New York Area Chapter

Welcome Message:

On behalf of the New York Area Chapter of PCMA, we welcome you to our web site! Our membership is comprised of a broad spectrum of planner and supplier decision makers, middle management and entry level professionals. Our student membership is the highest it's been since our inception, with chapters at the University of New Haven, CT and Monroe College in the Bronx, NY along with the up and coming chapter at NYIT in Manhattan. We exist to offer relevant programs, professional development, community service projects and to act as a local representative for PCMA HQ.

Number of Members: 300

Geographic Territories:

New York, Southern Connecticut, Northern New Jersey

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Professional Convention Management Association shall be to deliver breakthrough education and promote the value of professional convention management.

Click here to view our Bylaws.

A Message from Your 2010- President:

Dear Friends,

2009 was a year filled with changes and challenges-most involving doing more with less. More work with less time, more service with less staff. Many of our companies and organizations reduced or restructured; the luckiest of us held onto our jobs with little or no raises. Some of us are still looking for new "opportunities" as the euphemism goes. Our economy, and our industry especially, took a hit. But some of the challenges we faced really did force us to think in new ways about how we do business and how we present that business to a wider audience. Changing public perceptions about the importance of the meetings industry was the focus of several new marketing campaigns as we began, as an industry, to promote ourselves in a proactive, rather than reactive, way.

Yet the more changes we face, the more our work remains the same. We are an industry at your service; to help and benefit our customers and members. Whether we have a staff of five or fifty, we'll make sure that the hotel is booked, the planes are flying and the trains running, the rooms are set, the buses arrive, the technology works-in short, we'll make sure the meeting happens.

Your 2010 PCMA Board of Directors is thinking about how we can best serve you and help you make the meetings happen. Building on new formats and programs begun in 2009, we want to continue to offer you the best educational content we can-from discussions with top industry leaders to roundtable conversations with your peers, from luncheon programs to breakfast meetings, from Manhattan to Jersey.
We all have increased responsibilities and ever more limited time but your involvement in NYPCMA is more important than ever. Learning, networking, making a commitment to our chosen field-these are all crucial activities and I ask you to become involved.

Attend programs (often!), write an article for the Newsletter, be part of a committee that builds our membership or designs our programs, volunteer to be part of Network for the Needy, help us recognize our members for their outstanding service!

NYPCMA is your organization-be a part of it!

All the best,

Karin Bagnall

kbagnall@mla.org
646 576-5265

Proud to be serving as 2010 President of the New York Area Chapter of the Professional Convention Managers Association.