February | March 2019 | Ignitemag.ca | 3
As Heidi Welker, 2018 Chair of MMBC, recently stated:
"It is our responsibility to stop talking to
ourselves and start reaching beyond our
industry walls to educate, create awareness,
and showcase the tremendous economic
and social impact that meetings create on
communities and individuals."
I urge you to visit meetingsmeanbusiness.ca to learn more about the
impact of the industry and how you can get involved and stay informed.
In fact, I'd like to share some new data for you to have in your back pocket
when you're explaining what you do to clients or dinner party guests:
• Business events account for 34.7% of all tourism in Canada
• Business events contribute $19.3B to Canada's GDP; 54.5% of the entire
GDP of the tourism industry.
The coming year promises to shine the spotlight on the Canadian meet-
ings industry. Global Meetings Industry Day (which originated in Canada in
1997, BTW) events will happen across the country on April 14, and in June,
Toronto will host MPI's 2019 World Education Congress. We hope to see you
there as we celebrate and promote this vibrant, evolving industry!
Debbie van der Beek
Publisher
debbie@ignitemag.ca
Just
sayin'
In celebrating our tenth anniversary,
we've spent lots of time flipping through past
issues. Time and again, we were struck by the
presence of a common thread: the ongoing
struggle of the industry to gain recognition
and a voice at the table with government and
corporate decision-makers. It's inspiring to
see how many industry leaders have ded-
icated their time and energy to advancing
this goal.
In fact, around the same time Ignite
launched, the Business Events Industry
Coalition of Canada (BEICC) was founded
to advocate on behalf of the Canadian
meetings industry.
In 2017, BEICC rebranded itself into
Meetings Mean Business Canada (MMBC),
aligning with its successful American coun-
terpart. MMBC now has cross-Canada repre-
sentation from more than 150 key industry
leaders and decision-makers, and is in the
process of transitioning from a volunteer-led
effort to a professionally managed advocacy
platform.
I'm thrilled that Ignite is an MMBC media
sponsor and that I am a member of the
MMBC board of directors, helping to imple-
ment the "Telling our Story" communications
initiative, which illustrates the power of
meetings on both an economic and
personal level.
Voices rising
