When I was starting out on my professional journey, I was presented with a gift that bore the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Empowering, am I right? This quote idealizes forging one’s own way, not being afraid of the unknown, to go against the grain, weed, grass etc. and make a stamp on something all your own. But what the quote doesn’t tell you, is how you will feel when you have no other choice. The pandemic left us all in a field of tall grass and very little sense of direction at times. Events stopped on a dime, then slowly but surely, people forged ahead. We started to learn of alternative ways to meet, connect, and do business. Paths were made where there weren’t any and led to whatever or wherever was next. In the second year, there was still a lot of unknowns but again, we forged ahead, and the meeting and events industry continued to thrive and reshape itself. Despite the unknown, despite the obstacles and despite the many setbacks. That resilience, strength, and grit is the spirit of the RISE Awards and what they celebrate.
This year, the committee received one of the highest number of nominations ever and ultimately 59 applications were reviewed and scored carefully and thoroughly while applying the criteria of each award during review. As always, the stories told through these applications were awe-inspiring, emotional, unique in nature, and diverse. The spirit of the RISE Awards described above were firmly on display but so was the vibrancy, compassion, and the love for what we all do.
As this year’s Chair, it was again my honor and privilege to be part of the process. During GMID, the 2022 RISE Award Recipients were announced, and continued celebration will occur at WEC. In the meantime, it is important and fitting to take a closer more in-depth look at the recipients, their accomplishments and amazing work being done across the globe at the chapter level and beyond.
Member of the Year - This award is given to an exceptional MPI member who through volunteer efforts has made outstanding grassroots contributions and demonstrated unparalleled commitment to the advancement of a chapter, club, community, or region. As we waded through another unprecedented year in our industry, it makes sense to see that the RISE Awards will also follow this same suit. Because of this, and the incredible candidates for this year’s award, two recipients were selected.
Shannon Jones, CMP is the Meetings and Events Manager at Destination South Meetings & Events and an 8-year planner member of the MPI Tennessee Chapter. She has been a speaker during WEC, where she moderated a panel on how CVBs are collaborating differently with planners due to the pandemic and led a session for chapter leaders on finances and creative ways to engage chapter members. Shannon is also a Chapter Past President and currently serves as the Chair of the Chapter Member Advisory Council for the second consecutive year. She also serves on the Chapter Restructure Task Force Committee with a small group of MPI staff and leaders. Over her tenure, in MPI and on committees, she has helped launch several initiatives including the CMAC Connects program, specifically designed to help bridge the gap between chapters and global and helped organize and lead the interviewing process of applicants for the newly established MPI facilitator program. Shannon is also a mentor in the San Diego State University master’s program and sits on the Advisory Board for the creation of a new Tourism and Hospitality major at Middle Tennessee State University.
Pawntra Shadab CTA, CIS, CITP is the VP of Events & Marketing for Elite Productions International. She began her MPI tenure 5 years ago in the Orange County Chapter and within a year, she became a chapter leader becoming the chapter’s VP of Education and then immediately following became the Chapter President. During her time on the OCC board, she fostered relationships within their membership, built relationships with sister chapters and local associations with a mission to create an industry alliance. Pawntra also became immediately involved in MPI’s International Diversity Equity & Inclusion Committee and most recently she was named the Chair of MPI’s Media Review Advisory Board. During the pandemic, Pawntra held the office of President of the Orange County Chapter and within hours of the shutdown, had to conduct the chapter’s largest fundraisers of the year. The entire production was moved on-line equipped with virtual programing, special guests, and a live auction. The event raised well over $14,000 and helped sustain the chapter through the pandemic. Pawntra has also launched a chapter level DEI initiative by communicating global efforts, contributing to their newsletter discussing different topics within DEI, implementing best practices, and most recently recording a podcast. Among her accomplishments and highlights, Pawntra’s global impact has created pioneer work in the community at large. As part of the DEI Committee, she led the charge developing the first ever Resource Page and our Regional Ambassador Program.
These various roles and others shown by these two ladies are continuing to help shape MPI, their local communities, the industry as a whole, and its leaders.
Meeting Industry Leadership - This award honors those rare individuals who by visionary hard work and creative insight have positively changed the global meeting and event industry. It recognizes sustained commitment and substantial contributions to the meeting and event community.
Valeria Serrano, PCS started in the tourism industry as a hotelier in 1993, holding various positions from Concierge, Sales, to groups manager. In 2004, Valeria turned her attention toward the meetings industry as Catering & Conference Service Manager at The Ritz Carlton Cancun hotel. As she progressed in her career, she ventured into the DMC world opening her own company; CTA Event Designer & DMC in 2005, providing specialized services for conventions congress and high-level incentives in Cancun and Riviera Maya. Currently, they operate in three additional destinations in Mexico: Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, and Mexico City.
During her journey in the meetings and events industry, Valeria has been a member of two different associations; SITE Mexico, collaborating for 2 years on the board of directors and MPI where she serves on the Global Board of Trustees and is the current chair of the newly created Foundation Latin America Council. Valeria joined MPI in 2010 and became the founding president of MPI Mexico Caribbean Chapter in 2019 where she served for two consecutive years. Under her leadership, the chapter has thrived, brought over fifty members into the MPI family and the chapter has earned RISE Award selections and nominations.
Over the past several years, Valeria participated in leading/founding several programs in the Mexico region to help further the events industry:
Your Best Reward was an initiative created through SITE to develop new destinations for the incentive segment. Increasing with this the offer of options in Mexico for the national and international market and generating greater incomes to the country in the field of tourism. Valeria was instrumental in getting the two destinations of Ixtapa and Querétaro involved in this program. Vive Mice is a program created and launched through MPI Mexico Caribe in 2020 aimed to generate networking opportunities to MPI members and meetings community, helping to continue positioning the destinations of Cancun and Rivera Maya as leading destination in the global meetings industry. Which generated business opportunities during the pandemic when otherwise there were not any. Valeria also is a founding member of the Female association of entrepreneur executive of tourism (AFEET) and help create the AFEET scholarship program is focused on improving and promoting gender inclusion and equity in Mexico, specifically supporting future women leaders in our industry to be better prepared and provide them with job opportunities immediately upon graduation, helping to continue improving the meetings industry in the long term.
Valeria’s contributions have been related to the needs of the meetings industry in Mexico specifically, but she has dedicated herself to help with the growth and professionalization of the industry, the increase of incomes, and support the inclusion and equality for women in the meetings Industry.
Marketplace Excellence - This award recognizes an MPI chapter for providing exceptional business exchange for members. Chapters will have demonstrated innovation and creativity in the development, planning, and delivery of effective business-to-business opportunities for members.
In an effort to relaunch the Mexican Caribbean destinations and the meetings industry in Mexico, The MPI Caribe Mexicano Chapter created a "VIVE MICE" networking/fam trip event. VIVE MICE is intended to be held every year, and it has two phases: Phase 01 took place in Mexico City, with 2 simultaneous face-to-face networking cocktails, including live streaming simultaneously from an iconic location in Cancun and two venues in Mexico City. These two networking cocktails gathered and connected the MPI Caribe Mexicano Chapter members and the meetings, weddings & events industry community from the Mexican Caribbean with meeting planners, incentive houses, production companies, and corporate events professionals based in Mexico City.
The second phase consisted of a 3-day fam trip to Cancun. While in Cancun the hosted buyers were able to experience and visit the newest hotels and resorts with meeting space, venues, and attractions, including a golf tournament with a social responsibility program, three spectacular dinners at unique brand-new venues, and one luncheon with a destination presentation sponsored by the Quintana Roo Tourism Board. In addition, the attendees had the opportunity to visit an amazing undergrown river, experience an exciting ride at the most spectacular zip lines in the area, and enjoy a relaxing sailing tour to Isla Mujeres. The program hosted ninety-five hosted buyers from a variety of destinations including Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Merida, Queretaro, Leon, Veracruz, Colombia, and US cities.
Membership Achievement - This award recognizes an MPI chapter, club, or student club for achievement in membership growth, engagement, and retention. Chapters and clubs must demonstrate the impact of their campaigns, programming, overall membership numbers, and involvement in chapter/club activities and/or improvement in retention.
The MPI Oregon and Aloha Chapters, like others, have been hit extremely hard by the global pandemic. On the Aloha chapter side, the pandemic left many individuals without jobs resulting in some even leaving the island. Those that remained, had significant responsibilities to try to help keep the hospitality industry moving on the island. This meant that filling a board or even running a chapter was not something that was feasible both in terms of personnel and finances. At that point, the chapter was in jeopardy of dismantling. However, the Oregon Chapter heard of the situation and wanted to help. Rather than just inviting the Aloha members to join their chapter, they began a 3-phase process that resulted in the Aloha chapter combining with the Oregon chapter with the full intent of the situation being temporary and allowing the Aloha chapter to stand once again on their own in the future. By doing this, Oregon provided a new temporary home and even made changes to content and outreach to ensure that culture was not lost for either Aloha or Oregon members. Past leaders were recruited to build an advisory committee that could work with aloha to build it back. Two committees will do the leg work (one in Oregon and one in Hawaii). This group will then be tasked to help build the framework of getting the chapter back on its feet with the right leaders and on a path to success.
Innovative Educational Programming - This award recognizes an MPI chapter, club, or student club for achievement in advancing the education and professional development of its members through innovative programming.
The MPI Italia Chapter took a hard look at their program and made sure to bring content and real time relevant information to their members. They stopped talking on resiliency, a hot button during the pandemic, because their members needed to manage constant bureaucratic issues to obtain funds from the Government to continue to move forward while trying to demonstrate the reliability of their protocols and guidelines in managing safe events. They partnered with a few diverse groups to help with the education overhaul and resulted in 26 events, 6 of which were face to face, with over 2000 participants. Additionally, the chapter has continued to advocate and champion obtaining official recognition and certification of the Meeting and Event Manager professionalism by the Italian Government and Institutions.
After 3 years of collaboration with UNI (national standardization body), Intertek (certification body accredited by Accredia), and other government officials to accept and recognize their Meeting and Event Manager certification, the initiative was approved in May 2020. As one of the two recognized centers for exams, MPI Italia organized 3 sessions in 2021. As a result, they now have helped over 101 Italian professionals be certified and recognized within the country.
Industry Advocate - This award recognizes an MPI chapter, club, or student club for their achievements in promoting and advancing the meeting and event industry. Chapters and clubs must demonstrate their education efforts regarding the impact of the meeting and event industry, promotion and participation in Global Meetings Industry Day, or strategic use and implementation of tools and resources provided by the Meetings Mean Business Coalition.
Between the months of July - December 2021, the MPI Kansas City Chapter has created and implemented two innovative programs that solidified partnerships with chapters across state lines and events industry organizations, as well as introduced MPI to a new audience that resulted in member growth and viral advocacy on our behalf.
The first campaign created surrounded generating new affiliate members in collaboration with four regional MPI chapters - Heartland Chapter, Oklahoma Chapter, St. Louis Chapter, and Indiana Chapter. The campaign created new opportunities for current members to access regional education, expand their networks and generate new individual business leads. As of January 2022, a reported total of eleven new affiliate members have joined the chapters and they plan to run the promotion again in the Spring. They plan on continuing to explore and expand our partnerships with other regional chapters.
The second program created targeted students in hospitality and events degree programs at four regional universities - University of Missouri, University of Central Missouri, Kansas State University, and the University of Kansas. In addition to gaining twenty-two new student members, they have also jump started a mentorship program for the chapter. Each new student member has received (or is in the process of receiving) a hand selected mentor from our MPI membership database - with ten total matches thus far, they have engaged members that may have not been otherwise and given students a chance to grow in our industry with a partner by their side. Thus, building a stronger community for both the students and the members who are mentoring them throughout the year.
This is just a glimpse into each of the recipients for this year’s RISE Awards, but hopefully provides insight into the incredible things and people pushing our industry forward. Again, congratulations to all of the recipients of these awards and thanks to them and all of the nominations displaying the outstanding work that has continued through the most challenging time we as an industry have ever seen.
