The Meetings Mean Business Coalition (MMBC) announced 2020 plans to promote the value of face-to-face meetings and safeguard the industry from financial and reputational threats.
During a press conference at PCMA’s Convening Leaders Conference, coalition co-chairs Trina Camacho-London and Fred Dixon shared details on MMBC’s approach to advocacy, engagement and continued growth.
“2019 was a year of record success for the coalition,” said Trina Camacho-London, MMBC co-chair and Vice President of Global Group Sales at Hyatt Hotels Corporation. “Our work helped to strengthen the meetings economy, which surpassed $1 trillion globally and continued to grow year-over-year across all major metrics.”
In 2020, she said, the coalition is focusing on five opportunities to proactively engage key decision-makers in business, government and the media:
- Leveraging the 2020 elections to engage policymakers around the industry’s value and remind them that they too leverage face-to-face meetings to do their jobs effectively;
- Celebrating the fifth Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID), which resulted in 275 events across more than 50 countries in 2019;
- Renewing MMBC’s focus on economic data, as other industries carefully watch market trends and indicators of what could be another global recession;
- Strengthening MMBC’s efforts to reach external leaders online; and
- Identifying strategic partnerships to grow the coalition’s reach globally.
“We are doubling down on external outreach to ensure the value of meetings is better understood by those who make decisions, policies and protocols that impact our industry,” said Fred Dixon, MMBC co-chair and President and CEO of NYC & Company. “Our Worth Meeting About campaign will focus on educating and recruiting mayors, city council members and local chambers of commerce. These groups are incredibly important champions for our industry and see firsthand how meetings support businesses and the economy.”
According to Dixon, Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID) will continue to play a central role in the coalition’s advocacy agenda by helping to energize industry advocates across six continents. This includes numerous groups already involved in MMBC’s efforts – more than 60 board members; 41 Ambassadors; and global chapter leads in Canada and India.
GMID, just three months away, will take place on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. Event registration and free resources for event hosts are available now at meetingsmeanbusiness.com/gmid.
“As a coalition, we’ve made a concerted effort over the years to create deeper, more sustained engagement among those who influence the meetings economy,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, MMBC’s founding member. “We’ve helped protect the industry from any number of potential threats – from security issues, to an economic downturn, to the ‘weaponization’ of meetings for political purposes. We’ve created an insurance policy for industry’s continued success and look forward to the year ahead.”
