“Keep America Meeting allows industry professionals to communicate with key decision makers. This strong, united voice cannot be silenced and is aimed at ultimately affecting the comeback of the travel industry nationwide.”
ing it one of the largest employment sectors in the country.” Keep America Meeting, a grassroots campaign, emerged in Feb- ruary 2009 and has provided a sounding board and open forum for travel industry members nationwide. The campaign allows industry professionals to communicate with key decision mak- ers. This strong, united voice cannot be silenced and is aimed at ultimately affecting the comeback of the travel industry nationwide. Keep America Meeting celebrated its fi rst birthday in Febru- ary 2010. In the fi rst year of its inception, Keep America Meet- ing won numerous awards for marketing and communications excellence. More importantly, this organization has ignited a fi re of optimism in the meeting and event industry. A sluggish economy and national criticism of business travel, particularly incentive travel, has left many hospitality-related businesses feeling the pinch of uncertainty. Keep America Meeting met these concerns head-on in its fi rst year and continues to relay the message that meetings are essential for economic prosper- ity in this country and around the world. TBA Global launched this campaign, which was headed
M
by Vice President of Marketing, Alison Smith Jenks. Within 45 days, 21,000 signatures were collected by professionals in the travel industry and presented to the Senate Commerce Committee. This grassroots effort has been successful and has demonstrated the widespread support of the cause throughout the nation. The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association Inter-
national (HSMAI) awarded Keep America Meeting with two Golden Adrian Awards for public relations excellence. In ad- dition, the campaign won two Big Apple awards from the In- ternational Special Event Society (ISES) for Best Corporate
WWW.MIDWESTMEETINGS.COM
eetings, events and incentive travel are vitally important to the economy. According to the US Travel Association, “Travel is directly re- sponsible for 7.7 million American jobs, mak-
Social Responsibility Initiative and Best Use of Social Media.
Midwest Meetings®
magazine asked Alison Smith Jenks
about her role and TBA Global’s experiences with this cam- paign. She answered our questions and is optimistic about the future of the campaign.
MM: The one year anniversary of the Keep America Meet- ing was celebrated in February. What amazes you about this campaign as you look back at its inception? What do you look forward to?
ASJ: It amazes me that everyone in the industry came to- gether so quickly. There was a lack of balanced coverage of our industry in the media and we wanted to have a voice. This time last year was a very diffi cult time for us in the industry, but it is amazing how the forum started and how interested industry members were. Keep America Meeting started as a way that people could
sign a petition and show their support. What we have really grown into is a continued grassroots forum for people to con- nect and get information. We have really changed things up; you can still sign a petition but we also have great links to Facebook®
, Twitter™ and LinkedIn® that have great informa-
tion on incentives for travel. In the future, we look forward to continuing the dialogue
about the value of meetings, events and incentive travel. We will continue to be a forum for people to contribute ideas, share frustrations and look for solutions. We want to make sure that everyone knows how important it is to unite and show how important our industry is in terms of our nation’s business growth and the economy.
MM: Keep America Meeting has earned several awards. What was your reaction when you found out about them?
ASJ: It is certainly a wonderful feeling to be recognized by our peers, but really the most important thing about winning the awards is that it keeps Keep America Meeting in the forefront of our industry dialogue. We need to continue our focus on that.
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