Alisa's Top Takeaways from the MPI International WEC19

EW's Alisa Walsh and Elizabeth Brazil represented MPI SoCal and MPI Houston respectively at MPI International's WEC19.

Alisa report from Toronto.

"WEC was really well done. The production was fantastic and the speakers' quality was exceptional. Both the general sessions and the breakout conferences content was truly relevant to our industry now. 

I am happy to share my Top Takeaways with you."

It was really great to attend the conference in Toronto - because

A) it is a really beautiful city and it showcased itself fantastically. EventWorks has produced many events in Toronto so it was great to mingle with our friends in the city and to meet new possible collaborators. We have produced many events in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver as well as smaller cities and it was great for me to meet our Canadian partners in person.

B) In my role as incoming president for SITE Southern California I am excited to explore some of the speakers and hopefully bring them to the Southern California arena to provide continued education for our members. The speakers were so inspiring that I want to implement them myself. Obviously I am very excited about referring them to our clients as well.

It was great to see familiar faces in Toronto, like our friends from the LATCB and MPI SoCal of course. I love the opportunity to meet colleagues from all over the world from all the different chapters. I got to network a little bit with the global leadership team and I got a better understanding how MP changes the world from a meetings perspective. Their work shows how important it really is to get together for events and it helped reinvigorate the purpose of what we do."

Let's hear it for MPI Southern California. Congratulations on winning the 2018 RISE Award for Innovative Educational Programming for its (WE)Con Weekend Educational Conference.

Fresh off the plane from Cancun, Alisa celebrated with Natalie Fulton and Joe Marcy.

Alisa: "I am so excited for MPI SoCal for winning a Rise Award and being honored with this award for the outstanding event they produced right here. We are even more happy for our shining star, Joe Marcy who was honored as MPI MEMBER OF THE YEAR!"

Joe is the Regional Sales Executive at the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau. In his work at the CVB, Marcy has been proud to promote an environmental and sustainability campaign called “Please Visit Responsibly.” The campaign encourages attendees to lessen their carbon footprint. In collaboration with the hotel partners and Monterey Bay Aquarium, the CVB has been distributing reusable bags, utensils and environmentally safe products.  

Alisa: "It was very encouraging to see my fellow members and friends honored with a spotlight in front of thousands of people from all around the world. I feel proud to be a part of the SoCal chapter."

Feeling right at home with Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board's Darren K. Green, Senior Vice President, Sales, Los Angeles]and Anna Lee Kim, Destination Sales Director, Downtown/Hollywood

"From a personal as well as professional perspective it was ironic timing that the MPI conference coincided with the big celebration and victory parade for the Toronto Raptors. It was absolute chaos as hundreds of thousands of fans and the Raptors marched through Downtown Toronto. It was exciting for us as live event producers to see a last-minute live event like that put into place. But personally it was hard for me as they beat my Warriors in the finals. Well, I have had many of my own victory parades in my lifetime so I was happy to see someone else take it" Alisa grins mischievously, "I guess". 

"It was fun and inspiring to be there, fun to experience the environment and to witness Toronto celebrate."