A group of more than 20 meeting industry leaders met last week to discuss establishing a Chicago chapter of the Green Meeting Industry Council. The new Chicago Chapter will be the first local chapter in GMIC's history.
“The idea of forming a chapter emerged from GMIC’s national conference in Vancouver last February,” said Deb Popely, president of Green Events Source, a Des Plaines-based green event consulting and planning firm. “Several Chicago GMIC members got together there and began discussing how we could advance the cause of green meetings and events in Chicago. Starting a local chapter seemed like a natural outgrowth of that discussion.”
In addition to Popely, founding team members include Julie Larson of McDonald’s, Rhonda Chesney of The Four Seasons and Beth Bracco of Blue Plate Catering. The team recruited a cross-section of Chicago hospitality, trade show and tourism leaders, along with representatives from relevant city, state and federal agencies and trade and professional associations to participate in Chapter formation.
New GMIC Executive Director Tamara Kennedy-Hill also attended the meeting to support the effort and provide an overview of GMIC’s capabilities and goals. “We want to support grassroots efforts to promote green meetings and events and hope to see more chapters springing up nationally and internationally in the near future,” she said.
The Chicago chapter’s first project will involve putting together a stakeholder conference designed to assess the state of green meetings and events in Chicago, share best practices among the various sectors and identify and fill gaps. To find out more about Chapter membership and/or assisting with conference planning contact Deb Popely at (847) 827-8456 or email deb@greeneventsource.com.
In the nightlife business, ego tends to drive people more than worrying about the details, the party and the product, so we really strive to keep our ego under wraps and work together with all of our business partners to create a collective vision, which is sometimes direct and sometimes a compromise.
Posted by: Chicago event | September 18, 2009 at 12:58 PM