Rod Abraham, founder of full-service meeting management firm R.E. Abraham & Associates and The Professional Meeting Planners Network (PMPN), has formed a new company called The Rod Abraham Group, based in Durham, N.C. His new company will focus on meeting planning and management, as well as providing on-site staffing on a contract basis. He sold PMPN, which provides on-site planners for multi-city physician dinner meetings, in 2003, and retired from the company three years ago to conduct focus groups and present seminars.
“I am launching a quality-oriented, updated version of the business model I created before,” Abraham told MeetingsNet. “I have reached the point where I can focus on better instead of bigger.” He added that he is refining his firm’s data systems to make doing business with his company easy and efficient.
Noting changes in the marketplace, Abraham said that the group will help budget- and talent-strapped companies with the planning and management phases of meetings as well as on-site support. He now is looking to build his stable of experienced meeting professionals, and encourages those with 10 years of verifiable experience—the company’s minimum experience requirement for field associates—to submit a resume.
A meeting industry veteran, Abraham was a charter member of Meeting Professionals International and a past president of the Alliance of Meeting Management Companies. He has served on advisory boards for Certain Software Company, Disney Hotels, Omni Hotels, The International Association of Conference Centers, Sonesta Hotel Co., and Westin Hotels, and has been on several national committees to develop meeting industry standards.