April 3 Is Global Meetings Industry Day
I’ve been in the live event industry for over 20 years, and I feel more passionate about our impact every passing year. When the world sometimes feels like it is turning upside down, and then we meet with colleagues, industry experts, competitors, or partners at a business meeting – we start to feel like we can get through this – together.
When the economy is great, and there is momentum and innovation, business meetings with our industry colleagues takes it to an even higher level of contagious energy.
When our downtown would otherwise be quiet on a Monday night in the middle of a crazy snowstorm, because there is a business meeting in town with 250 professionals from across the country, six of the restaurants in downtown Saskatoon are bursting at the seams.
When there isn’t a place to park, crowds walking down the streets, the mall is busy, and our hotel partners have a crowd in their lobby bar, I smile and know that WE are making a difference.
There isn’t another industry that has this kind of impact and goes so under recognized. In Canada alone – 242,000 direct jobs exist because of business meetings – and hundreds of thousands more of indirect jobs like hotel and restaurant employees or electricians servicing venues.
Business meetings create 40% of ALL tourism spending in Canada. And when people travel for business, they spend way more than when people travel for leisure. They get to know and love a destination, they stay for an extra day or come back again. Meetings mean a powerful and secure future for our country, our businesses, and our communities.
It matters. We matter. What we do makes a difference in all of our lives. We are thrilled to support Global Meetings Industry Day and acknowledge with our industry partners that we really do make the world a better place.
– Tammy Sweeney
CEO, TCU Place