As the most surreal summer of our lives comes to a close, MPIGNY remains focused on how we can make a positive impact on the New York City hospitality community. COVID-19 continues to affect all of us in various ways, but we are beginning to see signs of a turnaround. A few key hotels in the city have announced reopening dates, and our friends at NYC & Company recently created an excellent tool for hospitality professionals to reference as they look ahead to planning future events. All In NYC: The Roadmap for Tourism's Reimagining and Recovery truly captures the message that we are all in this together. We are a resilient group of hospitality professionals living in the most resilient city in the world. Now, more than ever, there is legitimate value in being affiliated with trade associations such as MPIGNY and the valuable network of industry colleagues it provides. I encourage each of you to consider deepening your involvement with our chapter as you think about what role you might play in helping our industry recover while, simultaneously, becoming a more valuable asset to your respective company or organization. Sharing your talents by serving on a committee is the easiest way to get more involved. To learn more, please visit the MPIGNY website. 

The value of strong relationships is more important than ever as we all navigate these same uncharted waters. With that in mind, please be sure to register for our next education event, "The Amazing Race - Navigating Through Contracts with Your Partners," taking place on Tuesday, Sept. 15. This event was borne out of a focus group that MPIGNY conducted this past spring with a consortium of senior-level meeting planners/department heads who regularly conduct business in New York City. Some participants shared that they were eager to understand the hotel's position when it comes to renegotiating contracts or discussing next steps. Understanding this need for clarity in planner/supplier communications, MPIGNY set out to create our first education event of the 2020-2021 year to cover this exact topic. We are extremely fortunate to have an incredible panel of industry leaders joining us for this event. They will impart valuable strategies for renegotiating canceled programs or re-bookings, offer a deeper understanding of how relationships can impact decision-making and provide a context of the hotel's perspective throughout the renegotiation process.

During these difficult times MPIGNY has maintained our focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Did you know that there are currently 18,000 homeless school-age children in New York City that rely on shelters as a temporary home? Operation Backpack® is a community service organization that provides backpacks and age-appropriate school supplies to children living in homeless and domestic violence shelters throughout the five boroughs. In support of their fundraising efforts, MPIGNY has set a goal of $1,000 toward this campaign. We are very close to achieving that goal, but we still need your help. The deadline to donate is Friday, Sept. 18. If you are able to do so, please join us.  

Are you following MPIGNY on social media? If not, please click on the links below and follow us to stay up to date on all the current news and events. Don't miss out! 

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Finally, it is with deep regret that I inform all of you that we have made the difficult decision to postpone the MPIGNY Kalahari Resorts Golf Outing that was scheduled to take place on Thursday, Oct. 1. As it stands right now, the maximum capacity for any event taking place indoors or outdoors in Nassau County is just 50 people. We were cautiously optimistic that this would change at some point this summer, but, sadly, that was not the case. We will reach out directly to those of you who have already registered to discuss a refund or applying those funds to our 2021 Golf Outing.  

Best,

Patrick Colomer
President
MPI Greater New York Chapter

Please join MPIGNY in writing inspirational notes and cards to deployed service members. These notes will be included in care packages sent by United for the Troops to deployed service members letting them know someone is thinking of them. They're the first thing our servicemen and servicewomen see when they open their packages, and they remind our military how thankful we are. This is a great family-friendly activity. Break out the construction paper and crayons; volunteers of all ages are welcome to participate in this opportunity.

Volunteers are encouraged to create the notes and cards on Friday, Sept. 11 as part of the national 9/11 Day of Service. We will be hosting a short Kick-Off Call on September 11th at 3:00 p.m. to explain the process, and participants are invited to write out the cards at that time. You are welcome to use store-bought cards or create handmade cards.

If you would like to participate, please contact Jennifer Rondinelli by Wednesday, Sept. 9. We are requesting 10 cards from each participant. Marisa Wilkes will collect all the donated cards and drop them off to the Volunteer New York! office on Thursday, Sept. 17. We ask that participants please mail your cards to Marisa by no later than Saturday, Sept. 12 (address provided upon registration). 

Let's show our troops some love! ♥

This year rolled in packing a powerful punch. No one was ready for a pandemic of this magnitude, nor the catastrophic effect it would have on our industry. As meetings and events were called off one-by-one, planners and suppliers struggled with the same issue: how to handle the numerous cancellations, re-bookings and future contracts. Thrust into a virtual labyrinth of twists, turns and roadblocks, they raced to find a way out.

In this new normal, meeting organizers hope for more flexible hotel contracts that protect them from all the unknowns; while hoteliers, acknowledging this need, are tasked by their stakeholders not to leave the table empty-handed. It can be a tense situation for even the strongest of alliances. To survive this, we will need solid strategies for working together with our partners to ensure programs stay on the books in the short-term, as well as guidelines for modifying agreements and hotel contracts to guarantee mutual success in the future. The world is waiting for you … good luck … travel safe … GO!

Join a distinguished panel of industry veterans as they share real-life examples and contract negotiation best practices to help navigate these murky waters. You will walk away with:

• Strategies for best-case scenarios when working on cancelled programs and re-bookings
• Better understanding of hotels' considerations when dealing with contract cancellations
• Understanding of how relationships impact decision-making
• Identification of shared objectives to restore in-person meetings and events and how planners and hotels can work together to achieve them contractually
• Which limited-time promotions are effective in giving planners and their stakeholders confidence to commit.

CEU CREDITS: CMP-IS Domain B:  Project Management, 1.0 Clock Hour

WHEN: Tuesday, Sept. 15

5:30 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. – Welcome, announcements and introductions
5:45 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. – Education session
6:45 p.m. – 7 p.m. – Q&A

 Register Here

Just two weeks left to help us meet our $1,000 goal toward Operation Backpack®'s Fall Fundraising Campaign! 

Operation Backpack® 2020, a community service of VOA-Greater New York, provides brand new backpacks and grade-specific school supplies to children living in homeless and domestic violence shelters throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

The organization typically relies heavily on donations of school supplies to fulfill their commitments to children in need. Unfortunately, this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, they are unable to accept supplies from individual donors. As a result, they are in desperate need of monetary donations that will enable them to purchase enough supplies to meet their demand.

MPIGNY is proud to support this effort, and we are so close to reaching our goal! Won't you please join us by making a donation? Any amount will help!

Join Our MPIGNY Team

Visit OperationBackpackNYC.org to learn more.

MPIGNY's commitment to God’s Love We Deliver continues this month with our regular volunteer session providing help in the kitchen. Due to social distancing guidelines, our assistance is needed now more than ever. God’s Love has had to minimize the number of people in the building overall and in the kitchen area, especially. Yet, they are still committed to serving over 10,000 meals per day. 

Please mark your calendar for Thursday, Sept. 24, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m and plan to join us if you can. Gloves and masks will be provided to all volunteers. Register here.

Click the link for an article discussing how our support is needed and appreciated in our community:   "Delivering tens of thousands of meals a day to sick and homebound people across our area"

GLWD is in desperate need of delivery drivers. If you have a car or van, they could really use some support with delivery services at this time. There are some walking delivery slots available as well. Please see the volunteer calendar for available times and to sign up.

If you are not able to volunteer, there are still several ways you can help!

The Cards of Caring campaign offers an opportunity to share a message of caring to brighten someone’s day. Many of GLWD’s clients are homebound senior citizens who, in this climate, are unable to have visitors of any kind. A cheerful note to let them know they are not forgotten can be a welcome reprieve from their solitude. The website provides guidelines on creating the cards, but feel free to be as creative as you would like. And if you have children at home, this might be a perfect activity to help pass the time in quarantine!

In addition, God’s Love has three distinct giving opportunities to donate much-needed funds.

• COVID-19 Emergency Fund for clients of God’s Love: $54 funds a shelf-stable meal bag and $100 funds a week of meals for a client living with serious illness. Please give what you can. Any amount helps!
• Birthday Bake Sale: God’s Love bakes and personalizes birthday cakes for their clients living with serious illness. Your donation contributes toward the purchase of ingredients, baking, decorating and packaging of these special cakes.
• Who Are You Cooking For?: God’s Love’s newest campaign to help fund 100,000 meals during the coronavirus pandemic. Donate what you would have spent if you were cooking for friends. More details are on the website.

Last, during this time, we are all doing a lot more cooking at home, and after nearly two months, you may be in need of some fresh ideas to answer that age-old question, “What’s for dinner?” Help yourself and God’s Love with a purchase of The God’s Love Cookbook: Nourishing Stories and Recipes from Notable Friends. You can finally stop making pasta (for the 100th time) and feel good knowing that you are doing good for your fellow New Yorkers. 100 percent of the book’s proceeds directly support God’s Love.

The Events Industry Council recently issued the Health and Safety for Hotels Accepted Practices Guide. It is the second release of the  APEX Covid-19 Business Recovery Task Force.

The task force’s hotel work group used the various guides issued by hotel companies as well as resources, such as the AHLA Stay Safe program and other global resources, as a starting point to develop a baseline. This guide offers insights beyond those guidelines focusing on four key areas:

• Transmission barriers
• Enhanced sanitisation
• Health screening
• Food and beverage guidelines

The guide covers baseline and enhanced protocols, a curation of hotel practices via a video library as well as links to a repository of resources by EIC members and key sector-specific guidance. 

Understanding the essential element of rebuilding and regaining trust, other elements of this guide, available as stand-alone documents, include:

• Events Industry Council Principles for Recovery, which correspond with U.N. Sustainable Development goals, and how this guide supports those principles
• Guide to Opening Dialogue - Key questions for hotels and event organisers to ask each other to build trust and dialogue on health, safety and sustainability

“The pandemic has prompted a renewed commitment in the travel industry to the health and wellness of guests, employees and other visitors,” said Hotels Work Group Chair Mike Dominguez, CEO, Associated Luxury Hotels International. “The response from the lodging community has been rapid, fluid and, most importantly, a collaborative endeavor. This work is based on what we know today. And, we will update as we continue to learn more.”

“One of the primary missions of the APEX COVID-19 Business Recovery Task Force is to provide a centralised source of accepted practices, insights and pathways that leverage the collective body of resources available to inspire confidence that responsible measures have been taken as the industry reopens for business,” said Amy Calvert, CEO, Events Industry Council.

Dominguez co-chairs the APEX COVID-19 Business Recovery Task Force with Kristin Horstman, senior director, Strategic Events, Salesforce. With representation from across the many sectors and regions of the global events ecosystem, the task force provides a voice in planning, preparing and participating in our recovery and our future as well as helping to amplify our story of economic and social impact as advocates for our industry.

In July, EIC released the Meeting and Event Design Accepted Practices Guide. Future deliverables in the coming months will cover workforce and wellness, transportation, destinations, venues, advocacy and risk management, and business continuity. As a series, these guides are meant to be used in tandem and to complement one another as part of evolving and living workstreams.  

The task force roster can be found on the EIC website here.

At MPIGNY, our members are family, and in challenging times, we believe in taking care of our own. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial hardships many are experiencing as a result, MPIGNY has set up a community support fund to provide monetary grants to our colleagues who need it most. If you are in need of assistance during this or any of life's more difficult moments, we may be able to help. 

There is no issue too large or too small. If you need help, please know we are standing by to assist you. Simply submit a confidential Request for Support for review of support in any personal crisis situation. We can offer assistance toward:

• Housing while in quarantine 
• Essential items like groceries, rent, utilities or essential worker child care
• Rebuilding after natural disasters 
• Escaping from domestic violence
• Recovering from a serious accident
• Other support following loss when not otherwise provided by insurance

Submit a confidential request with all supporting documentation to Kathie Stapleton. As this is confidential, please share as much information as you are comfortable sharing. All requests will be reviewed and considered to determine what, if anything, we can do to assist you in your situation.

Additionally, if you are in a position to donate to the fund, MPIGNY is gladly accepting donations at this time. Please contact Kathie Stapleton for more information. 

A key focus for the board moving forward is going to be the engagement of the meeting planner professional. We consider sustained planner participation to be a vital part of this chapter’s success. So, with that in mind, we’re rolling out the red carpet this year with the objective of increasing our planner engagement at all of our events.

Many thanks to the London Convention Bureau for graciously sponsoring several one-year planner scholarship opportunities that will increase our planner base and enhance overall engagement. Interested planners can apply here.

We added a new campaign this year called "People of MPIGNY" and want to learn more about our incredible members! If you are interested in being featured, click the links below to read about some of our members and to complete the handful of questions to be considered for our next issue!

People of MPIGNY
People of MPIGNY Application

Are you looking for guidance during these changing times? Are you interested in mentoring a fellow MPIGNY member? The Leadership Development Committee is pleased to announce the second annual "Power of Two" Program! We had great involvement during the 2019-2020 year, and due to increased interest, we are going to run the program again for the 2020-2021 year. Stay tuned for additional details and expect the program to kick off in September.

Are you interested in getting more involved with MPIGNY? Volunteering with a committee is a great way to meet new clients and industry partners! Visit our website or click the link for more information on how to get involved: MPIGNY - Join a Committee

The MPI Foundation is focused on helping as many current members retain their professional affiliation and the opportunity to continue to have access to all our resources. For more information, please contact help@mpi.org.

Did you know that MPI can help you cover costs for a preferred MPI membership and help fund your MPI Academy courses (including CMM, HMCC, Experiential Event Series, Meetings Essentials, Basics Boot Camp and more)?

Yes, it’s possible. The MPI Foundation provides MPI members professional development and career opportunities through grants and scholarships. MPI Foundation scholarships are awarded on an ongoing basis. Applications received by the end of the month will receive notification by the end of the following month. Conference scholarships do not typically follow the normal application cycle but will be reviewed each month. 

More information can be found here: MPI Foundation Scholarships

Did you know that MPI members have access to complimentary resumé critique through our career center? Members will need their MPI username/password to access this service. Visit: 

www.mpi.org > Resources > Career Center > Sign In > go to My Account (top left corner) > go to Resume > check mark “Send me my free professional resume critique from TopResume” > click on Upload Resume to, you guessed it, upload your resumé.