September 2021 - Katherine Morgan

Katherine Morgan Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers Conference Manager Member since July 2021

Help extend a warm welcome to Katherine Morgan who joined MPI Georgia as a new member in July 2021. She previously worked at Meeting Expectations where she knew several MPI Georgia members and attended MPI WEC in the past, however, she had not had the opportunity to become a member until this year. Currently Katherine serves as a Conference Manager at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers managing their two largest conferences, Applied Ergonomics Conference (AEC) and IISE Annual Conference.  AEC is the second largest conference hosting 800 to 1,000 attendees focused on human factors and ergonomics. IISE Annual Conference hosts 1,500 to 1,800 academic and industry professionals with 18 educational tracks for the large variety of specializations in the IE & SE profession. This past May the virtual program had over 500 educational presentations and 50 posters. Both AEC and the Annual host professional competitions that allow industry professionals to highlight solutions to complex problems. Katherine manages all aspects of the conferences from logistics, exhibit management, and speaker/program management.

Presently she is working on creating the foundation for IISE to return to in-person meetings while blending the market share gained from virtual meetings. Katherine entered into the meeting industry when she served as Meeting Coordinator at a property in Williamsburg, VA.  Due to the proximity to DC, there was a prominent diversity of the various groups and the frequently hosted political figures. “One moment you could be prepping for the arrival of POTUS and the next prepping for a PGA or LPGA tournament. There was a great exposure to a variety of meetings and events.” Katherine has certainly perfected her event planning best practices from using timelines (of which she has a love/hate relationship), staying organized, and finding any excuse to use Smartsheet automations. While in grad school at Old Dominion University she met her husband as they were both enrolled in the Sports Management program. Their professional careers diverged as he found success in the sports and entertainment world, while Katherine followed a slightly different path seeking a broader vision of event management in and out of sports.

They moved to Atlanta in 2011 and now have 5-year-old, Clare, who just started Kindergarten. In a fun what-if scenario, if she were to ever find a $10 million winning lottery ticket Katherine would charitably spread the winnings around as well as plan for the future: “After recovering from the shock, I would donate a large percentage to a favorite charity (or two), invest some for the future, travel, (and travel some more) and find a way to still contribute to society through a meaningful job or other endeavor.”