By: Kerry L. Kerr, Director, Global Accounts, HelmsBriscoe


I attended PCMA Education Conference (Educon) in New York City this June, representing the Heartland Chapter at the Chapter Leadership session prior to Educon. The weekend kicked off with a board dinner at Charlie Palmer at the Knick, an iconic restaurant and hotel that have been completely renovated. It looked amazing and the food was outstanding. I met with leaders from almost every PCMA chapter over two days. Unfortunately, no one else from our Chapter’s board was able to attend, so I confess I was a little bit lonely.

But I have a great connection story to share. I sat at the same table as Kevin Boland of the Southwest & Pacific Chapter, who had just started a new job as Director of Sales at the beautiful Palace Hotel in San Francisco. I mentioned to him that I had an open RFP for San Fran — but my non-profit client wouldn’t be able to afford their rates, so I hadn’t included their hotel. He said, “send it to me, I will take a look.” Well, two months later, my client is getting ready to sign a contract at this amazing hotel! He felt strongly about helping my non-profit client, and the dates were good for them.

Our host hotel was the Marriott Marquis, right in the center of Times Square. It was so cool to look out your window and see so many familiar sights. I felt like a celebrity staying there! The hotel looks terrific and I would definitely book it for my clients.

There was a “giving back” activity at Educon – we packaged toiletries and other items for the Bowery Mission, a local shelter providing meals, shelter and other assistance to those in need. The event was coordinated by the local New York City Chapter of PCMA. They also had a great neighborhood area set up on that level with snacks and entertainment celebrating all things New York.

Now on to the Sunday Chapter Leadership session. In the morning session, we got updates from PCMA HQ on the new chapter management software. There was quite a bit of discussion as there have been a lot of glitches for the chapters, including ours, as they implement the new system. We also discussed membership in depth, as PCMA and many professional associations are seeing a decline overall. Several ideas were developed, hopefully we will see some of those implemented in the coming years.

In the afternoon, I presented a “TED” type talk about our Chapter’s sponsorship program over the years. It was very well-received by the other chapters – they especially loved getting a copy of our sponsorship flier. I shared that our sponsorship program has grown from about $3,000 per year to more than $30,000 last year. That is due to the hard work of many people over the years, and the support of our wonderful sponsors.

What was interesting to discover is that most chapters are not able to get their venues lined up for their meetings as far out as we are able to – so it is harder for them to get sponsors when they have to wait until six months or less from the program date. So, kudos to our fabulous Programs Committee, in particular Gina Page and Tricia Grube, for securing our venues well in advance – and to our Sponsorship Committee, in particular Sandy Wachter and Amy Roberts, who produced our wonderful flier and make sure we get as many cash and in-kind sponsors as we can.

The success of our sponsorship program has led to success in every other area of our Chapter – we have a robust board, hard-working committees, great speakers and meetings in KC, St. Louis and Tulsa – plus our past presidents have brought back our summer retreat, which will take place in 2018 at a location TBA in our region.  It’s wonderful to see our Chapter thriving, especially during a time when many membership associations, including PCMA, are seeing declining membership overall.

The opening reception at Educon was held at Rockefeller Plaza. It was a very warm day in NYC, but we enjoyed Broadway show tunes performed by three very talented ladies, and some great networking time. We then walked over to the Sheraton Times Square, where we celebrated the Tony Awards that were taking place that very night! They were of course broadcasting the Tony’s while we mingled and enjoyed delicious food. The event was co-hosted by three NYC DMC companies, and it was fantastic. From the roaming Statue of Liberty to the NYC street food, it was an event to remember.

Monday morning kicked off with a Q&A session with Jonathan Tisch of Loews Hotels and Fred Dixon of NYC & Company. They had a lively discussion about what is happening in the meetings industry today and how to stay ahead of the curve.

I had to leave Educon early for a site visit in New Orleans, but when you register, you (and your colleagues/clients) can watch the sessions on your phone and laptop – which I did while I was packing and waiting around at airports all day! It was a terrific conference in a really cool city – I am very grateful that I was able to attend and represent our Little Chapter that Could!!!