What We Can Learn from Baltimore

As a born and raised Baltimore girl, I was distressed along with the rest of the country to see the violence that broke out there earlier this month. This is not the city I know nor what most in our industry think of when we think of Baltimore. Of course, the larger issues that precipitated the events in Baltimore are the purview of city officials and law enforcement, and I am confident those will be solved, and Baltimore will be the better for it.

Baltimore is a great city and, like many American cities, has significant challenges. It is so much more than what people have seen on the news, and it is a reminder to those of us in the meetings industry that our ability to follow through with our meeting plans are not just subject to hurricanes and natural disasters. In recent years, we have seen that unwise spending (GSA), legislation (Indiana) and criminal acts are events that can affect a group’s ability to hold a meeting. The effects to that organization, as well as the community it serves and the community hosting the meeting, can never be made whole.

We know from our Economic Significance Study that one canceled meeting means one lost job. But the losses are more than that. What business didn’t take place between attendees, what training didn’t happen, what new technology or knowledge transfer didn’t take place. Of course, every organization must decide what is in its own best interest and the best interest and safety of its delegates. Some groups changed their plans and others chose to move forward.

One of our own CMPs, Joyce Paschall, CAE, CMP-HC, director of education and meetings with the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, chose to move forward with ACOEM’s American Occupational Health Conference in Baltimore May 3-6.

CIC is also committed to hold its 2016 CMP Conclave in Baltimore, a commitment made long ago, and we are still committed to the city. We held our most highly attended and successful Conclave in Baltimore in 2010, and that was the reason we chose to go back.

As the meetings industry, we can be the agents of change. We know that when we meet, we can change the world. Surely, meetings are taking place now in Baltimore to learn from the events of the past and to build on change for the future. That’s what can happen when we bring people together.

If you haven’t seen it, Tom Noonan’s video on how Visit Baltimore approached this challenging time is an excellent piece, and the fact that ACOEM’s meeting went off "without a hitch" is a testament to the Baltimore hospitality community’s ability to host a meeting in perfect conditions, let alone in challenging ones.

Karen Kotowski, CAE, CMP, is the CEO of the Convention Industry Council.

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