Today is Global Meetings Industry Day, a celebration that shines a light on the direct impact meetings have on businesses, communities and economies.

This is how our sector is celebrating today.

ARINEX

To help mark Global Meetings Industry Day (GMID), Arinex CEO Tamara Kavalec led a roundtable that was streamed across the company’s five state offices. The discussion was aimed at helping Arinex staff share knowledge and experiences, as well as encourage some self-reflection on what values the events industry has given them.

The Arinex roundtable is one of a number of initiatives taking place around the world for GMID, an initiative that was started in 2016 to help spread awareness about the value of business events. Ms Kavalec said it was enlightening to hear the diverse and varied perspectives of the team.

“We work in such a fast-paced environment, it’s not often we take the opportunity to reflect on what drives us and makes this industry such an appealing and engaging place to work for people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences,” she said.

“I particularly enjoyed hearing what it is about our industry that motivates our staff and those motivations change from person to person. It has been a really valuable discussion and a great way of marking Global Meetings Industry Day.”

Arinex’ forum centred around two key questions; what attracted you to the events industry and what inspires you in your career?

Annabel Norris, a business development consultant in Sydney, responded that events were in her DNA.

“It runs through my veins. I’ve just seen the industry grow and blossom and Australia has become more and more serious about business events. Events is still a growing industry whereas many other professions have plateaued. It is also a great industry for women. We’re seeing that there is still a glass ceiling for women across many other professions … but in events that’s not the case. Women are holding CEO and other leadership roles and have been for some time.”

Lauren Detez, a project coordinator in Perth said she first heart about the events industry in year 9 and she was inspired to join the industry by two of her family members

“I love it. Our day to day lives are really exciting; every conference we do is different, we get to meet new people and I like the overall challenge of delivering events.”

Association of Australian Convention Bureaux (AACB)

Speaking exclusively to SpiceNews, AACB chief executive Andrew Hiebl said Global Meetings Industry Day was an important initiative as it unites the entire business events industry across the world.

“Its focus allows us all to promote and showcase the real impact that face-to-face meetings have on people, businesses and communities in our own way.” 

When asked how the AACB plan to celebrate the occasion, Andrew replied: “While we would like to ne sipping champagne in celebration, Annika (AACB’s communication executive) and I are battling paper cuts as we manage the hard copy mail out of AACB’s latest international Forward Calendar of International Business Events to politicians, influencers and stakeholders.”

“It’s important to keep up the momentum of support for Australia’s business events industry and highlight the strong pipeline of conventions and incentives secured for the country into the future.”

Meetings and Events Australia (MEA)

Meetings and Events Australia (MEA) Chief Executive Robyn Johnson told Spice that Global Meetings Industry Day presented a great opportunity to acknowledge the significant impact that meetings and events have on businesses, the economy and social development.

“MEA supports this global initiative and encourages everyone in the industry to toast our achievements over the past year.”

“Right now, around the country MEA is holding a series of awards nights to select state champions who will gather in Adelaide on 6-8 May where we will salute our greatest industry achievers”.

MEA will be acknowledging Global Meetings Industry Day with a social media awareness campaign, and will celebrate the occasion officially with colleagues at the MEA Industry Awards held in South Australia tonight.

Exhibition and Event Association of Australasia (EEAA)

EEAA chief executive Joyce DiMascio told SpiceNews that the association are supporting the work of AACB and reminding all their stakeholders of the important contribution the meetings sector makes to the Australian and global economy.

“Many Members of the EEAA work across all parts of the business events industry, indeed ‘ meetings’form an integral part of most trade and consumer expos so it is only fitting that we should support Global Meetings Day.“

How have you celebrated GMID? Join the conversation on Twitter by using #GMID18