Committee Profiles – Member Events

Carla de Koning 
Program Officer, Member Relations
Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) 
Joined MPI in 2013

MPI Contact information: 
Director, Member Events
Email: member-events@mpiottawa.ca
LinkedIn: Carla de Koning  

Committee Members:

• Olivia Sylvester
• Emily McKay
• Lira Buschman
• Brindah Shah

What are you currently working on in your committee?

Our committee works hard year-round on a number of networking events for the chapter, including the AGM in the Fall, the Festive Dinner around the Holidays, a Surprise Activity in the Winter, and the June Volunteer appreciation event during the June Summer Bash. We are currently planning a Themed Festive Dinner that will combine a dinner with fun activities to keep you entertained!

What are your committee’s top three goals for this year?

• Provide opportunities to members to make new connections and renew their existing ones
• Try new things! We hope that you’ll see some unique ideas at our events that will inspire you to do something different at your own. We value your input and ideas. Join the Member Events Committee and have you voice heard on what fun and creative events you would like to see and help plan.
• Showcase great venues, and continue to reinvent our events to keep things fresh and exciting

What are the benefits of volunteering with your committee?

Being an active participant in the committee is a great way to both network and gain new skills. You get to work with some great people in our industry, and expand your skill set by planning different kinds of events that you may not be able to do at work, or if you’re a supplier, try working on events from the planner side for a change. We try and be as creative as possible in our events, so it’s a great place to try out new ideas and test concepts. Creating experiences for our members and giving back to the industry by volunteering your time with the committee is very rewarding.

 Article edited by Article edited by Cynthia Beaudin, Canada Foundation for Innovation