During the first day of its 3,300-attendee Convening Leaders annual conference at Ohio’s Columbus Convention Center, the Professional Convention Management Association announced two alliances with other organizations as well as two acquisitions, all aimed at addressing significant issues facing the meetings and events industry now and in the future.
On January 9, Sherrif Karamat, president and CEO of PCMA and the Corporate Event Marketing Association, announced first that PCMA has formed a partnership with the American Geophysical Union, an association of earth and space scientists, to develop more effective education on the events industry’s climate-change strategies.
Standing with Karamat on stage, Randy Fiser, CEO of AGU, said that the partnership with PCMA is built on five tenets: designing sustainable events; holding discussions related to climate change and the related risks; harmonizing data and establishing goals for meaningful progress in the reduction of carbon; supporting the business-events community with education and tools; and recognizing innovation and thought leadership in the business-events industry.
In addition, the industry’s response to shutdown situations such as pandemics will be a topic with which AGU assists PCMA. “This partnership with AGU is a great opportunity for us to work with scientists to get ahead of critical issues, rather than simply being reactive whenever something disrupts our industry,” Karamat added.
Next, Karamat announced that PCMA has acquired the Event Leadership Institute, a repository of webinars and other learning modules that offers 17 certificates in specialized areas of planner education. Howard Givner, founder of ELI, is now the senior vice president of knowledge and innovation for PCMA; he will integrate ELI’s offerings into the PCMA’s portfolio of educational products as well drive innovation across the entire portfolio.
Another new acquisition by PCMA is the Event Marketing Association–UK, a group of more than 800 event-marketing professionals based in Europe who work for global brands. Back in 2020, more than 700 event-marketing professionals became part of PCMA when the association acquired the U.S.-based Corporate Event Marketing Association. “Associations can learn from event marketers and vice versa,” said Karamat. “We will facilitate those conversations.”
Lastly, Karamat announced that PCMA has formed a strategic alliance with the National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals to further the cause of diversity and inclusion in the events industry. And come early March, PCMA and NCBMP will join the Events Industry Council, Destinations International, and other industry organizations at Business Events Industry Week, that is expected to draw more than 2,000 planners and suppliers for education and advocacy to the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in National Harbor, Md., March 7-9.
