March 2021 Presidents Message: 3rd Quarter

Spring is in the air and with it comes renewed hope that the live portion of our meetings and events industry is starting to poke its head up like the tulips. We have some amazingly inspiring digital events happening in our community and we hope you can join us for a few.

April 8 is Global Meetings Industry Day. This is a chance to celebrate our wonderful community of industry colleagues everywhere. Cities around the world light up their key buildings and monuments blue to celebrate our industry. Being part of the meetings industry provides me a safe space where I don’t have to explain why my job is important to our communities or how my job is an important part of the economic growth of the city I represent. It means I am understood implicitly by the members when I say I had a long stressful day. You, my community, get me and I get you.

Here in Ottawa, we want to celebrate with you what we have achieved, overcome, and survived during the past year. We realize that not all Canadian chapters have the capacity to host their own GMID events right now, so I invite them all to join us. Welcome to our fellow members from across Canada. Together we are a strong and vibrant community. We will meet face to face again soon, when the restrictions are eased.

Until that time, our Education Committee has put together a great virtual program for you, thanks to an MPI Foundation grant and our sponsors. Join us for breakfast and start your day off with a keynote from Nova Nicole, workplace mental health advisor and leadership development facilitator at Shopify. Nicole will seamlessly blend her life stories with humour and coaching tips to increase our wellness and resiliency. What a great way to start GMID! MPI Global and Meetings Mean Business Canada are also providing excellent content meaning you can spend the entire day with your fellow meeting planners and suppliers by popping in and out as the topics entice you. Registration is open for all the events. Follow the two links above and sign up now.

The opportunities to learn new skills keep coming this spring. Our Toronto, Montréal and Ottawa chapters have once again combined talents and resources to bring us the first-ever digital the EVENT, April 13-16. Registration is open now and we have a contest going on. Let’s all register and be the chapter with the most participants. I love a challenge, don’t you!

I am proud of the work our chapter volunteers and leadership are doing and I thank each of you for your dedication. And to you, our members, thanks for continuing to find MPI Ottawa relevant to your day. Drop me a note if there is anything we can do to make our chapter an even better fit for you.

Have a great day and thanks for listening.

 Article written by Nancy Bradshaw, CMP, MPI Chapter President, Tourism Saskatoon

Article edited by Melanie Hudson, retired MPI Ottawa member