Continuing its mission to advocate for the power of face-to-face meetings, Meetings Mean Business Canada (MMB Canada) board members spent three days in Ontario and Québec meeting with existing and potential supporters.
Heidi Welker, chair of MMB Canada and senior vice-president, Business Development & Industry Partnerships at Freeman Audio Visual Canada, Clark Grue, vice-chair and president and CEO of the Calgary TELUS Convention Centre and Meetings + Conventions Calgary, Reggie Lang, MMB Canada treasurer and manager business development – Groups and Incentive Travel with WestJet, and fellow board members visited Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa on March 21, 22 and 23 2018 and met with business events industry executives.
In the meetings, which were were hosted by the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Palais des congrès de Montréal and the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, Welker and her colleagues reported on the progress the coalition has made since it rebranded from BEICC to MMB in January 2017. They explained that in the 14 months since the change, MMB Canada has raised more than $100,000 of initial funding, garnered support from 112 industry executive leaders to date, and is fast becoming the single advocacy voice for business events in Canada working in tandem with its secretariat the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC).
In addition, Welker reported that the board had formed three committees, which will research and make recommendations on:
- a sustainable financial membership model for the coalition;
- curation of unified data for the business events industry;
- and executing a plan to tell the Meetings Mean Business Canada story.
“Our goal for the latter part of 2017 and moving into 2018 was to meet with industry leaders across Canada to rally support for the coalition and continue the conversation regarding the strategic vision for the coalition,” said Welker. “We want to become the single advocacy voice of the meetings industry in Canada, to communicate the economic and social value of face-to-face meetings to elected officials at all levels of government as well as stakeholders across the country and to thereby shape policy, legislation and investment to ensure our industry prospers.”
The coalition will continue its cross-country outreach initiatives in late April with meetings in Halifax and Fredericton.
To learn more about MMB Canada, view the current supporter list, and join the coalition visit https://www.meetingsmeanbusiness.ca/supporters
About Meetings Mean Business Canada
Meetings Mean Business Canada, the first coalition to execute the Meeting Mean Business licensing agreement, was formed to advocate on behalf of the Canadian business events industry. The MMB Canada board is actively reaching out to key industry stakeholders across all sectors of the Canadian Business Events Industry to transform the coalition into a proactive, well-funded advocacy movement with strong connections to federal, provincial and municipal governments.
The Canadian business events industry generates $27-$30 billion annually in direct spending and employs over 341,000 people in well-paying, full-time jobs yet it is largely invisible to elected officials and policy-makers.
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