Successful Meetings - October 2007 - (Page 30)

Conference Centers IACC’s NEW GENERATION Where the conference industry finds its future By Ben Chapman years old. We’re in a transition period from our founding fathers and mothers to the next generation,” he says. Many of those who helped found IACC are now in senior positions in the meetings industry, at the peak of long careers. “The next 25 years are not about us. They’re all about the next generation coming up from within the membership,” he explains. The desire to develop future Telling the future’s never easy. And that goes double for an uncertain business like the conference industry, where conditions change with macroeconomics along with the latest in technology and training techniques. But the leadership at the St. Louisbased International Association of Conference Centers (IACC) North America may have found a way of divining what’s to come: They’ve brought a crew of under-30 youngsters on board to share insights, offer criticisms, and, maybe, train for leadership roles to come. Will history prove IACC and its wunderkinds correct? Only time will tell. leadership and promote new ideas led last February to the creation of the board associate position, a rotating, nonvoting, IACC-appointed post charged with advising the IACC North America board on select issues. After reviewing about 15 highly qualified applicants, Pompan says, 27-year-old Warren Call was chosen, and became IACC’s first board associate in April. Looking at Call’s accomplishments, it’s easy to see why IACC selected him for board associate. Call is a sales manager at Crystal Mountain, an IACCapproved conference center and resort in NEW Thompsonville, MI. IACC’s new generation includes these young scholarship winners: From left, PERSPECTIVES Chenelle Dolbeare, Samantha Mora, Matthew Ardakadian, and Kathryn Haushild He already has an impressive hospitaliIACC’s move to bring coming in.” ty career that includes sales, marketing, youth into the organization is a response Furthermore, IACC’s leadership wants food and beverage, and operations. Call to the evolution of the association and to foster creativity by bringing in younger is involved with the Michigan Society of the industry it serves, says IACC North members with fresh perspectives, says Association Executives and the AmeriAmerica president Neil Pompan, 45, Pompan. “I think IACC needs to stir the can Red Cross. He holds a bachelors who is chief operating officer of Brielle, pot a little and get some more good ideas degree from Michigan State University, NJ-based EMCVenues. “IACC is 25 30 mimegasite.com OCTOBER 2007 SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS http://mimegasite.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Successful Meetings - October 2007

Successful Meetings - October 2007
Contents
Editor's Note
Suppliers
Suppliers
Calendar
Research
On the Record
Technology Talk
Mouth for Sale
Pre-Event
On Site
Tools of the Trade
Striking a Balanace
IACC’s New Generation
Suffering from “Green” Fatigue?
There Once Was a Group in Nantucket . . .
A Trick and a Treat
Places & Spaces
Reno / Lake Tahoe
Austin
New Orleans
Los Cabos & Baja
Ontario Province
Korea
Gurus

Successful Meetings - October 2007