materials to be posted at MeetingsMeanBusiness.com/GMID. These will help advocates stage a rally, host an educational event, and request an official proclamation.

Going global with the day “is very exciting,” said MMB co-chair Michael Dominguez, senior vice president and chief sales officer, MGM Resorts International. “It lets us reach a larger audience with a consistent message worldwide.” The biggest outcome: MMB is now having discussions with organizations abroad with a similar mission to explain the value of face-to-face meetings.

• Research on meetings’ value. Following up on two MMB research reports this past year — one on government meetings and the other on millennials and meetings — findings from a new survey of corporate executives on the business value of meetings will be released in January 2016.

• New information channels. A portal presenting powerful testimonials and stories on why meetings matter from those within and outside of the industry, Sidebar Blog has published 32 blogs to date. In 2016, new stories will be added from private sector leaders, as well as board members and supporters, a list that has grown to 52. These stories are vital in sharing the value of meetings to new audiences and engaging industry professionals in face-to-face advocacy.

For Dominguez, MMB’s biggest goal next year is greater engagement. One way is to make sure all member organizations within the coalition understand their task in “moving the message.” And his big push is to get a dozen CEOs of major companies outside the meetings industry to follow the lead of SAP’s global CEO Bill McDermott in advocating the power of face-to-face.

“The success of the 2015 campaign reaffirms our belief that industry leaders should also be its strongest and most vocal advocates,” said Karen Kotowski, CAE, CMP, CEO, Convention Industry Council. “We look forward to leveraging our strong international partnerships to rally the meetings community around the world in 2016 for the first Global Meetings Industry Day.”

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