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Sherrif Karamat, Chief Operating Officer, Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA)

“Our Annual Meeting is an incubation of ideas and pushes the envelope of the latest of meetings and events innovation”

It’s a busy new season for PCMA which is bringing in new projects and surveys and is getting ready for its annual meeting. Review with COO Sherrif Karamat.

BWMN: The boards of directors of PCMA and Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) are working on a formal strategic alliance. Could you tell us more?
Sherrif Karamat: PCMA believes that the significant convergence between strategic meeting’s management and business travel is bringing the disciplines of business travel and meeting management closer and closer together and thus there are increasing business reasons why it makes sense for the two disciplines to be more closely aligned.

BWMN: Could you give us some results of your surveys about meeting planners’ intentionsfor 2010?
Sherrif Karamat: The survey clearly indicates that the meetings industry has been significantly impacted by the current economic conditions. This impact was compounded by the negative effect the meetings industry received in the media although this impact was felt more profoundly in North America. It is clear that Corporate meetings were more likely to be cancelled while associations kept meeting, but the attendance of association meetings were impacted negatively.

BWMN: The next edition of PCMA annual meeting will take place next January? What will be the key issues of this edition?
Sherrif Karamat: PCMA’s annual meeting is about Convening Leaders, that is to say, convening the key decision makers in our industry regardless of corporate, association, planner, supplier. The Annual Meeting is an incubation of ideas and pushes the envelope of the latest of meetings and events innovation so that attendees can gain firsthand knowledge of what might work for their organization without taking the risk on their own. Clearly we will be addressing emerging issues in the light of our new economic reality but as important, we will make sure our attendees have the latest in information and tools to deal with threats such as the H1N1 virus that has the potentiality to be very disruptive to the meetings’ industry at a time when our industry has already been under attack. In addition, we will continue to look at ways of enhancing and prolonging the value of face to face meetings through the use of technology and other virtual tools available to the meetings and events industry. The Annual Meeting will also feature a high-level summit between CEOs of Convention/Tourism Bureaus and Convention Centres/Buildings around the world, which will tackle keys business issues affecting bureaus and centers. The Annual Meeting will once again feature a number of sessions geared to planners that plan international meetings and “how to do so” successfully. www.pcma.org

www.pcma.org