Betsy Myers, chief operating officer and senior advisor for the Obama for America campaign, will take the stage on July 10 to accept Meeting Professionals International’s first RISE Award on behalf of her organization.

MPI cites the Obama for America team for its “unprecedented ability to utilize meetings and events to accomplish change” and called the campaign a “21st‐century template for impactful, exceptional, domestic and international events.”

“Whether or not you agree with U.S. President Barack Obama’s politics, the vision and strategy created transformational change. That is what we all should do when we bring people together,” said Hattie Hill, chairwoman of the MPI Awards and Recognition Task Force and CEO of Hattie Hill Enterprises, in a press release. Hill praised the reach of the campaign, which effectively leveraged the Internet to bring people together as well as for fund raising. The campaign’s networking efforts resulted in more than 2 million visitor profiles on it Web site, more than 200,000 offline events, and 400,000 blog posts.

MPI has been revamping its recognition program for more than a year, and its recently revealed RISE Awards (Recognizing Industry Success and Excellence) will feature seven annual awards in three primary categories—organizational achievement, individual achievement, and community achievement. However, just one RISE winner will be recognized at the World Education Conference in Salt Lake City in July, and Obama for America wins in the organizational achievement category.

RISE replaces the awards for International Planner of the Year, International Supplier of the Year, Tomorrow’s Leader Award, Chapter of the Year, and other recognition categories. Those past winners are now part of MPI’s Community of Honorees.