“Before the campaign was launched, I don’t think people felt like they had a personal ability to affect anything in our industry. Keep America Meeting has changed that.” - Alison Smith Jenks
Just because things may be a little bit better than last year, the fi ght is not over. We need to continue to bring the message of the importance about meetings, events and incentive travel to the general public.
MM: Social media (Facebook®
, Twitter™, LinkedIn® , etc.)
has played a crucial role in this campaign. Do you think this grassroots effort would have been accomplished without it?
ASJ: I don’t think it would have been as successful [without social media]. It was interesting to see how it evolved. This truly is a grassroots campaign and TBA Global was instru- mental in putting all of their resources behind this campaign. It became a campaign for our whole industry. Social media was a secondary strategy, but because it start-
ed so organically, it really speaks to the power of the campaign and what social media is all about. From there, it really be- comes an effort of sustaining the message. This was certainly a team effort throughout the industry. Traditional media was as important as the social media ele-
ments in making this successful. A lot of magazines printed advertisements and covered it editorially; all of these things came together to create a very robust campaign. We had the push of the emails going out along with the traditional print campaigns and the pull of the social media aspect. It was a pretty well-rounded campaign. I would be surprised if anyone in our industry hadn’t heard about it.
MM: What was your biggest accomplishment in this cam- paign?
ASJ: It showed the industry that we need to come together – action needs to happen. If that is the only thing that Keep America Meeting has done, then it has been a huge success. Before Keep America Meeting was launched, we didn’t have
a united front. Since then, we have seen the industry come together with one voice. That voice is also brought forward through the US Travel Association. Before the campaign was launched, I don’t think people felt like they had a personal
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ability to affect anything in our industry. Keep America Meet- ing has changed that.
MM: What is in store for future years of Keep America Meeting?
ASJ: We need to have a constant focus on spreading the word about the value of what the industry does. Keep America Meeting will always exist as an online forum to share informa- tion and research to forward our industry. We may not always have a petition or the sense of urgency that we had this last year, but then again, maybe we will. We certainly are going to keep it going. I truly hope that everyone that is on Facebook® will join our group and will stay on top of the news because it is a very immediate and direct way to stay connected with the industry.
MM: What has been your specifi c involvement in this cam- paign?
ASJ: I was the creator of the campaign. I have been very involved in getting the industry organizations on board and the industry publications. I shepherded the great contribu- tions that so many individuals and organizations have made. It truly has been one of the most fulfi lling things that I have done professionally.
MM: Will the meetings industry as a whole have to reinvent themself for this campaign to work in the future?
ASJ: Social media is not going to replace face-to-face. It can enhance promotions, experiences and messages; however, there is no replacing face-to-face meetings. As an industry, we need to be more savvy about the ways
in which marketers communicate, businesses operate and em- ployees are inspired. If we stay focused on the big picture of why people need to have meetings, then we will be successful. If we can show and articulate how social media can extend the effectiveness of a face-to-face meeting, then we will be having conversations that decision-makers will respect and respond to.
MIDWEST MEETINGS SPRING 2010
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