ACTE and PCMA to ally strategically
I didn’t attend the press conference, but this is big news. From the release:
The Boards of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) announced plans to develop a progressive and innovative Strategic Alliance. This Alliance will uniquely leverage the strengths of both organizations to benefit their respective memberships while expanding their global brands and enhancing services.
My colleague who attended the press conference said that they stressed this wasn’t in reaction to talks about a potential merger between ACTE and NBTA, and will entail co-location of their conferences. But they do stay two separate entities.
The press release doesn’t say much, other than tossing around a lot of “synergies,” “economies of scale,” “leveraging strengths,” and “best practices,” but I do see how the two communities could work well together. Be curious how this is received by their respective members.
June 28th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Sue,
For many reasons, this strategic alliance makes sense…for our respective members, for our organizations and for the industry, an industry that is represented by many organizations, and very fractured. Over the last 9 months, we all became aware of how detrimental this is with the firestorm of bad press and our industry’s inability to come together quickly and effectively to respond. Strategic alliances are the future of our industry, and will provide a framework for us to speak with a more unified voice to get the attention of the press, our legislators, and the public.
But this is not the primary reason for this alliance. ACTE and PCMA see great member benefits. They serve senior level professionals in their respective specialties, and the opportunities for peer to peer learning are great. With the convergence of meetings and business travel and the rise of strategic meetings management and a focus on meeting ROI/ROO in both the corporate and association worlds, our respective members will share much needed information and insights. The benefits to our supplier partners are even clearer, including exposure to a larger and more global audience.
While this is an industry first, my guess is it won’t be the last, and as we continue to join together in a variety of ways, our industry and voice will be stronger, and our members will reap greater value from their memberships.
For more on this, please read my blog: http://smi.typepad.com/unconventional/
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