MPISCC State of the Industry Recap by Chrissy Thompson

 

Part I: Where We Are, Where We're Going, What We Know

First up, Darren Green, senior vice president of sales at Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, offered his insights on what to expect and how to prepare for Los Angeles’ reopening of meetings and events. He shared some encouraging statistics like the fact that they were able to rebook 80% of citywide revenue from last year.

I loved hearing that the Los Angeles CVB has been working very closely with other major metropolitan CVBs like San Francisco, San Diego and New York to share best practices and offer support as each city looks to safely reopen. Whereas these relationships may have been less transparent in the past, the current sentiment is “we are all in this together,” which is a great silver lining experienced across many industries this past year.

The most interesting part of Green’s presentation was his question, “How do we get back to the meeting experience we booked previously? Or can we?” It’s something we will all reflect on in figuring out in the year ahead.

Most exciting was Green’s look ahead highlighting the events that are set to happen in Los Angeles in the next few years, including the Super Bowl (2022), the World Cup (2026) and the Olympics (2028).

 

Part II: You Survived 2020, Are You Ready for 2021?

Next, Dr. Lalia Rach, founder and partner at Rach Enterprises, led an engaging session that focused on strategies and tactics for moving forward after such a challenging year for our industry. Dr. Rach prompted us to reflect on 2020 asking, “Did you reinvent yourself? Did your career shift? Did you develop new skills?” and offered some great exercises to identify what we want to start, stop and continue in 2021 to make it the best year possible.

My biggest takeaway from her session was that coming out of 2020, people feel that time is precious. For that reason, we must focus on client engagement now more than ever, as clients are placing an even higher value on their time. That means our presentations need to be even more polished, our meetings need to be even more effective, and we must look at every opportunity to provide better value in our precious time together. I know it’s something we’ll be focusing on in our business!

 

“And the Awards Go to…”

As part of this year’s State of the Industry event, MPISCC awarded the Volunteer Impact Award to two winners. Congratulations to Karly Watson and Natalie Wong! Going forward this award will be given to one winner quarterly to recognize those volunteers going above and beyond to help drive our chapter forward.

I would also like to give a shout out to this year’s fabulous sponsors from Visit Renoe Tahoe, Visit Oakland, Visit Fort Worth, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium.

My favorite part of the entire event was seeing the world premiere of SoFi Stadium’s meetings & events video. (Did you know that its roof features the largest programmable LED display in the world?! Take that, Singapore!) Talk about a branding opportunity … You can’t miss it on the way into LAX – just make sure to book a window seat looking out of the right side of the plane.

In all, I left this year’s event feeling incredibly hopeful and excited about the future. We have so much to look forward to as a city and as an industry. So here’s to the next edition of the Roaring ’20s here in Southern California – we’re ready!

Chrissy Thompson is the founder and senior event producer at Dynamo Events. We produce virtual events that build brands and drive business. Book a complimentary 20-minute consultation today.