03/10/22 | Springing Into The New Year With NACE

All around the country I think many of our chapters are finally starting to feel the thaw of both the winter and covid-related freezes on our businesses and communities. A few weeks ago, I had the honor of dining with my local chapter’s board at their board retreat dinner. The enthusiasm these leaders have for our industry and the chapter is inspiring to say the least. This past week the chapter did an amazing educational program in one of the top venues in Philadelphia. All around the country I’m hearing similar things from our chapter leaders of educational programming and meetings returning in full force. While many of us are busier than ever with work and personal commitments, the competitive needs for networking and education have never been at a higher premium. Getting members and nonmembers to attend meetings is not always as easy as it used to be. In order for us to drive membership and meeting attendance, the small personal touches that we do matter more than ever. To have the highest impact for our members, we always need to consider three of the main reasons people join NACE:

• Business to Business Networking: Ensuring that you have enough time for members to meet each other and discuss industry business. Sometime this leads to NEW business from each other, but more so than ever it creates a community of awareness, so we refer and recommend people we meet and know through NACE.
• Personal Development: Ensuring that some of your programming is directed toward your members wellbeing. This can include professional speakers but also things like awards ceremonies. I’m delighted to be attending The Richmond Chapter’s NACEY’S awards later this month which is a great way for your local chapter to thank and recognize members of your community. Who doesn’t like winning awards? Whether you’re a small business owner looking to improve your company’s standing OR an employee looking to validate the exceptional quality of your work and contribution to your bosses and industry peers, everyone likes winning awards.
• Finally, what I think we’re most known for is professional development. Our members LOVE a session focused on what’s trending. What’s new, why its relevant, and how to sell it transcends all aspects of our association from F&B trends, Design Trends, and Entertainment Trends.

I am also looking forward to our upcoming national webinars that will be centered around a variety of topics including a nascent project we have with one of our Atlanta Chapter Members Raj Mistry. NACE and Raj are looking for ways to bring more education about our South Asian events community to our members both with regards to events and event design but also the unique catering aspects of these special events. Thinking purposefully about how we can grow our association by providing relevant education in areas that have been underrepresented in the past is a goal of mine this year in ensuring we’re the strong, vibrant community we strive to be. Being an essential resource for our members also means pulling in our subject matter experts like Raj to support our programming.

NACE National President James Filtz, CPCE, CMP, CHE