IAVM members have an opportunity to find great savings through the Association’s FedEx Advantage Shipping Discounts. If you are not currently in the program, you can get further information by clicking here.

Harry Centa, Jr., Senior Program Manager for PartnerShip, which administers the program, noted that “There’s zero cost to enroll in the IAVM FedEx Advantage discounts, and best of all the program features no shipping minimums, requirements, or obligations.”

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Centa said that PartnerShip is working with FedEx to bring IAVM members discounted shipping rates on eligible services.

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By NBA.com

The Delta Center is coming back to Utah. The global airline will assume the naming rights for Utah’s premier sports and entertainment center – which is home to the Utah Jazz and more than 320 evenings of events each year – effective July 2023 as part of a multi-year partnership between the two organizations.

This agreement is a homecoming for Delta, harkening back to the arena’s original opening in 1991 when the airline held the naming rights as part of its first sponsorship with the NBA franchise. Within the long-term agreement, Delta will serve as the Official Airline of the Utah Jazz, adding to its current role as an Official Community Partner of the team. Delta will also hold numerous sponsorship and branding rights with the team, including media, hospitality, and employee engagement extensions.

Delta and the Utah Jazz will continue partnering to support community programs across the state where nearly 5,000 Delta people currently live, work, and serve.

“Today we celebrate a new chapter in the longstanding history between Delta, the Utah Jazz, and the Salt Lake City community,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. “The homecoming of the Delta Center represents a continued investment and dedication to Salt Lake City, and together we will provide a leading sports and entertainment experience to the city and Jazz fans worldwide.”

“I have so many amazing memories of the Delta Center as a kid, and I know that countless people throughout Utah and beyond had similar experiences creating core memories there, whether watching the Olympics & Paralympic Winter Games, the NBA Finals, concerts, or other incredible events,” said Ryan Smith, owner of the Utah Jazz and chairman of Smith Entertainment Group. “We are excited to partner with Ed Bastian and the entire Delta team to not only bring back the arena’s original name, but also leverage the amazing work Delta is doing to provide incredible experiences for the people of our state and help show the world how amazing Utah is.”

By Mindy Noonan

The Events Industry Council (EIC), the global voice of the business events industry on advocacy, research, professional recognition and standards, announced the election of officers and directors to its 2023 Board of Directors. IAVM President and CEO Brad Mayne, CVE, will serve on the 2023 Board.

Sherrif Karamat, CAE, President and CEO, PCMA and CEMA transitions to Chair of EIC, having held the role of Chair-Elect in 2022.

“As the global federation that powers the Certified Meeting Professional and Sustainable Event Standards, and provides crucial guidance on sustainability and regeneration, EIC has a unique leadership role in our industry,” Karamat said. “I look forward to working with the EIC team, members and strategic partners on issues that are truly fundamental to our industry’s strength and growth.”

Karamat will be supported by incoming Chair-Elect, Ana María Viscasillas, Federación de Entidades Organizadoras de Congresos y Afines de Latino América, Board Liaison and Immediate Past Vice President for COCAL.

“I look forward to working alongside Sherrif in his role as Chair to support the EIC mission of enriching lives and driving economic growth through the power of events worldwide,” Viscasillas said.

This year, EIC will continue to provide valuable research on industry trends. In the first quarter EIC will release results of its quarterly Global Business Events Barometer and Economic Significance Study. In April, EIC welcomes the in-person return of an event exclusively for the CMP community: CMP Advance and will also host its first EIC Leadership Summit to foster peer-to-peer conversation, connections, and leadership on key issues facing our industry.

“With the support of our members, partners, volunteer leaders, CMP and SEPC community, this is going to be a very exciting year at the Events Industry Council as we continue to lead and engage in global dialogue and collaboration,” said EIC CEO Amy Calvert. “These programmes will unite industry thought leaders from across the globe to engage in dialogue around equity, inclusion, regenerative event practices and building capabilities for our workforce.

“At EIC, we embrace our role catalysing needed change in our sector and sharing our story broadly as events play an essential role as a force for good in our global society – inspiring our current and future workforce.”

EIC board members are nominated members of the overall Events Industry Council that consists of more than 30 organisations in the events industry. These leaders are the governing body for the overall council with fiscal responsibility and strategic direction for all EIC programmes.

The full board is listed below:

2023 Board of Directors Officers:

Chair: Sherrif Karamat, CAE –President & CEO, PCMA and CEMA
Chair-Elect: Ana María Viscasillas, MBA, CDME, DES, CED – Federación de Entidades
Organizadoras de Congresos y Afines de Latino América, Board Liaison and immediate Past Vice President COCAL
Immediate Past Chair: Cathy Breden, CMP, CAE – International Association of Exhibitions and Events, COO and Center for Exhibition Industry Research, CEO

2023 Board of Directors:

Jason Dunn Sr., Executive Director – National Coalition of Black Meeting Professionals
Jennifer Glynn, CIS, CITP – Society for Incentive Travel Excellence
Senthil Gopinath, CEO – International Congress and Convention Association
Stephanie Harris, President – The Incentive Research Foundation
Brad Mayne, CVE, President and CE – International Association of Venue Managers
Tina Wehmeir, CMP, CAE, CEO – AMC Institute

By Karen Caro

Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta recently welcomed the 20th Junior Theater Festival, the world’s biggest and best celebration of young people performing musical theater attended by approximately 6,500 performers from across the United States and beyond.

The festival, held Jan. 13-15, featured 125 youth theater groups for an incredible weekend of fellowship, singing, dancing, acting, and learning. Original Mean Girls Broadway cast members, along with Pasek & Paul (songwriters/producers of Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman), and Thomas Schumacher, president & producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, highlighted the weekend.

What started 20 years ago as an event with 650 attendees has grown through the years to have a tremendous economic impact on the area, with attendees and their families filling up an estimated 7,000 hotel room nights throughout the three-day event. Cobb Galleria Centre’s exhibition halls are transformed into a 6,000-seat Broadway theater for the weekend.

“These students and teachers are not just the future of musical theatre, they are musical theatre. Their positive impact is huge. They chart cast albums, they sell out shows. They introduce so many to musical theatre through their own productions and they continually evolve this art form through their storytelling,” said Timothy Allen McDonald, founder and CEO of iTheatrics and the Junior Theater Group, which produces the international Junior Theater Festivals. “After 20 years of this festival, we’ve seen what prioritizing the arts can do for individuals, communities, and musical theatre itself, and we understand the importance of giving theatre kids the opportunity to be in the company of thousands of other people who care just as much about this art form as they do,”

Karen Caro is Marketing Manager for Cobb Galleria Centre and Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta.

The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, always forward-looking to how it conducts its business, announced the creation of a new initiative called the Innovation Team. As a division of the People Services Department, the Innovation Team will focus on developing creative approaches to optimize, streamline, and transform convention center operations to assist the venue in delivering on its mission to advance innovation in its organization.

The Convention Center also named new leadership positions for the Innovation Team, promoting Tim Tumminello to Senior Director of People Services & Innovation, and Kelli Zohar-Davis to Assistant Director of Talent Development & Innovation. The Convention Center will also add an Innovation Manager to the team in the near future.

In July 2021, the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center engaged local consulting firm trepwise to enhance and improve its already award-winning employee culture. Through inclusive employee engagement and collaborative ideation, trepwise led Center employees through a design process to create a culture that rewards creativity, accountability, and risk-taking. That work resulted in what the Convention Center called the “Innovation Lab” – an employee-owned project where staff members held town hall meetings and workshops about how to best move their workplace into the future. Convention Center leadership took the feedback from the Innovation Lab and used it to pinpoint the need for the creation of an innovation-focused division within the ranks of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

“Without the valuable insight garnered from the Innovation Lab from our employees, who we consider internal customers in the success of our business, we may have never considered creating a team like this,” said Michael J. Sawaya, Convention Center President. “We believe that consistent iteration of innovative concepts will improve customer satisfaction and will support our vision of being a leading-edge organization.”

Tumminello joined the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in 2002 and most recently served as the Director of People Services. Over the course of his career, he has dedicated himself to creating cultures that provide continuous growth by empowering and motivating employees to realize their full potential and bring their best to the job. Tumminello is a results-focused leader who delivers talent acquisition, retention, and talent development solutions that has helped the Convention Center harness the full power of one of their most valuable assets – its people.

Before assuming her role as the Assistant Director of Talent Development & Innovation, Zohar-Davis honed her skills as a high school teacher and university lecturer. She then joined the hospitality industry where she garnered an extensive background training professionals in the food service sector. She developed training programs and provided guidance on operating standards and systems for some of the most popular fast food and fast casual restaurants in America, such as Sonic Drive-Ins, Chili’s Bar and Grill, and McDonalds. Zohar-Davis joined the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in 2010 as the Talent Development Manager where she developed employee training programs and managed culture initiatives like the Innovation Lab. She is currently the President of the New Orleans Chapter of the Association for Talent Development.

“This is an exciting, first-of-its-kind initiative focused on getting Convention Center employees involved in the decision-making process of some of the most major aspects of our business,” Tumminello, said. “Kelli and I are looking forward to continuing to foster our award-winning employee culture with innovative approaches to the unique challenges that businesses of our size face on a daily basis.”